Here’s How To Create A Morning Routine With Alexa

By now, we’re all familiar with Amazon Echo’s Alexa, the company’s cloud-based voice service, which you can command to do everything from playing a specific song, checking the weather or turn off the lights. If you're a creature of habit, you might be getting tired of asking Alexa the same questions every single morning, especially before you've had your coffee/matcha/caffeinated beverage of choice. But there’s good news: The Echo device has the capability to program a customizable morning routine to help you stay productive throughout your day.

How to Set Up An Alexa Routine

With an Alexa Routine, you can program your Echo device to perform certain actions at specific times and can save up to 99 routines to the device at a time. To set up a routine, take the following steps:

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Open “More” and then select “Routines.”
3. Select “Plus.”
4. Select “When this happens,” and follow the steps in the app to choose what starts your routine. Options include “voice” to give a command to start your routine (such as, “Good morning, Alexa; let’s start my day.”), “schedule” to set the time you want to start your routine, “location” so that when you arrive somewhere, Alexa knows to start your routine, among others.
5. Select “Add action,” and follow the steps in the app to choose the action of your routine. You can select multiple actions for the same routine, such as setting your alarm to start at the same time as the coffeepot.
6. Select “Save.”

What To Include In Your Alexa Routine

The beauty of the Alexa Routine is that you can program it to do things right when you need them without having to interrupt whatever else you’re occupied with. For example, you can set it to start a smart coffee pot (such as this one by Hamilton Beach) after your desired wake time, read you the news headlines when you settle in with your cup of java, and give you the traffic report when you get in your car if you’re still commuting. (You can do this either by taking your Echo with you or by sending reminders to your phone.) Once you’re ready to start your work day, Alexa can also read your emails to you at your chosen scheduled time.

Sure, being spontaneous is fun, but incorporating scheduled tasks through a Alexa Routine can make your day that much easier and less stressful.