This Morning Routine Will Improve Your Productivity
Good morning!
Maybe when you are reading this post, it’s already later than early morning. For you it may now be a good afternoon, a good evening. Intentionally though, I did want to start from a ‘Good morning!’ I think it is the most powerful phrase from all of the above. Why? We all want to have a good day, we all fall asleep hoping that tomorrow will be a good day. That’s all we want. Ironically enough - we hope for it thinking it is often not up to us, because we don’t know yet what will happen tomorrow. Maybe there is some important meeting for us and we are not sure yet how it will turn out or maybe we already know there are some difficult conversations ahead of us and we feel that that with all that happening the day simply cannot be a good one. What I want to share with you today is that it is not about what’s happening tomorrow, it’s all about the mindset. It is up to us. It’s the mindset you will have when you wake up. Every morning you have a new chance, a new opportunity and it’s completely up to you how you use it. You can make your day a good one.
Those of you reading this post who already know me, know very well that I am all about productivity. I expect high productivity from myself and share knowledge with others to help them increase theirs. Some of my friends and colleagues even refer to me as a hurricane Klaudyna. The reference to a hurricane comes from the speed and intensity, effectiveness I can bring to what and how I do things. Truth be told, you already might be thinking that hurricanes also create some damage, but I don’t (hope not!). I bring the power of the hurricane to fix, action, focus on the outcome I want and I know are needed. I can be incredibly productive and effective, bring results of 3 working days in 1 while having a harmony between my professional and a personal life and while enjoying that. People often ask me: how do you that, when do you have time for all of it? The answer is simple (below in a few bullet points). It is about time management and discipline. I will admit though that the path there was not easy. I was not always at my best with my priorities, managing my day. I think that I now mastered the time management and it is really me who manage my time, every day, not the other way around. I think this is still a problem for a lot of people - the time manages them. It goes by, every day, every week and they just need to catch up to it.
How to master your productivity? Start from your morning. An early morning.
Your morning routine is the key. There is a lot of very important points and steps to productivity throughout the day but I can guarantee you - you will never be as productive as you can possibly be if you do not manage your morning time.
Be ahead of the game. Start your day early, wake up early.
An early wake up is the best way to get ahead of the day. Do you know the feeling of waking up late, sleepy, after snoozing your alarm multiple times? When you wake up late, you often start your day from not the best mood. You are sleepy (sleeping after your alarm goes off is not productive, your mind is no longer asleep, just your body is, so you are not helping yourself by not getting up from bed at the 1st alarm sound), groggy, upset that you don’t have much time to get ready, prepare for the day. You know what? This is the moment you most likely lost your control of the day. You may be able to catch up to it later, but it will be very hard. Increase your chances to have a good day and wake up between 5:00am - 5:30am, have a cup of coffee, tea, water, whatever you like and enjoy it. This is the time for you, Most likely no one in your household is yet awake. Even if you live by yourself, you are still the first one to wake up seeing that the rest of the world, your neighborhood is still asleep. This feeling gives you power, control and empowerment for the day.
Do what you want. Listen to yourself.
Yes! You woke up early, so take care of yourself, recognize your effort of waking up early. There is plenty of time for you today. Some people would want to use this time for meditation, some for reading. This time is for you, you gave it to yourself so use it the way you want it.
Some days when you wake up early you know there is a busy or a stressful day ahead of you. On those days, invest your time in the morning routine that will allow you to mentally prepare for that. You know yourself best and will know what you need. If that’s a long shower or a morning run or doing nothing, just sitting and relaxing, do it. Your body tells you what it needs and you can use it to power yourself up in the most effective way. Every day I start my day at 5am. I love my early morning cup of coffee, letting my pups out in the backyard. On some days I just enjoy my coffee and read my book, then I go to the gym, throw in some laundry, listen to some music and then start working. On some days I just want to read and drink my coffee and just start my day slowly. I will read a book, catch up on news, no rush. What I am trying to tell you is that having a morning routine does not mean doing everything the same every day. It does not mean being very busy from early morning. No, it means listening to yourself. Making yourself ready for the rest of the day no matter what it brings. Do what you are in a mood for, what will help you start your day with a good attitude.
Do not start working immediately!
People often make a mistake of waking up early and jumping to work, getting on their project, responding on e-mails, etc. That’s a mistake! Allow yourself to start your day in the day you want it. Starting to work will immediately gets your mind into spinning wheels and will start processing what happened, what some e-mail said, what you need to do, etc. This approach will get you a lot of stress from early morning completely unnecessary. Work will be there for you 1 or 2 hours later as well. Be in control of your work and your day and not a victim of it. You are in charge of your time, use it wisely. Set a good attitude for yourself or the rest if the day.
Prepare for the day.
This step is critical. You may want to prepare for the day on the evening or afternoon before. That’s up to you, but what is an imperative, is to have a list of tasks and most importantly, a list of priorities to attack. As soon as you start your day you will see that most of the situations, scenarios you come across are not planned. That’s life. What you can do - is to be prepared for unplanned. If you know what your priorities for the day are, you will go through the day smoothly no matter what. It may happen that your kids will get sick, your team members need unexpected help from you, there is some project crisis that needs your immediate attention, etc. No matter what happens, if you have your list that clearly outlines what are your priorities for today - with whatever your day brings to you, you will be able to either quickly reprioritize without any stress, you will be able to stay on top what is important to address at the right moment. Lack of preparations and clear outlining what is your to-do-list for today, for this week, you will quickly feel stressed, overwhelmed and as a result - you will lose control. Don’t let that happen. You know that life is full of surprises. The only constant is change so be prepared. By waking up early you are ahead of the day, by getting prepared for the day, you stay ahead of the game.
Stay disciplined.
I will use one of my favorite inspirational quotes to summarize: Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment. You may already know that one thing is to have a plan but another thing is to get it done. There is a lot of hard work, passion and will involved, but all of that starts and ends on the discipline. Develop self discipline, it will help you start your day in the way you want it even on those days when you are not the most motivated. Your discipline will have you have a very productive morning routine and that’s where everything starts.
When you have a hard time waking up early tomorrow or any other day - think what you want to choose, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.
Remember about all of the above when you fall asleep tonight and prepare your mindset for tomorrow and when you wake up tomorrow.
Remember that there is no trying. You either do it or you don’t.
If you want to work on increasing your productivity, efficiency of your work, your time management and bring it all into visible results - please reach out to me via Contact . We will discuss your challenges, goals, we will build a customized for you plan and hit it!
Hope you enjoyed the reading,
Klaudyna
