Why? - Building for the future
I have come to learn that in order to achieve the goals that I have in my life it's imperative to have a morning routine that sets me up for success. Therefore, I will be building my new morning routine here for everyone to see. I would love to see your morning routines too as we're all unique and the habits we want to cultivate are unique to our goals.
Phase 1: The night prior
The night prior is where I believe the morning routine starts. My nights have me going to bed around 10PM. As such, at 9PM is my wind-down time and when this routine starts.
9PM-10PM
Simplify
Reduce the number of tabs I have open. Often I find myself coming back to a computer with 7 windows open each with 5-20 tabs loaded. It can be really distracting to start the day when you don't know where to start.
Decluttering any mess on my laptop or in my room. Having a clean environment for me to work in is really important as I find it helps me have the mental space for creativity and strategic thinking. This also ensures that I have an organized digital and real world.
Streamline
Using a productivity planner or journal I will be writing my top priorities. I will have a top 1, top 3 and top 6 things to do alongside some notes or steps I can take to accomplish each of them. In those notes if it's done online I'm saving links to the documents I was using to help me in that area.
This is important to do so I know exactly where I can start my work day tomorrow.
Setup for Success
I am putting a full glass of water in my room so that I can have the fuel needed to start my day.
I am laying out the clothes I will wear for tomorrow and/or workout clothes for the morning. This will enable me to get into the habit of working out with less mental resistance.
I am setting myself up for success by placing my phone in the washroom for the night as I find myself often staying up an extra hour or two if it's with me in bed. This also impacts my morning as I often stay in bed another 45 minutes surfing the web.
With the phone gone I make space for reading and taking notes in that book before falling to sleep.
I am setting myself up for a great start to the morning
Phase 2: Waking up
I have identified two things about myself. My most productive time is in the morning and the only time I have to workout in a day is in the morning. Therefore, waking up at 5:45AM EST is necessary for me to workout and accomplish the morning I want.
5:45-7:00AM
Get Started
Wake up and do any number of these things:
Drink a full glass of water
Deep breathing for 5 minutes
Meditation for 10 minutes
Brief morning strengthening exercises for 10 minutes
Brief morning stretching routine for 10 minutes
Record your dream in your dream journal
Answer the 5 minute journal questions
Three thing you are grateful for and express that to the people or things you are grateful for
Three things you look forward to doing today
"I am" affirmations
Get Active
After waking up it's important to get active. This is an area of my life I'd like to prioritize and as such I plan to sweat almost every morning during weekdays.
My workouts can be anything:
Cardio pilates
Running
Walking
Cycling
Swimming at the community center
Weights
Dedicated muscle group workout
Boxing
Get Ready
Getting ready is all about what happens after the workout.
During this time I will hit the showers, get changed and go make coffee
This getting ready could be extended by 20-30 minutes as needed to include things like breakfast and getting ready to commute should I be commuting downtown.
7AM - 8:30
Assuming I am working from home 7AM-8:30 I will be flexing my creativity, problem solving or language abilities. This 1.5 hours is all about the mind and mindset. During this time I can do any of these:
Learn a language on Memrise and share a sentence online
Learn a language with a friend and record a minute conversation
Learn a subject through an online course and summarize three things you've learned from this morning
Complete a case study, record the presentation and post it to YouTube to help others get better as case competitions and sharpen your skills. Write about areas you'd like to learn more about to get better for the next time you encounter something similar.
Read an industry report or an insightful article and comment on it the takeaways and what it means and who it means that too
Publish an article on something you've been thinking about or learning as a way to teach others and affirm your understanding
Read a book you've been eager to continue or start and write some learnings into a book review
Play or practice an instrument and share a 30 second piece you've worked on
Write poetry or any kind of creative writing and share 5 lines of prose
Draw, paint or sketch something that is enjoyable
Whatever it is that you create that morning publish the act of creativity to LinkedIn or to this Blog to document your progress. This will enable you to learn from others and others may learn from you. This helps build a community of like-minded people.
8:30-9:15
Energize
Prepare a nutritious breakfast, take your vitamins and speak to someone you care about
Review
Review the goals you've made for the day from the night before and identify your first steps
See if there is anything pressing in your email or LinkedIn to answer and attend to that urgent task first. If not, continue with the plan.
Action
Take action and start working towards the goals you've laid out. Get focused on one task at a time so that you can be intentional on getting things done.
That's my morning routine!
Thank you for reading and I hope you're taking something away from this. I would love to learn more about your morning routine and the things you hope to bring into your morning.
One thing I will be doing is tracking my progress using a morning routine tracker I have built in Notion
Here is my progress so far:
Have a great day!
Your colleague,
Daniel
Comments