11 Tweaks to Your Morning Routine Will Make Your Entire Day More
Productive
How you start your day has a huge impact on your energy and
self-control.
I don't
know anyone who couldn't use a little boost in energy and self-control.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham recently published
findings from their exploration of 83 studies on energy and self-control.
What they found will change the way you start your day.
The researchers found that self-control and energy are not only
intricately linked but also finite, daily resources that tire much like a
muscle. Even though we don't always realize it, as the day goes on, we have
increased difficulty exerting self-control and focusing on our work. As
self-control wears out, we feel tired and find tasks to be more difficult and
our mood sours.
This exhaustion of self-control kills your productivity, and it
makes the morning hours, when self-control is highest, the most important hours
of the day.
But the trick isn't just to spend your morning hours working.
It's to do the right things in the morning that will make your energy and
self-control last as long as possible.
"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every
morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want
to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been no for too
many days in a row, I know I need to change something." --Steve Jobs
The Nottingham research has led me to uncover 11 powerful ways
we can break bad habits in the morning and maximize our energy and self-control
throughout the day.
Whether you naturally wake up feeling alert and productive or
wake up with the brainpower of a zombie, these tips will help you transform
your morning routine and set a positive tone that lasts the entire day.
1. Start with exercise
Researchers at the University of Bristol found that people who
exercise during the workday have more energy and a more positive outlook, which
are both critical to getting things done. Getting your body moving for as
little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain
feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses. Exercising first thing
in the morning ensures that you'll have the time for it, and it improves your
self-control and energy levels all day long.
2. But drink some lemon water first
Drinking lemon water as soon as you wake up spikes your energy
levels physically and mentally. Lemon water gives you steady, natural energy
that lasts the length of the day by improving nutrient absorption in your
stomach. You need to drink it first thing in the morning (on an empty stomach)
to ensure full absorption. You should also wait 15 to 30 minutes after
drinking it before eating (perfect time to squeeze in some exercise). Lemons
are packed with nutrients; they're chock-full of potassium, vitamin C, and
antioxidants. If you weigh less than 150 pounds, drink the juice of half a
lemon (a full lemon if you weigh more than 150 pounds). Don't drink the
juice without water, because it's hard on your teeth.
3. No screen time until breakfast
When you dive straight into emails, texts, and Facebook, you
lose focus and your morning succumbs to the wants and needs of other people.
It's much healthier to take those precious first moments of the day to do
something relaxing that sets a calm, positive tone for your day. Jumping right
into electronics has the opposite effect--it's a frantic way to start your day.
Exercising, meditating, or even watching the birds out the window are all great
ways to start the day.
4. Eat a real breakfast
Eating anything at all
for breakfast puts you ahead of a lot of people. People who eat breakfast are
less likely to be obese, they have more stable blood-sugar levels, and they
tend to be less hungry over the course of the day. And these are just the
statistics for people who eat any breakfast. When you eat a healthy breakfast,
the doors to a productive day swing wide open. A healthy breakfast gives you
energy, improves your short-term memory, and helps you to concentrate more
intensely and for longer periods.
5. Set goals for the day
Research shows that
having concrete goals is correlated with huge increases in confidence and
feelings of control. Setting goals specific to the day puts everything into
motion. Narrow your goals down to a few achievable ones that can easily be
broken into steps. Vague goals such as "I want to finish writing my
article" are counterproductive, because they fail to include the
"how" of things. The same goal re-phrased in a more functional way
would read something like this: "I am going to finish my article by
writing each of the three sections, spending no more than an hour on each section."
Now, you have more than simply something you want to achieve--you have a way to
achieve it.
Getting your morning
started off right at home is important, but it's only half the battle. If you
fail to maintain that tone once you set foot in the office, your morning can
lose momentum quickly. Here's how you can maintain a productive tone once you
hit the office:
1. First, clean your workspace
Even though it's a pain to clean right when you get into work,
it makes a big difference to your ability to concentrate. A Princeton
University study found that people who worked in a clean workspace outperformed
those who worked in a cluttered one, because clutter pulls your attention away
from your work. In fact, the effects of clutter on concentration are not all
that different from the effects of multitasking.
2. No email until you've eaten three frogs
"Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and
nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day." --Mark Twain
"Eating a frog" is the greatest antidote to
procrastination, and the most productive people know the importance of biting
into this delicacy first thing in the morning. In other words, spend your
morning on something that requires a high level of concentration that you don't
want to do, and you'll get it done in short order. Make a habit of eating three
frogs before you check your email, because email is a major distraction that
enables procrastination and wastes precious mental energy.
3. Assign times to your to-do list, and monitor your progress
against your goals
To-do lists are helpful for making sure you don't forget
anything, but beyond that, they can be misleading. For example, if you have
three hours of meetings and eight hours of work, chances are you won't be able
to get everything done. However, a typical to-do list doesn't tell you that you
have eight hours of work; it only tells you that you have 10 things you
need to do. When you add timeframes to your to-do list, it becomes
exponentially more effective. It pushes you to avoid procrastinating or multitasking
in order to complete things within the allotted time. It also shows you what is
and isn't feasible so you can prioritize your day accordingly.
There's no point in setting goals in the morning if you don't
check in on them. Look at what you've done so far with a critical eye. If you
realize you're behind schedule or doing a shoddy job, it's important to adjust
your goals or your work ethic so that you can move intentionally through your
day.
4. Keep morning meetings on schedule
Meetings are the biggest time waster there is, and they can ruin
an otherwise productive morning. People who use their mornings effectively know
that a meeting will drag on forever if they let it, so they inform everyone at
the onset that they'll stick to the intended schedule. This sets a limit that
motivates everyone to be more focused and efficient. Keep your morning meetings
on time, and your entire day will stay on track.
5. Don't multitask
Multitasking in the morning--when you have lots to do, tons of
energy, and it feels like you can do two or three things at once--is tempting,
but it sets your whole day back. Research conducted at Stanford University
confirmed that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a
time. The researchers found that people who are regularly bombarded with
several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall
information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete
one task at a time.
But what if some people have a special gift for multitasking? The
Stanford researchers compared groups of people on the basis of their
tendency to multitask and their belief that it helps their performance. They
found that heavy multitaskers (those who multitask a lot and feel that it
boosts their performance) were actually worse at multitasking than those who
like to do a single thing at a time. The frequent multitaskers performed worse
because they had more trouble organizing their thoughts and filtering out
irrelevant information, and they were slower at switching from one task to
another. Ouch!
Multitasking
reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus adequately on one
thing at a time. When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the
capacity to perform both tasks successfully.
6. Say no
No is
a powerful word that will protect your precious mornings. When it's time to say
no, avoid phrases such as "I don't think I can" or "I'm not
certain." Saying no to a new commitment honors your existing commitments
and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfill them while your mind is
fresh. Research conducted at the University of California in San Francisco
showed that the more difficulty you have saying no, the more likely you are to
experience stress, burnout, and even depression. Learn to use no, and it will
lift your mood as well as your productivity.
Bringing it all together
The right morning routine can make your day, every day. The
trick is to be intentional about your mornings, understanding that a.m. hours
are precious and should be handled with care.
BY TRAVIS
BRADBERRY
http://www.inc.com/travis-bradberry/11-tweaks-to-your-morning-routine-will-make-your-entire-day-more-productive.html?cid=em01014week03a
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