Morning Routine
I was listening to an audiobook “Tools of Titans” by Tim Ferriss and he talks about his morning routine. He describes the five things he does every morning to set up his day to be productive.
1. Make bed 2. Meditate 3. Pushups 4. Tea 5. Journals
He says he doesn’t achieve all five things every day but if he can do three of the five he knows his productivity will be infinitely greater.
The first is making your bed. Making your bed seems like such a small task but has lasting impacts. Admiral William McRaven says
“If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another. ... Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.”
Making your bed can give you a sense of control because everyday we are presented with a degree of uncertainty. If you make your bed every morning, you are leveraging that control to set your mind in a productive state. Making your bed is especially important if you work from home. Tim says “If you see distraction externally, you end up creating an internally distracted state”.
The second is meditation. If you are a believer this could also be prayer. Meditation and prayer are powerful tools that we can use to help our day get started on the right foot. I recently started to get into meditation more and have been using it to fall asleep since I have trouble with falling asleep quickly. If you want guided meditation, you should check out the app headspace or just YouTube guided meditation.
Exercise in the morning serves me better than any other time during the day. Tim does push ups and is also into stretching out his back by hanging on a pull up bar. Do what works for you, maybe a walk around the block is all you need or a 30 second plank. Remember you only have one body so take care of it.
Hydration is super important to being healthy. If you aren’t into having tea then have water or a green juice or a smoothie. Again, whatever works for you but make it a daily routine.
Lastly is probably the most important one to not skip if you don’t do everything: journaling. When he journals he prioritizes two things: problem solving & gratitude. He creates a to do list and writes down the experiences/opportunities and people he is grateful for. He uses the five minute journal. If you have a journal already, keep using it and incorporate these categories into it if you haven’t already.
I love learning about the journey of successful people and this is a pattern I’ve identified among them. A morning ritual/routine is important to them and a contributing factor to their success. What is your morning routine? If you don’t have one make one!
