How The Morning Sidekick Journal helped get more done and feel amazing

If the essential things in your life and business aren’t getting done or you’re not making time for what you need to be happy, healthy and your best self - you need The Morning Sidekick Journal by Habit Nest. It might change your life: perfect for entrepreneurs, HSPs, and anyone overwhelmed.

The benefits of a morning routine with The Morning Sidekick Journal

This is the question I was asking myself when I found The Morning Sidekick Journal online.

After using The Morning Sidekick Journal for 22 days I am seeing some pretty amazing results and I can’t wait to share what I’ve learned so far about the benefits of having a morning routine & the support for developing this habit.

I am learning that a morning routine can have powerful positive effects on my health, happiness and productivity. Not only that, even if you think you aren't a morning person, you can do this. I am a self-proclaimed night owl but I am rethinking this now. I’ve learned some interesting things about myself and what I habitually do, the habits I have, that seriously compromise my ability to be productive, healthy and happy.

This exercise was far more beneficial than I expected it to be. Let me tell you more about my experience with a morning routine -and using The Morning Sidekick Journal.

What is The Morning Sidekick Journal and how can it help you?

The Morning Sidekick Journal is a small-ish, beautifully made book/journal combo designed to help you create a powerful morning routine that will increase your productivity and happiness. You follow a 66-day program and by the end, you will have a hard-wired powerful morning routine that makes you happy and more productive. That's the promise and for me so far it's working. The Journal is divided into 3-Phases and each has a different journal layout designed to help you focus and stay on track, for that phase. The content opposite the Journal pages is also tailored for that phase.

How does your morning routine affect your day?

When you start your day with foundations that support your success your life will change. Many of us walk through life on autopilot unaware of just how much some of our bad habits impact our day-to-day lives. More than that, most of us aren’t aware of the habits we have and the power they have over our health, happiness and overall success.

Do you realize how much your morning habits can rob you of your productivity, relationships, happiness and even health? 

After working on my own rather lazy morning routines and bad habits for the past 22 days I suspect most people have no idea how powerful the choices you make each morning are, and the extent to which they can change your health, happiness and overall success.

Using The Morning Sidekick Journal was an eye-opening experience. And I have never been more productive and energized in my life.

Let me explain why a morning routine and this little book can change your life

Habits are patterns we repeat

Some habits are so comfy and nervy that you don't notice how often they take control of your "command center" and make choices that don't serve you well. It's not unusual for us to function on autopilot, run by our habits even if our habits are making us miserable. What mindfulness can teach us is powerful and you will be increasing your awareness of your choices through the use of this journal.

We all have patterns of behaviour that can fall into very comfortable grooves, worn over time and these time-worn habitual behaviours are comfy as heck.  It takes a certain level of awareness to even identify our own "grooves" and the habits that run our lives. But with a little work and effort, we can fill in the grooves of the habits that don't serve us and create new ones that do.

Let's create habits that become so comfortable we perform them easily, without much thought.

Bad habits, over time, prevent you from living the life you want

I know I can watch too much Netflix from time to time and look at my cell phone too much and sometimes fritter my time away on nonsense, but you will be surprised at what a stint of regular and mindful tracking can do for your awareness.

You might even be shocked.

I bought this book shortly before Christmas to help me reach my goals for the year.  Using this journal, I am becoming more mindful of my daily choices, thoughts and actions and how they impact my life. I find the mindfulness component of this process particularly powerful, and I think it's why I can achieve such powerful results quickly.

Here are the benefits of a morning routine & The Morning Sidekick Journal

The more I do this exercise, the more benefits I notice.

Here are the benefits I’ve experienced so far:

1. I am sleeping better
2. I am making healthier food choices - I'll be honest I already make healthy food choices, but it's the eating habits of snacking when I'm stressed and snacking late in front of the TV and indulging perhaps in pasta more than I'd like. Mmmm pasta...
3. I am stronger and more fit - I had let myself become quite sedentary working from home and this needed to change in a big way
4. I am getting more things done in a day than I'd do in a week previously and
5. I am removing piles of energy drainers that were suffocating me
6. And I have less stress

All due to this little book :)

This little journal isn't a magic cotton candy-covered, wish-granting unicorn. You do have to do the work to see results, but this book helps in a fun, non-overwhelming way. Each day, you get a nugget of encouraging wisdom rooted in science and supportive data. The journal and exercises are fun and informative and make you feel supported and empowered. More than that -you immediately start to see the benefits of your morning routine!

A morning routine made me more productive.

Usually, I use a journal and a planner and just "wing" my mornings and my evenings.  And if I were honest, I sometimes stray from my planner commitments, too, unless they are appointments.

This process has taught me how much structure can give me more freedom and, specifically, what I am doing to sabotage my own freedom. I thought that more structure would give me less freedom, but this is not true!

Structure gives you more freedom because you are far more productive with some structure.

How The Morning Sidekick Journal Works

As you move through the journal your tasks change slightly. Short todo’s are on the left and inspiring, educational info, is on the right.

The Morning Sidekick Journal has practical advice and tips you can read and follow each day for 66-days.

This is the number of days, according to scientific research that it takes to solidify a new habit so that it's hard-wired into my brain. There is a 2-page spread for each day. On one page is your journal and the other page has tips, advice, recommendations for reading, podcasts and case studies designed to help you stay committed to your goals.

I found the short readings quite helpful and interesting, for example, I didn't know that according to research, you can benefit from a 20-minute nap even if you don't sleep during the nap!

Here's the breakdown of what you do each day in this journal

Each morning:

• Record when you got to bed last night and when you woke up this morning (keeps you mindful of your sleep habits)
• Write down the ONE thing you must do today (keeps you focused on your biggest value of the day)
• Write down one way that you can improve your life by 1% (What's one little thing you can do today that makes your life better? This reminds us that we have choices each day -what do you choose?)
• Declare a bedtime for *tonight* and rising time for *tomorrow* (again I think this wires in your commitment to yourself and consider what you really think you can do here to improve your sleep habits)
• Move on to the morning routine you listed out for yourself the night before :)

Each evening:

• Jot down a "Magical Moment" or moments you experienced that day (Love this. It's a bit of gratitude, bite-sized along with mindfulness strengthening)
• Circle some of the benefits you're starting to see (this appears after week 1 in the journal. 6-measures: Feel Happier, More Organized, Increased Productivity, More Energized and Reduced Stress
• List a few things you will commit to doing the next morning as your morning routine (there is space for up to 5 SMART goals)

Habit Nest & their journal helped me learn more about myself

• Getting up between 5 am & 6 am every day for the past 22 days has been a game-changer for me. Writing down the next day's morning routine the night before somehow wires a commitment in my brain that gets me up and doing them!

• When I set boundaries for cell phone usage and TV time, I am much happier and far less stressed. And I grab my phone as a habit far more than I thought I did.

• This little tool has helped me see how unproductive my days were before I started doing this. I can waste a lot of time with "busy" work and a lack of focus can rob me of the life I want.

• A lack of clarity can lead to procrastination and a waste of my time - when I have no tasks defined or planned, I can drift and spend time on things that aren’t important; this was a huge lightbulb moment for me.

• When journaling is part of my morning or evening routine I learn faster and keep new habits easier and can stay away from the bad ones. A journal is particularly helpful if you don't accomplish all you set out to do in a day. Maybe you wake up late or miss your morning routine altogether. That's normal and a great opportunity to learn more about you.

• I make my morning routine goals high value for my mind because everything goes pearshaped from there if I'm not keeping a grip on that sucker - I ask myself what will take the most stress away from my life if I tackle it this morning? What will make this day amazing?

• If I don't make daily goals or tasks SMART I am not productive at all. It's nuts how much this is true.

• Exercise has to be my one constant in every morning routine for me because if it's not, I'll be exercising at 10 pm if I get it in at all.

• Sticking to a morning and evening routine designed to help me be my best self feels very good. I love this feeling. I feel so accomplished before I even start my day.

• There are very noticeable benefits after just one day of using this journal.

• Now I've been doing this for 25 days (when I started the draft of this post it was 22) I am seeing some great health and fitness benefits that I wouldn't have believed could happen so quickly considering how poor my fitness and strength and flexibility was when I started. I've learned often we can talk ourselves out of uncomfortable things very easily with beliefs that simply are not true. I thought it would take far more time to actually see and feel the results of my fitness efforts. This has shown me that my assumptions can be very wrong and talk me out of good things for my life. I bet I'm not the only one who does this!

I think this is enough for now. The learnings keep pouring in for me each day.

I think you can tell that I very much like The Morning Sidekick Journal and I highly recommend it. I think it will help you start the new year off right and give you valuable insight into your current habits that you can use and review often. I know it can help you change bad habits and create new ones.

If you decide to try it or have tried it, I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. Do you have any morning routines? What do you think about this idea? Please let me know.

And if you think this journal sounds pretty fab -you HAVE to check out all the Habit Nest products.