What do you do before breakfast? Most days I’ll be up by 5.30am and will spend the first hour of the day checking social network updates or emails before heading to the kitchen to prepare breakfast.
Then it’s a quick shower, change, check email again, pack up my work gear and head to the office.
While I don’t mind how my weekday mornings usually roll out, I realise that those precious hours could be better spent.
I recently read a book titled, “What the most successful people do before breakfast” by Laura Vanderkam. It’s a succinct eBook which, as its title suggests, offers insights into how to create new morning rituals by modelling your morning on that of successful people.
I wasn’t at all surprised to read that most people interviewed by the author get important tasks (tasks related to both professional and personal goals) done before most of us raise our heads from our pillows.
What’s Does Your Ideal Morning Look Like?
Following a suggestion made in the book, I decided to outline what an ideal morning might look like for me. I’m writing this post sitting on the day bed on my Bure on Turtle Island in Fiji – so my ideal morning here on the island (breakfast on the beach, champagne with the other resort guests, coconut husking demo) looks a little different than my normal morning.
Ideal mornings in my usual environment would however, also have me feeling energised, purposeful, organised and on top of projects and activities that I enjoy.
So, here are a couple of ideas I’m playing with:
Ideal Morning One (Mondays, Wednesdays)
5.30am – Awake, make cup of tea, head to home office
5.45am – 6.15am – Create content (write, record, repurpose content for publication)
6.15am – Shower and change
6.30am – Breakfast, social network check-in
7.15am – Plan for the day/meetings etc.
8.00am – Head to office
Ideal Morning Two (Tuesday, Thursday, Friday)
5.30am – Awake, make cup of tea, head to home office
5.45am – Check emails, social media posts etc.
6.15am – Head out for a run
6.45am – Return, shower, change
7.15am – Breakfast
7.45am – Plan for the day/meetings etc.
8.15am – Head to office
So, when I’m back on Sydney ground next week, that’s the plan. I’ll let you know how I go.
Two ways to succeed with your new morning habits:
Will Power vs Habits
The book made a great distinction about will power and habits. It explains that you only need will power until something is a habit. I don’t need will power to maintain my current morning routine. It just happens. When a new routine becomes habit, it too will be effortless. (This lesson was a good one for me in its simplicity and application to other areas of life.)
Choose one new habit and work on it slowly. Give yourself time to manage the fact that initially you’ll need to inject will power to keep up the activity. (Many of us have had a successful first week of a new exercise program only to see it get to hard in week two and three. Take it slow and acknowledge small gains.)
Choose Activities You Enjoy
A great way to fail at implementing new morning rituals is to allocate this precious morning time to things that you don’t want to do. If there’s a task I’m avoiding because I don’t enjoy it, trying to force myself to do it in the morning is only going to lead to me NOT doing it and then feeling bad about it. So, any new habits need to be in areas that I enjoy and want more of in my life. There’s no benefit to self-flagellation.
So, choose to spend this time writing, meditating, running, playing, reading — whatever it is that brings you joy.
TELL US:
What does your ideal morning look like?
What new habits would you like to introduce to your morning?
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