A reader followed up with a question on the post about spending the first 30 minutes of your day alone that was about what to specifically do in a healthy morning routine. Here I will point out some key components of the process, the focus to keep in mind during the process, and items to avoid during one’s waking up procedure. I would add that momentum builds up through the time of a day, which would make the morning the most important period in leading to high efficacy.
Waking Up Instantly
You can tell a lot based on whether someone gets up and goes or spends 30 minutes greeting the day. Glen from PluginID(home of the personal development blog list) recently posted an update about how he got up with excitement to continue his efforts. I can see this as being the only case for someone who is producing material, because a delay in that capacity wouldn’t make any sense. If there is work to be done, slowly getting up is counter-intuitive to the goal at hand. Also, when you wake up quickly and in one swift maneuver, you will remember all day long that you jumped into the day.
The First Foods To Eat
It is a good idea to start off the day with water, as well as a fruit or related entity. I would recommend checking Dietriffic for articles like one on healthy breakfast ideas for this information. Getting food and water into your system gets your metabolic processes running, and provides you with nourishment before you start to feel hungry, which isn’t a beneficial feeling to get.
Think About Your Day
Although this one seems redundant or commonplace, we usually miss material if we don’t spend a minute or two thinking about all the things we want to get done during that day. There are usually obvious items to tackle, but then there tends to be a few more that we have put off to the side that come up during this minute or two. Writing them down on a sticky-note will keep them from being forgotten again.
Keep To Yourself Until Awake Enough To Respond
Right after you wake up, there is a short period of time when you are groggy or not as aware. This is the period of time to avoid checking e-mail, news, or other sources of information that are not controlled by you. Negative input, while you are still in a more vulnerable state, will be tougher to handle than if you are fully awake and ready for that which is sent at you. You can think about it like storing positive potential energy for the first 20-30 minutes of your day that cancels out or buffers you from items of negative kinetic energy hurled at you throughout the day. If this is not done, you might not be able to respond to the input as you normally would do, and may later regret a response or lack of action.
Take 5 Minutes To Clean
If you make a small mess of your living space daily, this is a fine time to race through moving items back into place. Instead of seeing clutter for the whole day and cleaning it up at random intervals, it would leave you more goal-oriented if your surroundings were tidied up before the majority of the day has passed by. Doing this every day leaves little chance for a large mess to originate, and you can get very quick at setting items back where they should be.
Have A Positive Item To Wake Up To
If you have an important picture that brings you good feelings, an article that is motivational to you, a graphic or physical record of your own success, or a song that reminds you of times when you were excited or glad, incorporating use of these items in your wake-up procedure will do a lot to connect you with your stable self, so that you don’t feel like this day is disconnected from good days you have had. There is a huge benefit in realizing that the person you are, who had great times at a certain point, is the same person as the person that took part in those great times.
Here is a related article on the same topic about how Henrik Edberg from The Positivity Blog handles his morning routine:
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What a great wake up call this article is! I usually snooze my alarm a couple of times before getting up….not anymore!
Tom: I am glad to hear that, and since one comment is usually representative of 5 or more times as many people who refrained from commenting, possibly a few other individuals will take this information into account. Jumping into the day is huge.
Thanks for following up to my questions. All these suggestions are useful – esp. the comment about avoiding negativity in the morning. I’m a telecommuting web designer who works for several companies, and jumping right into work when I wake up and seeing an unhappy client’s e-mail ruins my day, also kills my motivation to continue working at particular job. Not really my fault there, as its a company people have issues with, but changing my mentality/attitude would still amount to more money for me in the end. Thanks, Armen.
Noah: Sure thing, and thanks for providing them. That point about a negative e-mail is right in line with what I was describing. Suddenly, a Tuesday with plenty of positive potential turns into “I have to respond to this person” Tuesday. That makes sense for your productivity and continued efforts.
Nice article, Sir Armen.
Most of this seems like “common sense” stuff to me… and yet… most of it I don’t do nearly as often as I should!
I guess I need to develop better habits.
Karl: That does bring up a point that I see to often be the case, which precedes the question: If something is thought to be common sense material, but we are not implementing it, isn’t there something about making use of it that isn’t so common? Thanks for your positive words.
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