Gain More Productivity with a Strong Morning Routine

Article written for Print Monthly Magazine.

Like many of us did during the pandemic, whilst there were many sad outcomes around the world, there were also some things that happened that brought joy to our lives. Everything slowed down, we got to spend more time with friends and family and if you are anything like me, you took time to reflect on where you were at in life. For me, the first lockdown seen the birth of The Online Print Coach and along with that, also came the birth of my new morning routine. This is what I’d like to talk about in this?blog in the hope that it inspires some of you to explore a more productive way to begin your day.

The Miracle Morning

It started for me being introduced to a book by Hal Elrod called The Miracle Morning. The foundation of this book was built upon the acronym ‘SAVERS’ which stands for six practices the author believed would transform your morning.

S for Silence A for Affirmations V for Visualisation E for Exercise R for Reading S for Scribing

Now I know what you are thinking. This is already starting to sound a bit airy fairy. That is exactly what I thought in the beginning but through time I started to make some adjustments to this structure and tailored it to suit me. For the silence part, I personally wasn’t into meditation. I know plenty of people who benefit from it, but it just wasn’t for me, so I searched for another way to sit with silence before jumping straight into a day of work chaos. For me, I choose to sit online and play chess for 10 minutes every morning. You can choose whatever works for you, the whole aim is simply to calm yourself for whatever challenges lie ahead for you that day.

I will skip A and V for a second and jump straight to E & R. We all know exercise is good for us, even if it is just 10 minutes, it doesn’t need to be a one-hour workout at the gym. I try and combine E & R if possible. I’ll stick on Audible and take myself out for a walk with the dogs. It is a triple whammy. I get some exercise; I learn something new from the book I am listening to plus I have two much happier dogs. Everyone is a winner!?

I mentioned I would come back to A, V and S. There is a lot of science that supports repeating affirmations every day. It reprograms your thought patterns so that they are more constructive. Visualising achievements enhances your motivation and confirms what steps you need to take to reach these goals and lastly with scribing, you are effectively gaining clarity for the day ahead with these components in mind. I decided to take the A, V and S and create a series of questions I ask myself every single day as an alternative.

Creating a Strong Morning Mindset – 9 Questions to Ask Yourself

As I was out having my morning exercise with the dogs, another book I was listening to was by High Performance Coach, Brendan Buchard. He too was emphasizing the importance of a morning routineand how it paved the way for a more focused and productive day. I took elements of learning from both these books and created the following questions.

1. Name one thing I can get excited about today 2. If one word could describe the kind of person I want to be today, what would it be and why would I choose it? 3. Name someone who really needs me on my A-game today 4. Think of a situation that might stress me out or trip me up today. What would it be and what would be the best way to handle it should it happen? 5. Name someone I could surprise with a sign of appreciation today 6. Name one thing I could do today that is a little bit outside my comfort zone 7. If I were a high-performance print coach looking at my life and my business from a prominent level, what would I tell myself to remember? 8. What are the big projects I must keep my mind on, even if I can’t act towards them today? 9. By close of play today, how would I know that day had been successful?

I don’t claim to be an expert in this field. People like Hal and Brendan have likely spent years providing psychological evidence to support routines like this and how they make you more successful. All I can say is, the days I follow this routine tend to be far more fruitful and productive than the days I skip the routine.

Cold Showers

This is another morning habit I picked up during lockdown and it is one that I have stuck to religiously every day since. A chap called Wim Hoff hit many of our newsfeeds in 2020 and before we knew it, people were going for early morning dips in the sea and rivers or installing ice baths in their back garden. I even knew a chap who would take a morning ice dip in his blue wheelie bin.

My interest was piqued when I read somewhere that cold showers can impact fat metabolism and help you lose weight. Sadly, that did not have the desired effect on me, but I did discover a whole lot of other benefits. The main one really being Increased Alertness. Three minutes in a cold shower every morning wakes me up like nothing else. I feel much more alert and ready to take on the day. I challenge you to give it a go!

Eating the Fat Frog

For those of you who have not heard the phrase before, it was coined by Mark Twain. He said “If it is your job to eat a frog, it is best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it is your job to eat two frogs, it is best to eat the fat one first.”

Don’t worry, I am not suggesting you need to start eating frogs for breakfast, unless you enjoy them as a delicacy of course. All this metaphorical concept is teaching us is that it is better to tackle the most important tasks in the morning. We all know how we start each day with the best intentions. We plan our tasks for the day ahead and before we know it, a press breaks down, someone calls in sick, a rush job comes in. Those so called ‘Fat Frog’ tasks get put to the side and before you know it, another day has gone by without it getting ticked off your list. Why not try building one ‘Fat Frog’ task into your morning routine? I guarantee you will feel much better for it.

You might want to copy this routine or put your own slant on this as I have, but one thing is for sure, if you can create a morning process that works for you, not only will you feel far more structured and organised, you will gain an advantage over your competitors.