I would like to share with you my morning routine, which starts the night before. The intention is to inspire you to create a similar routine. I call it 5 before 8 AM because it’s the top 5 five priorities that help me achieve a high performance day. Here are the priorities, and then I will talk about each bullet.
- Plan my day and top priorities the night before.
- Wake up at 4:45 AM.
- At the beach for 5:30 AM and exercise for 45 minutes.
- Creative time between 7:30 AM and 8:45 AM.
- Meditation for 15 minutes before going to work at 9:00 AM.
Plan my day and top priorities the night before
If I wait to plan my day on that day, it takes up a big chunk of my morning or I don’t plan at all. Then I get stuck deciding what to do and when. This break in energy affects my creative flow and output. I might get done a third of what I intended to accomplish for that day.
I saw a big boost in my productivity (and sanity) when I decided to plan the night before. This way, when 7:30 AM rolls around, I open my Bullet Journal, review my priorities, and get working. This eliminates thinking about or deciding upon what I want to accomplish. It’s already written. I just do it.
I first set the context or theme for the day. Then, I usually only set three priorities based on my day’s theme. One of those priorities is high-valued and will move one or more of my goals forward. For example, today’s theme is an “off” day of adventure and preparation. My high-valued priority is publishing this article. My other two priorities are tasks to prepare for my Father’s visit. I focus on the high-valued priority first and don’t move on until it’s completed. The other two priorities are important, and I do everything I can to accomplish them, but if they go uncompleted for the day I will either migrate the priority to the next day or into my future log to be completed at a later date.
Wake up at 4:45 AM
I have always been an early riser. I grew up in a family of early risers. Therefore, getting up early isn’t a chore. I don’t need to push myself out of bed either, I get pulled out of bed. My alarm clock goes off, I get out of bed, and then I hydrate and do some dynamic stretches to prepare for my run.
I know early rising is difficult for a lot of people. Some people will set multiple alarms, put their clock or phone in a different room, or go to sleep in their morning exercise clothes. But in most cases, they get up, turn their alarm off, and go back to bed for “just five more minutes.” Two hours pass and their alarm goes off again. This time, however, they’re pulled out of bed because of their job.
Becoming an early riser is about having the right frame or mindset to activate pull motivation. As you lay in bed the night before, mentally intend to wake up at your early rising time, for example, 5 AM. Visualize getting up that early and enjoying the process. Visualize the benefits and results of your high performance activities. Once you have successfully completed a few 5 before 8’s, reflect on your experience. Journal about the benefits. The idea here is to make early rising part of your identity so it becomes easy.
At the beach for 5:30 AM and exercise for 45 minutes
I could step out of my front door and exercise in my neighborhood, but I drive to the beach each morning to exercise. This commitment is by design to activate that pull motivation. I have a special relationship with the ocean early in the morning. I love running along the coast. I look forward to this activity everyday and I’m out there rain or shine.
If you don’t have an option similar to this, such as exercising in the city, by the water, or at a trail, I recommend finding an exercise buddy. It’s a lot harder to break your early rising commitment if someone else is expecting you to show up at 5:30 AM. And if you struggle finding an exercise buddy, you could find an accountability buddy who is expecting a text from you every morning that you’re up and out exercising.
Creative time between 7:30 AM and 8:45 AM
This is the time period when I get my high-valued priority completed. It’s a narrow window, and it isn’t always smooth sailing, but with a lot of practice and calibration over the past months I successfully completed high-valued priorities 9 out of 10 times.
Other things I may do during this time period is deeper meditation work, journal, snuggle with my wife, read, or work on a deep dive personal development course. You could also frame your creative time block as “me” time, wherein the focus is doing something (or nothing) that totally benefits your well-being.
Meditation for 15 minutes before going to work at 9:00 AM
I have practiced many forms of meditation, such as sitting cross-legged for long hours, hojo kata, voice dialogue, and visualizing my future self. Right now, I practice a simple coherence meditation before going to work at my full time job.
I sit cross-legged, on my zafu, and I breathe through my heart. As I inhale, I imagine my breath moving through my heart and filling my body, and then I exhale my breath through my heart. This simple practice puts me in a state of coherence and activates appreciation, love, compassion, and peace. There’s a lot of science and research for being in a state of coherence. I recommended that you check out HeartMath Institute for the research and different types of coherence practices.
So why do this morning routine? Because it sets the tone for the whole day. It’s hard to knock me out of a positive state of being when the first four hours of my day were dedicated to coherence and high performance. Other benefits are open mindedness, feelings of abundance, compassion, health and vitality, increased creative flow, and accomplishment.
When I share this routine with friends and family, a frequent comment I get is, “Wow. You get more done in one morning than what I get done in a week.” I know they’re exaggerating a bit, but it’s nice feedback from the Universe that shows my routine is valuable. I guess it’s a slight ego boost, too ;)
Use my morning routine as a template. Try it out for 14 days and then notice the impact your routine had on your life. Adjust and do what works for you. Let me know how it goes. If you already have a routine, I’m interested and share it with me @Micro.blog.