Own Your Morning Routine To Elevate Your Life

25 Apr

5 Ideas To Start Your Day Better.

The first 3 hours of your day can make or break your life.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day.

But not every hour is created equally.

It’s not exactly science but 20% (or less) of how you spend your day provides 80% (or more) of the quality of life you enjoy.

To put it shortly, your morning's matter. A lot.

What you do each morning has a disproportional impact on the rest of your day. The activities you engage in and what you consume in the morning will shape how your body and mind function for the rest of the day.

Start your day how you would like it to end.

Ever had a hectic morning and it seems like the rest of the day was just as hectic? Ever seen something on social media that you wish you didn’t and now it is on your mind all day?

Like building a house, if you get the foundations of your morning wrong, everything else will fall out of place.

Misalignment is the silent killer of your productivity and creativity.

I am not saying you need to wake up at 5:00 am every morning, manifest your red Ferrari, meditate for 5 hours and freeze your nuts off in a cold shower.

If that’s for you then great. No judgment either way.

You might have young children or caring obligations that prevent you from having a full morning to yourself.

I get it.

We all need to work within the constraints of our unique contexts.

But the point of this article is not to shame you but to encourage everyone to become more intentional with their morning routine.

Even if it’s only 10 minutes intentionally spent on yourself. Small improvements compounded over time can drastically change the trajectory of your life.

Use your mornings to create the person you want to become, not escape the life you have.

We first make our morning routine and then our morning routine makes us.

My weekday mornings are sacred.

I protect it at all costs.

If you want 1 minute of my time between 5:00 am — 9:00 am, you’ll be paying dearly for it or you must be pretty special to me.

Unless someone is dead or dying, events of the world can wait until my morning routine is finished.

I will sacrifice going out on weekday evenings if it means I can sleep for 7–8 hours a night and start my morning off with a bang.

I face less resistance in the tasks that I do in the morning and I am wildly more productive.

Your weekday morning routine is an investment you make to become 1% closer to the person you want to become. You still have the weekends to enjoy yourself and have fun.

Use the time to invest in exercising, reading, meditating or connecting with nature or just thinking in solitude. There are enormous benefits of just giving your mind space to think without being bombarded by notifications and the news of the day.

The successes in your life don’t come from big, monumental events. Success comes from the small daily actions you take to move closer to your goals.

Consistency is never sexy but it is always effective. And investment in your morning routine always yields the best dividends.

Get your mind right and everything else follows.

Your mind is the greatest asset you own.

The quality of your life largely depends on what goes on between your ears.

Any morning routine you choose should prioritize getting your mindset right for the day. Anything else is just extra.

Stay away from mind-numbing TV and energy-robbing social media apps on your phone. Don’t reach for your phone first thing in the morning. Avoid the death scroll of your newsfeed.

Start the day with a tech-free environment. Take a walk, exercise or meditate.

I’ve experimented with exercise and meditation first thing in the morning for the last couple of years.

Personally, I’ve found a morning meditation immediately after I wake up to have the best benefits for preparing my mind and body for the rest of the day.

I’ve noticed that I am less reactive and emotional to events and I can detach my emotions after I meditate for 30mins every morning.

I am not promising you’ll have the same results but what I am saying is that you’ll need to try different routines over a couple of years to know what works best for your body, mind and life.

Mindfulness practices can take many forms. You might get the same effect from a morning walk, reading a book or just getting ready for your day in silence.

Learning and creativity are easier in the morning.

For the last couple of years, I’ve used my peak productivity times in the mornings to sit down and write Medium articles.

This is the pattern I’ve noticed:

My writing in the morning = somewhat good.
My writing in the afternoon = unambiguously bad.

My creativity is more volatile than any cryptocurrency in the market.

It tends to peak in the morning shortly after I wake up and crashes abruptly in the afternoon before a second wind picks up after dinner.

After my morning coffee, words and sentences seem to flow out of my mind, through my keyboard and onto the virtual screen seamlessly. I can bang out 80% of an article in a good sitting.

Getting me to write anything of value in the afternoon is like dragging my limp carcass across broken glass.

It takes double the effort to write anything intelligent and I don’t enjoy the writing experience.

Once you’ve finished your mindfulness activity, block your mornings for activities that require your highest level of mental output.

In the morning, you are fresh from a good slumber and can easily access states of peak ‘flow’. Direct this flow into any side hustle or project you have wanted to build.

Since blocking out my mornings for solid writing sessions in 2020, I’ve grown my Medium followers from a measly 100 to 1,700 (at the time of writing) my income from my articles has more than 10x and the development of my writing skills has also been exponential.

In a hyperactive world, being able to focus intensely on one activity is a rare commodity. Attention is becoming more valuable at the same time it is becoming rarer.

Eat the frog and the hog

According to psychologist Ron Friedman, the first three hours of your day are your most precious for maximized productivity.

Friedman told the Harvard Business Review:

“Typically, we have a window of about three hours where we’re really, really focused. We’re able to have some strong contributions in terms of planning, in terms of thinking, in terms of speaking well.”

While I do work a lot, I am wary about falling into the incessant hustle culture that many millennials find themselves trapped.

That’s why I leverage the most productive parts of my day so that I am free to do less when my focus and attention have been exhausted.

You can do the same thing.

A productive day starts the night before. Get a good night of sleep using good sleep hygiene behavior and write a list of your most pressing items that demand a level of productivity to complete.

I value my mornings at $1,000 an hour simply because of how much value I can create during this time. This might sound ridiculous but that’s the point.

That’s why I will never understand people who schedule low-value activities like meetings early in the morning.

For me, that’s like throwing away thousands of dollars every day. But it is even worse. You can always get your money back. But you can never get that time back to create something of value for yourself.

Mornings are for the (side) hustlers.

Ever dreamed of quitting your job for a passion you have?

If you’re reading this article, I can guarantee it’s crossed your mind at least twice.

Every morning you’ve got the opportunity to invest time into growing your side hustle into your main hustle.

The weekday hours between 5:00 am — 9:00 am give you 20 hours per week to invest in any projects you’ve got. Give your side hustle the best version of yourself in the morning.

Even if your goal is to never leave your job, having alternative sources of income provides a level of psychological freedom that is worth more than money.

I don’t make enough to go all into my side hustles, but I’ve been able to build multiple sources of income over a number of years. I no longer fear losing my job or any job in the future.

I’ve got the skills required to always make money online. And if I had more time, I could potentially scale these side hustles into a full-time gig for myself.

In fact, I’ve told my boss at work I plan to resign at the same time as I got approved for a mortgage.

Sounds like terrible timing mixed with irresponsibility, but I know I’ll be able to make more wifi money when I need it. The internet is a playground for those willing to experiment and fail.

Invest in the second most important people in your life.

We often give our partners and family the worse version of ourselves.

In the evenings, we are tired, hungry, and still pissed off from what Karen said to you at work.

The morning is spent getting ready or doing a list of endless errands to start the day.

But what if you spent your morning investing in the relationships around you?

The actor Hugh Jackman on Tim Ferriss’ podcasts details that he reads a book with his wife together every morning. He credits this routine with the close connection he shares with his wife and their enduring love.

I don’t have kids or a partner so this is less relevant to me. But once I do enter this season my life, I will change my morning routine to prioritize the relationships I have.

Summary:

How you start your mornings determines the trajectory of your day and ultimately your life.

But not every morning is going to be perfect.

That’s not real life.

Some days you’ll be sick. Some days you’ll lack motivation. Some days emergencies will take priority. And that’s okay.

If you can focus on getting the majority of your mornings right, your life will change for the better.

Own your mornings to elevate your life.

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Michael Lim