Following on from my very first post, about waking and working early, I detailed the benefits of rising early and getting work done. As a creator, the first thing you should be doing in the morning, is producing content, not consuming it.
How it’s easy to scroll through endless feeds in the morning, until you reach that point where you must do something out of necessity ie, go to your day job. In the morning, your brain is clear and fully rested to start a productive task. If you don’t, you squander the rest that your brain accrued that night, forcing it to consuming more information on top of even more information from your work day, with newsfeeds, emails, notifications, meetings etc.
The morning is the time of the day when your brain operates at its clearest and most functional.
I’m an avid fan of the early bird mentality, and have devised a few methods and tips to help myself be the most productive at this time of day;
Plan – Plan what you have to do the night before you aim to get up early. Planning is a great method to gaining clarity and peace of mind. When you know what needs to be done, you can jump straight into that task without having to figure out what the most important task is when you wake up, thus burning time and precious brain power in flustering yourself over what to do first. To be specific, create a list. List down the most important thing that needs to be done first. Even if it’s the hardest, your more likely to do it with a fresh mind. It’s easier to get out of bed when you know what needs to be done.
Lists are also great, psychologically, as they are a tool for creating a sense of achievement, having just completed a minor goal from said list.
Also, create a list of distractions, then when you think of one while you’re in the process of working, you can allocate time to the distraction during a break, thus satiating that distraction.
Watch your time – keep a log of your time, how long you spend doing a task, how long you take a break for, how long you pander to a distraction, learning a new skill etc. Whatever you’re doing in the morning, keep a journal and document the time. Logging your time and keeping a journal are a great way of keeping you accountable of your output and what you are really getting done.
Constantly ask yourself; Is there something more important I could be doing with my time? If there is, why aren’t you doing that. Know how you’re spending your time.
Set yourself a goal – Create a goal exclusively for that time in the morning. This creates a sense of duty and importance. Something that you can only do at this time. If it’s a task that you also work at in the later hours of the evening, you wont be held as accountable to the morning hours and will be easier to say no to the task as it can be pushed back until later.
Even the smallest goals take you closer to success.
Success is knowing that small things done over time carry great weight. It’s about making the most with the time you have.
“If it has to happen, then it has to happen first” – Laura Vanderkam
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