Every person has a unique routine that they perform in the morning before going to work, play or school. It involves unique activities for each one of us. Some people have a relaxed one while others have an extreme morning routine. For many professionals today, the daily objective is to be as productive as possible. Therefore, we strive to ensure that even the morning routine is productive in nature. This can be accomplished by including specific elements. Here are the most important elements of a highly productive morning routine.
Get up at the same time every day
One of the ways to make your morning routine productive is to get up at the same time every day. This means that you set your alarm for a particular time which is comfortable for you and do not deviate from it. Ensure that the time you wake up is ideal for you. You do not have to compete with early risers if you tend to rise a little late. As long as you are comfortable with it and will still accomplish your daily goals, pick any time you want. Do not keep changing the time that you get up. This can exhaust your body before you even embark on the day's activities. Thus, getting up consistently at the same time every day can help you to establish a more productive morning routine. Of course it helps to get up early. This is because you get time to accomplish more during your day.
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Begin with an introspective activity to calm your mind and spirit
One of the most important elements of a productive morning is introspection. This is where you take the time to calm your mind and reflect on what is most important for your day. An introspective activity helps you to accomplish this. Different people achieve this in their own unique ways. Some people pray, others meditate while others exercise. Whichever activity you choose, utilize 15 to 30 minutes of your morning performing it so as to calm your mind and enrich your spirit for the day ahead of you.
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Identify your priorities and create a To-Do list for the day
We usually have quite a number of activities to engage in every day. Some of them are more important than others. Such activities are of a higher priority. Therefore, take the time to list down your tasks for the day and then arrange them according to their priority. Look at the resources which you have at hand. After that, establish a To-Do list featuring the activities which you have for the day arranged according to priority and with the necessary resources assigned to each one. In this way, you have a plan to ensure productivity in your day.
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Eat a balanced breakfast
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It fuels our bodies and gets us charged up with enough energy to tackle the activities ahead of us. Therefore, it is a critical element in your morning routine. Ensure that it has some carbohydrates for energy, vitamins to refresh your system, warm or hot fluid to provide some heat on chilly mornings and protein to promote natural growth throughout the day.
Read something
Knowledge is power. The more you read about various subjects, the more you enrich yourself with material that you can apply in your life to make it better. If you want a more productive morning routine, you must include reading as part of your schedule. You can read some fiction, non-fiction, academic, entertainment, news or business-related content in the morning before you proceed with the day's activities. Some people spend their morning reading the newspaper while others read a religious book. Some read motivational books while others read corporate guides. Just set aside a minimum of half an hour to read every morning. Not only does it arm you with productive material, you can easily retain the content and refer to it throughout your day.
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Make the most important decisions
Your mind is most fresh in the morning. After calming it and reading, you are in the best condition to make decisions. Therefore, you should include decision-making in your morning routine. You can refer to your prioritized To-Do list and make the most important decisions about your day's responsibilities in the morning. This allows you to get them out of the way and leave your mind free to tackle other less important decisions. In this way, you assign your mental capacity in the morning to the most pressing matters. This is a great way to create a productive morning routine.
Exit your house to go to work at exactly the same time every day
Consistency is a big part of productivity. Just as you get up in the morning at the same time every day, you should leave your house to go to work at the same time regularly. This helps you to set a punctual routine and also lets your colleagues know the time when you normally arrive at work. In this way, you help them to be productive too by scheduling their days to complement your arrival time.
Assign the morning section of working time to your most important activity
The morning routine normally includes some work after all the preparations and decisions have been made. This task should be your most high priority one. Examples of such tasks are composing music, making calculations, writing, performing analyses or generally the core activity in your day. Make sure to assign substantial time to it, for example an hour. However, remember to take some breaks. A ten minute break after every half hour of working is good enough. Utilize this time to do something that is totally unrelated to your work and which relaxes you. Examples of such are taking a walk, going to take some water or chatting with a colleague about something other than work. This refreshes your mind and rejuvenates your body for the next session of core work. This first task of your day makes up a critical part of your productive morning routine.
The Important Take Away
A productive morning routine comprises many activities. These ones help to set a productive tone for your day. The activities indicated above can help you to be productive from your waking moment. Following them can help you to get the most out of your morning and rest of the day.