It's fun to stay in bed all morning. But that time you waste is always time you’ll regret losing. Instead, you can use your morning hours to set you up for a killer day. How you start your day is a key indicator of how it will unfold.
Being the most efficient version of yourself can also mean different things to different people.
Implement these four genius tips to get more done in the morning:
1. Have a morning routine. Wake up at the same time every day. Avoid hitting the snooze button. When the alarm goes off, get out of bed before turning it off. Some do this by putting the alarm across the room, so they have to walk to it if they want it to stop.
If you can’t wake up early, you’re sleeping late. Clear a fixed sleeping time in your daily schedule. If your sleep time is from 9 pm to 5 am, waking up will be easy. Next, make your bed. This step is key. If you don’t get up and make your bed, you’ll sleep in.
Then go to the bathroom and splash some cold water on your face. It clears your morning fatigue. You could add a quick workout. Take a cool shower.
Eat. When you are hungry, it’s hard to focus, so you definitely cannot get things done.
You will be perfectly awake and ready to take on the morning by now.
2. Avoid getting distracted by your phone. You don’t want to keep receiving notifications or be distracted by social media. If your phone has the feature to freeze your apps, use it.
You can preset it so you can’t access specific applications before 8 am. Especially if you’re on vacation, you may get stuck in bed scrolling.
Before you know it, it will be afternoon already, and your morning will be gone. You might have a lot of things you need on your phone, but you also have other things you can do without your phone.
To get more work done, turn it off for short periods, perhaps 30 mins or 1 hour between every two hours, and work on other important things during that time.
3. Do as much as you can the night before. To make the morning as simple as possible, pick out your clothes, pack your bag, and write your priorities for the next day. Be realistic with the time you need to get things done in the morning. Have a detailed list of things to do.
Write all you want to do, breaking them down into smaller tasks that you can quickly finish. Then, as you check them off your list, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and motivation to proceed.
4. Have an accountability partner. Find a friend who is as excited about being more productive in the morning and a partner who has the same fundamental goals as you. Exchange your list of priorities with them.
Keep tabs on each other and force each other to perform your tasks. Reaching your goals together feels awesome.
It’s hard to do things when we don’t know why we’re doing them. Keep your goals in front of you always. Remove distractions so you can stay focused. Do things even when they’re hard. Staying productive is all about building momentum. The more stuff you get done, the more motivated you are to do more.
There are no shortcuts to success and productivity. But if you keep putting in the work, you’ll have a better chance of getting there.
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Thank you for reading our blog!
- Mike Acker
Check out my new book on Public Speaking: Speak with Confidence, published by WILEY.
A breakthrough to develop confidence in speaking, leadership, and life. A follow-up book to my best-selling book, Speak with No Fear