Your morning routine can make or break your day. In The Miracle Morning, Hal Elrod recommends six specific practices that should be part of your morning routine, tied together with the only-slightly-awkward acronym SAVERS (as in, they’re your lifesavers):

  1. Silence
  2. Affirmations
  3. Visualization
  4. Exercise
  5. Reading
  6. Scribing

(Just think of Scribing as Writing or Journaling; SAVERJ isn’t a word, and Hal made the right choice in going for the acronym.)

I enjoyed Hal’s advice on improving your morning routine. He goes through each practice, explaining why it’s important and giving tips on how to get started. My biggest takeaway from it was the courage to start meditating when I get up; it doesn’t matter if I’m not doing it perfectly—getting started is the important thing. You can always improve once you’re started.

There are a couple of specifics that I don’t agree with, like Hal’s assertion that any amount of sleep is enough if you just think it will be enough. If you’re interested in getting better sleep so you can get up and have a great morning, check out Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson.