Productivity in the Mornings
Over the next couple weeks, I’m gonna give you exactly what you want — straight up, productivity hacks.
I’m assuming by even subscribing to the Venture Out, that you’re quite the productive person already, so these tips are intended to “level up” your day. At this level in our game, gaining an additional 1% productivity could make a huge difference. They may sound a bit wacky, but what do you have to lose?
10 Morning Routine Tweaks from the Emotional Intelligence Guy
From Travis Bradberry, award-winning co-author of Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the cofounder of TalentSmart, this article gives his latest top Ten Tweaks To Your Morning Routine That Will Transform Your Entire Day.
My 2 favorites and why:
- First, clean your workspace — Bradberry asserts that having a messy desk is equivalent to multitasking; it just ruins our ability to concentrate. What I did was simply grab all those loose files and folders on my desk, piled them up, and pack them into my backpack. If I don’t refer to them in more than a two weeks, I start recycling them. In the meantime, it adds weight to my backpack!
- No E-mail until you’ve eaten three frogs — This takes serious self-control (which you have more of in the morning) and planning (from the day before). Basically, while you have maximum brain power, tackle that complex task first, before diving into emails where you read, file, respond, etc. I feel great when I can do this, because the rest of the day I know I’ve already made progress on that important thing.
- Bradberry’s wacky tip: Drink some lemon water first.
30 Day Challenge — Hal Elrod’s Morning Miracle in 30 Days
I suggest the best way to incorporate some of these productivity hacks we are learning is through habit forming. Do them enough times, and they become part of us.
Somedays I feel like my entire day are habits that I’ve programmed and I’m just executing a preplanned script. Where’s the spontaneity? Is it a trade-off between surprises and maximizing our day? My solution — I schedule in time to be unproductive. I’m not kidding.
In this article by Lockes Hughes, a freelance journalist specializing in health and wellness content, she tries out the “Morning Miracle.” Popularized by Hal Elrod in his book, Hughes habitualizes the “Morning Miracle” by doing them for an entire month, and documents what transformations occur.
Personally, I’ve also done the sitting in silence or meditation technique, for over a year actually, which you can read about here. My favorite from her’s is:
4. AFFIRMATIONS AND VISUALIZATION WORK. — As you know, I include a Positive Affirmation in these emails because they work! I arrive at work in the morning and sit in the parking lot for a few minutes. I write down what my Positive Affirmation is for the day in an email and send them to my personal folder and to a few close friends. This makes me more accountable by “putting it out there.” Just warn your friends first or else they may think you’re gone coo-coo.
Create a Ritual — Craft a morning routine that you love
There are so, so many tips and advice for your morning routine. Which ones do we adopt and which ones are unsupported by science?
My advice — who cares? The fact that you even considered crafting a ‘morning routine’ is an accomplishment! Most people can’t even find the motivation to wake up early to do something, but you have. Here’s my virtual pat on the back!
In this article, “5 tips for increasing productivity during your morning routine,” I have no idea why Vancouver is publishing it and the writer sounds suspicious. Regardless, the tips are still valid!
My favorite is, “Create a ritual that you will look forward to.”
So, arrange all the tips you’ve heard of in any order you want, and then mix-and-match until you find a morning routine you love And when you get tired of it, mix it up again!
My current Sunday morning routine I love is: bike ride to Starbucks at 645AM, listen to a mediation session while biking, work on the Venture Out and upcoming trip planning until at least 11AM… while sipping on free cold brew coffee refills.
Manage Your Emotions — Recognize how you feel, then act accordingly
Despite the perfect morning routine, sometimes we just wake up cranky or something happens that puts us in a mood.
I recall a few weeks ago I just woke up with a short fuse. Seemed like I hit every red light going into work, people were annoying, and Outlook kept crashing! Recognizing this, I cancelled as many meetings as I could, cranked up my music, and adjusted my day to my mood. Better to do that than to make a career-limiting move!
In The Making of a Manager by Julie Zhou, the VP for product design at Facebook, one of my favorite advice she dispenses is:
Managing Yourself — “Maybe I’m not in the best mental state to critique this bit of design work then I will push that to a time when I’ve got out of that emotional state.”
