- Geekmaster
- 2021-01-24 11:20:31
- 19 minute(s)
Run The Day With The Ultimate Morning Routines of Successful People
There is a perfect morning routine that will make YOU happy and productive all day — you just have to find yours. Your morning routine will set you up for success — for the rest of the day, week and year! It’s up to you to run the day by leveraging the morning routines of successful people.
A good morning routine can really set the productivity tone for the rest of the day.
Your morning routine sets the tone for the next 24 hours so, instead of snoozing your alarm five times, giving yourself ten minutes to get ready and dragging yourself out the door, follow the ultimate morning routines of successful people.
Morning routines prime you for success.
They help you achieve more, think clearly, and do work that actually matters. They keep you from stumbling through your day and make sure you get the most important things done. All it takes is a bit of discipline, along with routines that will set you up for success.
Successful people are very much aware of the work and dedication behind every step forward.
They also now that big achievements are built on the basis of very small ones attained on daily basis. These are the basic early morning routines that highly successful people used to strengthen their willpower.
You can replicate the morning routines of these role models to fit your lifestyle and boost your physical and emotional well being so that you can reach your full potential every single day.
And honestly, once you create the perfect morning routine for you, you will love it so much that you’ll keep getting up at 5am on the weekends! And just a side note, any day you skip your morning routine will feel gross, because morning routines are the best.
I’ve compiled below the seven morning routines of highly successful people to help you kick-start your day so you can achieve greater focus, clarity and productivity.
Do you want to be successful? In order to be successful, it is good to study and learn from what successful people do. Follow the morning routines of successful people by doing these seven things every morning. See how much more you’ll be able to achieve in your day!
Routine #1: Wake Up Early
By getting up at the same time every day, your circadian rhythm (or body clock) will stabilize, helping your productivity to raise improving your sleep and decreasing possible insomnia and sleep deprivation.
Successful people start their day very early. Jocko Willink, one of my favorite motivational speakers, wakes up at 5 am every single day!
While you couldn’t see yourself getting up at 5 am anytime in the near future, there is definitely something to be gained by starting the day an hour, or 2 earlier than usual. Take control of the day as opposed to just letting the day happen to you.
Many high achievers rise early in order to prepare for the day. In those early hours, they can execute their routines while the rest of the world is asleep.
Even if they aren’t naturally morning larks — the opposite of night owls — they’ve trained themselves to wake up early for the many benefits an early rise can bring. Those include increased productivity with fewer distractions in the early morning, greater creativity because you can work when your mind is fresh, and less stress if you use that extra time for meditation or quiet contemplation.
The most important isn’t what time you get out of bed — it’s getting in tune with your body’s clock for a good routine.
A healthy morning routine may be the most important — no matter what time you wake up. Your body actually knows what it should be doing and when. Don’t force yourself to be part of the 5 am club if you can’t fall asleep before midnight.
Highly successful people set up their alarm clock every day at the same time.
This is the best way to start your day with the conscious choice of exercising and strengthening your willpower. Overcoming the body in its natural tendency to pursue the warm and peace of the bed sheets is one of the biggest little battles that will ensure that your willpower is fully operational and ready for a great day of conquest.
Getting up early is hard. But anything worth doing is hard. There’s a reason why Benjamin Franklin felt so strongly about it and why Tim Cook does it today. To gain an advantage.
To be able to wake up before your competitors with a clear mind and minimal distractions is a blessing when you have so many different things to tackle. My recommendation is for you to try this for at least 1 month and record your results. My bet is you’ll end up liking it.
📚 Additional reading
Routine #2: Plan Your Day
Preparing a clear list of ambitious but realistic “To Does” is the only way to successfully manage your day ensuring little level of stress and high levels of performance. It will clearly exercise your willpower that will have to choose the order of your priorities on the basis of importance and regardless personal taste or propensity to one or another task.
If you don’t take a few minutes of your time to map out the direction of your day, how will you know if you’re headed towards the right direction?
Starting the day on a positive note by checking how well you did with the previous days’ goals and celebrating the goals already achieved can help set the tone for the day and motivate you to achieve even more success by accomplishing even more goals. Start with the most important goal first.
A common trait found in the morning routines of successful people is that they plan to combat their most difficult and least favorite tasks of the day first.
It may at first make you dread your mornings even more, but it has a positive long-term effect. You will be less likely to procrastinate throughout the rest of the day, and your day will be more enjoyable as you’ve already finished the hardest part.
Moreover, sometimes the best way to have a productive morning is to get a head start on it the night before. Make it a habit!
This is effective because we have a limited amount of willpower and decision-making ability every day. The thought of making too many decisions in the morning will slow you down and drain your brain for the rest of the day. If you can eliminate decision-making from your mornings, you’ll have more energy and time to have the most productive morning you can!
🔈 Someone's said
When you take the time to write out or review your game plan for the day, you’re once again getting ahead of making decisions based on your mood.
This is great for productivity, yes, but planning is important on a larger scale too. When we don’t purposely and deliberately choose where to focus our energies and time, other people — our bosses, our colleagues, our clients, and even our families — will choose for us, and before long we’ll have lost sight of everything that is meaningful and important.
All successful people plan their days, because they know that if they don’t have a goal, they will be pulled around by the will and desire of the other people in their environment.
I’m sure you had those days where you wake up motivated and you’re ready to rock ‘n’ roll. Only two commute home in the evening at the end of it, absolutely shattered, only to realize that you haven’t really achieved anything that has moved your life forward. This is why so important to plan what you want to achieve each morning, so that you can focus on your own success and not be pulled around by the success goals of other people instead.
Routine #3: Move Your Body
Regular physical activity can increase the production of hormones that make you feel happier and help you sleep better. It has also a positive impact on your skin’s appearance, weight control and lessens the risk of chronic disease. Morning workouts are clearly good for your body and your soul.
Starting your day with a tailored routine of workouts will improve your willpower helping the important stuff winning the battle to the urgent one.
Because we live in a stressful environment and have thousands of others things to do it is crucial to exercise our willpower by making space for those things that normally we do not have a moment for. It is not about the time you will invest or the calories you will burn. It is about the conscious decision of making space to what helps us to become better from a holistic perspective.
There are so many benefits to exercising in the morning before the day starts.
Not least because you’re more likely to actually do it before the busyness of the day sets in and motivation dwindles. Morning workouts enhance your metabolism, help cultivate consistent habits and strong self-discipline. Exercise also increases your physical and mental energy and helps you to sleep better at night.
Exercising in the morning doesn’t necessarily mean waking up two hours earlier and going to the gym, it can simply be doing some at home exercise routines, or going for a ten-minute morning walk.
Many people believe there are added benefits to exercising in the morning compared to later in the day, suggesting that it will improve your productivity and mood. Exercising in the morning can also help encourage self-discipline and routine, as well as increasing your metabolism.
Incorporating exercise into your morning routine is the best way to boost your energy levels and sustain your focus throughout the day.
Richard Branson, Sheryl Sandberg and Mark Zuckerberg all prioritize fitness upon waking. Exercise helps boost their energy, motivation, productivity and physical and mental stamina. According to Harvard Medical School’s journal, working out causes your brain to secrete a chemical called neuro-trophic factor, which boosts brain function.
📚 Additional reading
Routine #4: Express Gratitude
Life coach and author Tony Robbins has a daily morning ritual that includes acknowledging what he’s grateful for in his life. This daily practice can not only push your mindset in a positive direction but also help overpower discouraging emotions like fear and anger.
Don’t start your day before you have an inspired attitude via intense gratitude.
In my experience, early-morning negativity can dog you all day, kill your self-confidence, and tamp down your productivity. So I decided to force myself to accomplish some kind of gratitude practice first thing in the morning. It wasn’t easy at first, but it’s helped me remind myself of everything I’m capable of and jump into each day with a vengeance.
The idea is simple, every morning you wake up and think of a couple of things that you are incredibly thankful for.
It can be as simple as your last night’s meal. Just make sure you identify different things to be thankful for every day and you will see the difference as I did. We hear from most successful people that they practice gratitude every single day as a part of their morning routine. It is not a coincidence that gratitude can help you reach heights.
There are plenty of scientific studies that show how gratitude and being thankful for the good things in your life can help to lower your stress and anxiety levels.
Since we know that mental and emotional stress can lead to unnecessary worry and even physical health problems, anything that can help get rid of the stress and add a little more positive energy to our lives has to be a good thing.
Although it might sound New-Age-y to some, positive affirmations are proven methods of self-improvement.
Affirmations are positive statements you can use to reframe how you think about yourself and the day to come. They are a way of visualizing the good things that will come to you that day and overcoming negative self-talk. Your affirmations go to work to transform the way you think and feel so you can overcome your limiting beliefs and behaviors and replace them with those you need to succeed.
Routine #5: Refresh Your Mind
Many moguls meditate first thing in the morning. They’re not alone in this practice, and studies show that daily meditation can help reduce stress and anxiety. Motivation doesn’t last forever, so you need to replenish yours regularly. Highly successful people know this, so they dedicate ample time to increase their supply.
Meditation doesn’t always have to be spiritual, as sometimes it can just be used to help clear your mind to be better prepared for the day.
To add more value into this time, combine it with some simple morning stretches. You can even start some of your stretches from the comfort of your own bed, including knee-to-chest and spinal twist stretches. Incorporating time to stretch in the morning will not only reset your body for the day, but it also improves circulation, flexibility and helps reduce stress and tension.
Devoting your firsts thoughts of the day to understand the world as it is, fighting for what it should be improved, and bringing your life into a well-oriented perspective will give your willpower the right motivation to be exercised.
The act of meditating causes the pituitary gland in your brain to secrete endorphins enhancing activity in the area of your brain that is associated with positive emotions and experiences. It is proven to help you to combat anxiety and the busy mind syndrome as well as to improve pain tolerance.
Meditation helps your brain to let things slide away by simply giving it time to rest and meander through the information, bit by bit, letting go of what is unimportant.
Much of our stress comes from too much input and a lack of time or tools in handling the input. We get information, emotions, and we get overloaded. Our brains don’t know what to handle first, so they just keep cycling through all the information. Talk about crazy-making.
Meditation has brought about success for those who have been diligent to practice it.
From Steve Jobs to Russell Simmons, these influential leaders have used meditation to increase innovation, harness their energy, and channel their drive into the things that matter most. The benefits of meditation, which include increased focus, clarity and calm in times of stress, have made it possible for many to achieve their goals in life.
Routine #6: Eat That Frog First
It is a concept suggested by Brian Tracy, a great author for the book Eat That Frog. In the morning, the willpower of highly successful people is fresh and ready to go. So, this is the best time to take advantage of it — do your hardest task, your frog first.
The frog is your most important task or work — the one you’re dreading the most because it’s so big and important that it’s looming over you.
Building the habit to do your biggest task first can give you a huge boost of accomplishment first thing. But starting the day with your most daunting task is, well, daunting. It can be too easy to procrastinate, making it even harder to get your day started. Sometimes, clearing away a few small tasks early on can give you the momentum to tackle your frog.
You can save yourself from constantly having to ask yourself, “Okay, what’s next?” by solidifying a step-by-step process.
Most of us have that bucket of things we do every morning to prepare for the day (you know, getting dressed, brushing our teeth, etc.), but you might not have it down to an exact order yet. Those micro-decisions add up. The more you can have on autopilot the better. Making incremental progress, a.k.a. small wins, leads to more productivity in the long run.
Just ask yourself: If today was the last day of your life, would you still want to do what you’re about to do today?
This hard-hitting question gets you right where it wants you. If you find yourself saying “no” several times in a week, then go out there and change something. You never know when you’ll have the opportunity to do it the next time.
Self-reflection in the morning can set you up for success the entire day.
Too often, we go through our lives on autopilot, only to realize later that we’ve lost sight of our values, goals and passions along the way. Imagine waking up every morning not wanting to do your job and feel that way for months or years on end. If you’re answering no to the question day after day, it’s likely time to make a career change.
Routine #7: Own Your Space
Once you have opened your eyes and turned off your alarm, the common next step is to grab your phone and start flicking through your missed messages, emails and social media notifications. If you are guilty of this, try and break this bad habit as one bad message can instantly put a negative spin on your morning.
Whether you spend 5 minutes or 1 hour reading, it is such a good way boost your motivation and get into the “I got this” mindset.
It is so easy to get lost in the weeds of day to day life and become demotivated and overwhelmed. You must surround yourself with people that inspire you to be the person you want to be, or else you don’t stand a chance. One of my favorite ways to do that is by consuming media and information written by people who are living their best lives.
Reading is strongly correlated to success factors like income level and job position.
Driven individuals read not only to learn and achieve more in their industry but also to be aware of current events and how they affect their businesses. Many business moguls read in the morning, including Warren Buffett and Richard Branson.
This may seem a little counter-intuitive, but you must create a not To Do list.
We all have our normal To Do Lists for the day, but it’s important to check off what you should not be doing as well. After all, it’s easier to stop doing things, than to start doing new ones. Riddle me this: what are the things that you do that take away from your goals or intentions for the day?
I rarely watch the news these days and I’m much happier and positive for it. Sure I may not be completely up to date with world affairs, but I get the gist of most of what’s happening in the world through colleagues and friends.
Starting the day with 15 minutes of negative news in the morning can really kill your positive outlook for the day. Instead of reading or listening to the news first thing in the morning, try reading a few pages of a self-improvement book, listening to a podcast or inspirational videos.
There is always some space left for a book in our working bag.
Lifelong learning is the new school and personal development a life target. We do not know all. Actually, we know very little. Doesn’t mind the time it takes you to get to work or bring the kids to school, this is the perfect moment to squeeze some minutes for self-learning. No excuses!
Wrapping Up
Mornings don’t have to be rough. By doing a few focused things when you wake up, you can set yourself up for more productivity throughout the day. If it seems daunting to overhaul your morning routine all at once, introduce one new practice a week and see if you notice improvement.
A morning routine is said to boost happiness, increase productivity, reduce stress levels and get you settled for the day. It’s about getting started on the right foot.
A morning routine also allows you to start your morning with intention, rather than letting the day run away from you. You control the day; the day doesn’t control you. This positive feeling of being on top of things has results in a positive feeling and effect on your entire day.
All these little actions that seem so insignificant are however of a great value.
Because they are totally avoidable, choosing to perform them would be an everyday choice for better that will have a great impact on the positive exercise of our willpower. If we choose for better we become better. And it is in the little things where successful people build their strength.
Productive successful mornings generate productive, successful days — which inevitably create a successful life.
A morning routine takes the stress out of the start of the day and puts you on the best footing from the get-go. Everybody is different and these habits may not be the perfect morning routine for you but I highly encourage you to develop something consistent that will make you excited for your life.
We’ve established a morning routine is important and valuable, are you ready to create yours?
Consistent morning habits set the tone for a productive day. Follow these tips, and you’ll find yourself achieving higher levels of success than ever before. After all, it has been said that if you win the morning, you win the day. Don’t we all want to win at life? Share your thoughts in the comments below with our fellow Geeknackers™!
Geeknack's Picks
