Are you a morning person or do you have a lie in and never start your day before noon? What’s the best time to get out of bed? And does it really matter when you start your day?
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For most people, they probably don’t care or think that it matters whether they are a morning person or not. I guess you’ll have to decide what works best for you. But if the most common working hours all over the world is somewhere between 8am and 5pm, getting productive before 8am will give you a head-start on most people.
So what is the big fuss about starting your day before 8am?
[shareable cite=”Robin Sharma”]Get up at 5am. Win the battle of the bed. Put mind over mattress.[/shareable]
Fresh from a good nights rest, starting your day early will help you with focus, energy and enthusiasm for the day.
I once made an attempt to get an extra hour out of my day but it proved unsuccessful, not because I wasn’t wired for it, but because I couldn’t make the necessary adjustments to sustain it.
Whether you get up before 8am or after 8am, let me give you 7 things that can make your morning more productive and help you make the most of your day.
#1. Get into a routine
There is no point in waking up at 5am on Monday, 6am on Tuesday and 7 am on Wednesday. You will end up confusing your body. Make the effort to work out a routine that works for you. Have a mix of activities in your routine that should including exercise, quiet time for prayers and meditation and reading a book or listening to a podcast. This is in addition to giving time to personal hygiene.
#2. Plan your morning
You will get the best out of the morning if you have a clear plan for how you are going to spend the time. What is your exercise regime going to contain? What book or podcasts are you going to read or listen to? And how will you be spending your quite time. Have these questions answered ahead at the latest the night before. You don’t want to be looking for your running cloths and shoes in the morning. Neither do you want to spend valuable time in the morning looking for a book to read.
#3. Record and evaluate
Make notes and keep records or a diary entry to help you track how your morning was spent. What effect does the early morning have on your energy levels during the day? What adjustments do you need to make to your sleeping time, meal times and other activities you are engaged in at night. Evaluate and take corrective action until you find what works best for you.
#4. Keep your body in shape
The early mornings will initially mean longer days. This means that you need a fit mind and body to carry you through the day. Let your morning workout be part of an overall healthy body plan. And please don’t spend the rest of the day engaged in activities that will dump more calories on you than you burn. If you are unfit, you will not have the strength to get through the day. You may end up waking up tired and return to using the snooze button. So getting in shape is not an option.
#5. Get a good nights sleep
A good nights sleep is important to maintaining a productive morning. It will help you keep a good mood, help you live a healthier life and help you concentrate better as you meditate and read in the morning. Make the effort to develop and stick to a sleep routine that supports you in having a restful sleep.
#6. Avoid eating late
You will have to decide what late eating means for you. For me any meal after 8pm at night is late and it affects my morning routine. For many of you, that’s when you eat your evening meal. And you are surprised that you are bulging in the middle or unable to get anything meaningful done in the morning.
#7. Stay true to yourself
If you wake up with an alarm of some sort, avoid using the snooze button. Years ago I would set multiple alarms 10 minutes apart and would go back to sleep after each alarm went off until I reached the last one. That didn’t help me reach my goal of being productive in the morning. Setting multiple alarms or using the snooze button will ruin your sleep pattern, sabotage your efforts to be time conscious and the extra time you spend in bed is not giving you additional rest.
These are my top tips for having a productive morning. And if you are a night person, I would like to hear your own story.
For me morning it’s all about the morning.
Why don’t you add your own by leaving a comment?