4 Shortcuts to a Successful Morning Routine

What's Inside

• How is Success Linked to a Morning Routine?
• What a successful morning routine looks like
• My current morning routine
• What about the rest of your day?
• A brief (contrarian) note on productivity
  • Share this:
  • Related

How is Success Linked to a Morning Routine?

In his book Tools of Titans, Tim Ferriss examines the habits, strategies and philosophies of some of the most successful people on the planet, including startup entrepreneurs, celebrities, musicians, software engineers and athletes.

What is surprising looking through this excellent book, is just how many characteristics these great individuals have in common. So, how many commonalities are there between such a diverse cast of characters?

What Tim found among other things, is that almost all these successful interviewees had some kind of morning routine.

They all had a set series of habits that started their day. Looking online, it’s clear to see that many successful people encourage this practice.

 

What a successful morning routine looks like

So how do you go about coming up with a morning routine of your own and perhaps emulating some of their success?

1. Wake Up Earlier

One of the first crucial tips if you want to get more out of your day, is to wake up earlier. If you wake up early, then you’ll have more time to get yourself in the correct frame of mind before you launch yourself out into the open world. This is something a lot of people struggle with, but it can make a huge difference to your life if you can overcome the urge to hit snooze.

2.  Meditate/Journal

Once you’re up, one of the best things you can do is to engage in some form of self-reflection. The challenge for many of us is that as soon as our day starts, we’re forced to launch straight into responding to emails, dealing with complaints and generally being reactive. Start your day in a calm manner and reflect and you’ll be better able to handle this barrage.

3. Exercise

If you plan to exercise at the end of the day, then you will often find yourself too tired and strung out to do so. This is often the reality. Exercise before your day begins though and you’ll always know that you’ll always have that under your belt before you begin. This will also give you a boost in energy and an early win–both of which will help you to start your day right. If you don’t feel like working out, then doing some yoga or just some stretches can also work well.

4. Other Activities

If you time your wake up well and give yourself enough time before you need to leave the house/begin work, then this is also a good time to practice a hobby, do some reading or catch-up on the news. Anything you’d like to become a regular part of your day, add here!

My current morning routine

Currently, my morning routine is to get up before our two young sons wake up, i.e. before the hustle and bustle of getting everyone out the door. Usually, this is around 4:30-5 (as they wake up between 6:30 and 7am).

I first say my morning prayer affirmations, then stretch and do some strength exercises, next drink a glass of water, be sure to look outside (if it’s light), then get my most important tasks done.

For me, these involve writing, for both my professional life and business life. I try to get at least 30 minutes of research writing done for work, and then, for the business, write a daily article to subscribers of Think Beyond Boundaries (like this one). On days where I have time, i might work on product creation. But this isn’t always possible with the time I have in the morning.

Doing this routine helps me start the day on a positive note knowing I made progress and took care of the most important tasks that advance my career and business.

What about the rest of your day?

Although this article is about your morning routine, it’s also important to have a plan for what you will accomplish for the rest of the day. If you follow my training, you’ll have a daily plan for your business and know exactly what you should be working on each day.

For the kind of knowledge-based side business we advocate here, your primary daily activities are: Writing your list (daily email), creating products, and driving visitors to your platform either to sign up or to have a virtual (via a sales page) or live conversation (Skype or phone) with you to buy somehing from you or hire you. That’s it!

A brief (contrarian) note on productivity

Remember that time management and productivity are not about making a list of 20 things and doing them all. It’s having clear goals, broken down into months, weeks and daily tasks, and only prioritizing the things that get you closer to your goals. We’ll talk about productivity and tenacity in another post, but they are important traits of the successful (as is having a morning routine)!

If you like this kind of email, sign up below to get our free roadmap to steady and abundant cash flow and to get more helpful tips delivered right to your email inbox each day.