Summary

The author shares their morning routine and how they use Notion for journaling and productivity.

Abstract

The author discusses their morning routine, which includes making coffee, playing games, cleaning, and letting chickens out. They then use Notion for journaling, focusing on areas such as what's on their mind, yesterday's summary, today's plan, gratefulness, and action items. After journaling, they do a morning yoga routine and a workout. The author attributes their success to moving at their own schedule, engaging their brain early, and having a required workout. They also mention having ADHD and needing a system to capture and transfer thoughts.

Opinions

The author finds their morning routine to be productive and helpful in starting their day.
Notion is a useful tool for journaling and productivity, as it allows the author to organize their thoughts and tasks.
The author believes in the importance of moving at their own schedule and being kind to themselves.
A required workout is essential for the author's mental and physical well-being.
The author has ADHD and needs a system to capture and transfer thoughts.
The author is curious about other people's morning rituals and "must do" lists.
The author promotes their Medium account and newsletter for those interested in following their journey as a writer and solopreneur.

Friday Focus

5 Areas I Focus On Every Morning

Things I think on or journal about for “peak productivity”

My morning routine has really started to codify itself in the recent months and I realize that I feel super productive as I start my day. I’m still working out that “afternoon routine” that nobody else talks about. My formula isn’t the ticket to anyone else’s success, but it could give you some nuggets to work with.

It all started with a Notion journaling template. For the longest time I would just open my journal and start writing things. It would get long, it would get hard to reference and I realized it could “be better.”

My morning typically looks like this, the hours change based on what time I wake up;

Make coffee.
Do my Wordle (try to beat my wife’s score.)
Play my iPad games while I wait for the coffee to finish.
Clean up the kitchen, put away dishes, hand wash the annoying things.
Go let the chickens out of the coop.

Pretty standard stuff.

Once those are all settled, I’ll open Notion, create a new entry for my journal, titling it with the date and day of the week and then letting it auto-populate with my areas of focus. I always look at yesterday’s journal and carry over any to-do items or bring any notes from yesterday that I think I still need to consider. Then I dig in.

What’s On Your Mind — I make a point every morning to just dump whatever is bouncing around in my head, sometimes this runs longer than expected, but I try to work with “Twitter Rules” so I don’t get carried away.

Yesterday’s Summary — This can sometimes be a dopamine hit to keep me motivated. Unfortunately sometimes it’s a face full of cold water that reminds me I need to get on track.

Today’s Plan — I use Google Calendar to track things, so I’ll look at that and make a note here if I have something scheduled, then I think about the other things I want to get done. This is pretty loose, just to get my brain engaged.

Grateful For — Always 3 things. This forces me to pause while I’m pushing through my planning. I really don’t want to repeat myself, so it makes me think about what I am appreciating that day or the previous day.

Action Items — I use this more than a task manager (which I’m working on) just to put some checkboxes in my face, again… gotta get that dopamine. If something in the “Today’s Plan” has a clear checkbox quality to it, I add it here.

But wait, there’s more!

Once those are all figured out, but sometimes before, I go and I do a morning sun salutation of my own list of poses where I hold different poses for somewhere between 3–10 seconds each. I have a back issue that reminds me if I don’t do this regularly.

I move from my yoga routine to my required workout. I have a treadmill, I have dumbbells, I have a doorway with a pull-up bar… I use that combination of things to try to get sweaty and get my heart rate above 140 for 40ish minutes EVERY DAY. (I only use the weights 3 of the days though.)

Down at the bottom I have a section for journaling where I am capturing notes as I do other things throughout the day. This doesn’t get filled in very full because I capture most thoughts in the previous sections, but it’s a good reminder that I can get some free therapy whenever I need it.

I have been very consistent with this routine, fitting meditation in when I can, for months now and I end up feeling very focused and energized by the time I’m ready to dig in and start working.

Some things that I think really attribute to the success of this system are;

I’m moving at my schedule. I wake when I wake (today that was 4:45 am, yesterday it was 7:10am)
I engage my brain with thoughtful activity early, being as kind to myself as possible.
The only required activity for me is the actual workout, I got rings to close, also it just gives me so much mentally. I started with just pushing for 20 minutes of stuff when I began, but sometimes I pushed myself for a longer workout and realized I felt even better if I hit that 40 minute mark.

I should note, I have ADHD so it was important to have places where I can capture and transfer thoughts as well as to remember specific things to focus on, so this template was vital to me establishing a system of success.

I’m curious how others are remembering or engaging in their “must do” list each morning, or even what that list looks like. Are you nerdy enough to need Notion or a similar tool? Do you have some magic number for how long your work out or how much coffee you drink? What’s your morning ritual?

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