How To Amplify Your Morning Productivity
Learn how to put yourself in the right headspace every single morning.
There’s truly nothing worst than having an unproductive morning — if you wake up with great energy, you’ll typically find yourself in a happy mood as you go about your day getting things done.
Whereas, if you sleep in till noon, lounge on social media for an additional hour or two — you might find yourself irritable, feeling slightly lazy, and unaccomplished.
I’ve always been an early bird; my body naturally wakes up around six every day; I make French roast coffee and settle into my routine.
Routines change constantly; sometimes, you need to switch things up in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t. Certain tweaks and minor changes can have a major impact on your productivity.
Let’s jump into the four tweaks and changes you could apply in order to get the most out of your morning.
Avoid News/Social Media.
It’s natural to roll over every morning and flip our alarms off and glance at our phone.
We have missed calls, texts, emails, social media notifications, and more that’s constantly nagging for our attention.
Research says that getting constant notifications can trigger stress. In a survey of 2,000 workers in the UK, Future Work Center found that email notifications are linked to higher feelings of anxiety.
In a different analysis at the University of British Columbia, researchers asked 124 students and professors to check their emails frequently for one week. The following week, they only checked their email three times per day and disabled all notifications. When time spent looking at email was restricted, the participants reported lower stress levels and higher feelings of positivity.
Not only will your stress levels decrease, but your mood will be more positive.
How many times have you checked your phone first thing in the morning only to see something that upset you? Negative news, or perhaps you saw something that made you compare yourself?
I’ve struggled for a long time with comparison and starting every morning analyzing what others have that I don’t — caused me to become more anxious and less confident. I would go throughout my day feeling negative about myself, and like I wouldn’t amount to anything.
How to apply:
Whether you wake up with an alarm or naturally — avoid looking at your phone.
It’s going to be challenging on day one and day 2. Perhaps day three will get easier. But, if you set your mind to it and give yourself at least seven days — once your brain becomes more accustomed to it, you won’t even feel the desire to check your social media right as you open your eyes.
The best way to avoid looking at your phone is by distracting yourself with other activities that are important.
- Take a shower
- Meditate
- Journal
- Make coffee
- Start your workout
Turn on some good music, sip on your morning coffee, and let your mind fully wake up without the stress and anxiety it gets from your phone.
Create Your To-Do List.
Whether you enjoy making a to-do list the night before, or the morning of, this is the greatest way to get your mind in the right space and ensure that you’re taking care of the most important things.
While spontaneity is always exciting, a to-do list will provide you with the structure that you need in order to accomplish critical tasks that will inch you closer to your goals.
Some people resist this kind of structure because they think it will stymie their creativity or prevent them from being flexible with their working day.
In reality, this type of structure is what will provide you with the ability to stay on track and complete your tasks significantly faster.
How to apply:
To-do lists can be extremely effective if you use them and use them correctly.
Don’t just scribble, “write the book” on Monday, be more specific.
Set milestones for yourself, say how many pages or chapters you want to have done by the end of the day or week.
There are tons of apps out there that you can utilize, you can use a planner or notebook if you prefer to write them down longhand, or you could even use the notes app on your phone.
Typically what I like to do is at the end of the day — I’ll write a few things out that I want to accomplish the following day. In the morning, I’ll look over my list, adjust or add anything else if necessary.
Fasting — The Benefits.
This isn’t really talked about.
Fasting depletes the liver’s store of glucose, prompting fat cells to release fats. The fats travel to the liver, where they’re converted into ketones, which are essentially small pieces of fats that cells can use as an energy source.
This metabolic switch — going from using glucose to using ketones as an energy source — happens after about 10 to 14 hours of not consuming food, depending on how active you are. Exercise will accelerate the onset of the switch.
In a YouTube video with Joe Rogan and Peter Attia, they discuss that if our ancestors couldn’t function when they were hungry, we would not be here today.
During short term deprivation of food, you get a little bit sharper. You feel more steady in your energy levels; you’re more in your A-game. Whereas when you eat 3–4 meals a day, you feel more lethargic. You feel a bit slower; you need a break post breakfast and lunch.
Overall, intermittent hunger helps to declutter your mind, awakens the senses, and improves brain functioning. I do it for the health benefits, and aside from that, waiting to have my first meal increases my productivity in the morning because I don’t have to worry about prepping any food — and I don’t get that lazy post-meal slump.
How to apply:
This could range for everybody, depending on if you’ve ever experienced fasting before, it’s best to ease your way into it.
I like to follow a 16:8 fast, because it helps me stay on top of my work in the morning, and my best productivity hours are in the early morning. I wake up, have water, coffee, and occasionally tea — and then I get to work. I’ll take a break around 10–11 and get a workout in, then break my fast around 12–1.
The easiest way to try this out is by picking an eight-hour window and limiting your food intake to that time span. You could finish your dinner by 8 PM, fast overnight, skip breakfast and break your fast around noon.
Set Intentions For Yourself In The Morning.
There are many benefits to journaling; it’s the perfect way to destress, declutter your mind, and put into words what you’re truly feeling.
When you take the initiative to remind yourself of what you want, you’ll be able to reach your desires a lot faster because you’re essentially setting yourself up to live, breathe, eat, and sleep what you’re after.
Intentions allow us to ground our energy in what we would like to call into our future.
How to apply:
This part depends entirely on you; you can set up a candle and get your journal out, you could write on a google doc, whatever you prefer.
This is your time, write about all of the dreams and goals that you have, you’re not thinking; you’re simply letting things pour out. Don’t censor yourself or try to control or filter your thoughts.
Every morning, I read an inspirational passage from my daily devotional book, then take 10–15 minutes to write my thoughts, affirmations, and goals down. Everything that I want to be and everything I am gets poured into the journal. By doing this, I set myself up for success every single day because I give myself a daily reminder first thing in the morning of what I want for myself.
In Conclusion:
Find what works for you. Everybody’s routine will be different, but the most important thing is to have one that suits your needs and sets you up for success.
Avoid social media/news: Give yourself the proper wake-up call that you deserve, one that isn’t filled with negativity and people showing off their grand lives. You don’t need to compare yourself to others first thing in the morning, you also don’t need to see or hear anything negative the minute your eyes open. Your emails will wait, your text messages will still be there after you’ve set yourself up for success.
Create your to-do list: Having structure in your day will ensure that you don’t get sidetracked. Life is unexpected, you never know what or who might come calling on you for help or any other reason, making sure that you’re accomplishing what needs to be done to the best of your ability will help you stay grounded and productive.
Fasting: Fasting helps your cognitive function. If the early morning is the peak of your productivity, why waste it on cooking or having that post-meal slump? Allow your body to restore itself, allow your cells to regenerate while you focus on accomplishing critical tasks.
Set intentions for yourself: Take the initiative to write down your goals and what you want for yourself. This will not only set you up for success, but put you in the best headspace to tackle the day.
