And once you find a morning routine that inspires you and
gets your day rolling, it will be even easier to wake up.
Take stock of your successes and accomplishments from the
day before and set your priorities for the coming day
accordingly.
Instead of dragging your to-do list out over the week,
spend the morning completing all those last little things you
didn’t finish the day before.
Especially if you’ll be online the rest of the day, use
this hour before everyone else is awake as a detox. No one is
writing you emails at 6am, so there’s no reason you need to be
reading them.
If you’re going to write email, make some time for a
contact you don’t usually see: a friend from your past, a network
connection, a mentor.
If you have to visit your inbox, spend some time clearing
out all the crap that isn’t important so you can start the day on a
fresh digital note. Use this trick
to get through a lot even faster.
Why are high-schoolers the only one to have a period for
announcements and planning and getting ready for the day? Make your
own “homeroom”
by getting organized, taking note of messages and alerts, making
sure you got all your assignments done from the previous day.
Exercising in the morning has lots of benefits
including better
sleep and reduced
appetite.
A to-don’t list is a list of all your distractions and
things that you want to avoid for the coming day.
It’s called the “eat-that-frog”
strategy and it’s a great time management technique from
motivational speaker Brian Tracy. It comes from
the old saying that goes something like this: “If the first thing you do when you wake up in
the morning is eat a live frog, then nothing worse can happen for
the rest of the day!”
There a numerous mental
and physical health benefits of meditation, especially
stress-reduction. Practicing early in the morning when the world
and your mind are quieter is a great way to start.
Motivational speaker Tony Robbins is a big proponent
of morning
walks to think about what you’re grateful for in your
current life and visualize what you want for the future.
It won’t take a whole hour, but it could
still change
your life.
(Better yet, take a shath.)
Early-riser Margaret Thatcher famously listened to the BBC
radio program Farming
Today at 5 a.m. every morning. If you want to multi-task,
take an extra long shower and use a bluetooth
speaker to listen to a podcast or
audio book while you’re in there.
Whether it’s for your personal side project or your
business, starting a revenue-generating activity early in the
morning is a great way to keep your priorities straight and feel
like you have time later in the day to be more creative and
experimental.
Who says a fancy first meal is only for the weekends? Make
your favorite brunch dish in the extra hour you have and make every
morning a special occasion.
Follow the example of Winston Churchill who apparently ate
his breakfast in bed everyday for years.
Making morning appointments is one way to make sure you
actually get up early.
Productivity expert Dan Luca suggests a
few minutes of A.M. journaling to stay connected to your goals and
in touch with your personal growth.
During his most productive years, best-selling author John
Grisham spent the hours before his job as a lawyer writing his
books. And Pulitzer Prize Winner Toni Morrison got up to
write before
dawn when her children were young.
Read that book you’ve been meaning to finish. Read an
actual newspaper. Read all those things you left in your Instapaper
and never got around to. Start your day informed and inspired.
Changing up your route actually works out your brain. If
you want a real challenge, try setting limits or challenges, like
taking a route with no left turns.
Be selfish. If you got up an extra hour earlier, that’s
YOUR hour. Make it count.
One hour spent planning will ensure the rest of your day
isn’t wasted.
source