The Power of Ritual: From Morning Coffee to Peak Performance

At a Glance

How intentional rituals - from morning coffee to mindful work transitions - can enhance your professional effectiveness and work-life balance. Using research and real-life examples, explore why rituals are more than just routines; they create powerful anchors in an unpredictable business day.

Discover three practical ways to implement them in your busy schedule to benefit immediately.

Whether you're managing teams or building a business, these science-based practices will help you enhance performance, reduce stress, and create clearer boundaries between work and personal life.

I’m really excited to use my brand new coffee maker this morning.? It’s very pretty and the coffee was just as I like it - strong.

Coffee is part of my morning routine, after a walk and fussing with the kittens (gratuitous kitten picture - this is Flic, the psycho one).? It sets me up for the day.

Do you have a routine in the morning?? Why might you want to have one?

Rituals, routines - call them what you will - are useful for a number of reasons:

• They are predictable anchors in an otherwise unpredictable day
• They can be a mindful transition from one stage to another - in my case from private time to working time
• They prime your brain - just like athletes have pre-game rituals, so too can business leaders use them to enhance performance

Humans need structure and a routine like this provides that.? You also need breaks from the constant decision-making and balancing of activities that business brings with it.? Rituals provide that.

A 2016 paper by Alison Wood Brooks and colleagues (full abstract* and link below) from the Harvard Business School, the University of California, Berkeley and others found that:

“... enacting rituals improves performance in public and private performance domains by decreasing anxiety.? Belief that a specific series of behaviors constitute a ritual is a critical ingredient to reduce anxiety and improve performance: engaging in behaviors described as a ‘‘ritual” improved performance more than engaging in the same behaviors described as ‘‘random behaviors.””

So not only does the ritual itself have a calming effect, calling it a ritual is significant too.

Creating your own ritual

A ritual can be anything you choose.? For me, a walk, making coffee, feeding the kittens and sitting quietly meditating starts my day well.? I feel calm, centred and ready for the day, plus the furry kids don’t nag quite so much once they’ve had breakfast.

What makes this more than just morning coffee? The intentional way it's performed, the meaning it carries and how it creates a bridge between personal time and work time. This transforms a simple process into a powerful ritual.

Rituals like these can be game-changers for busy professionals.

The things that make a ritual are:

• A structure - specific, repeatable and deliberate steps
• A meaning beyond just simply doing the tasks.? My morning coffee is not about caffeine, it is a slice of quiet,calm reflection as I move from my warm bed into my busy day.? It is also mine: I choose this, no one tells me when or how I do this.? I completely control this time.
• It is mindful - I move steadily and slowly through the steps, making it a flow and a pleasure far beyond just fixing a hot drink

You can also use a ritual as a transition.? A transition is a deliberate and mindful boundary between various parts of your day.

When I led big IT projects, I had a transition before a meeting.? I would visit the men's room, straighten my tie, check my fly and consciously stand tall with my shoulders back and down.? Then walk slowly to the meeting room, fully in charge.? That single ritual helped me create a reputation as a level-headed problem solver because I was far calmer than those who rushed in with seconds to spare, their heads full of what they’ve just left on their desks.

Any shift from one activity to another can be a transition, but here’s a few ideas for rituals and transitions to add into your busy day.

• A morning ritual.? This is such a great one and sets you up for your day well.? You can include exercise, daylight, meditation, journaling, caffeine, green juice …
• A Deep Work start ritual.? Take 5 minutes before you dive into something that requires your full concentration.? You might put your phone in a drawer, fill your water bottle or get a hot drink and clear your desk of non-essential items.? You might also set a timer for your work block.
• A Power-Down ritual at the end of your working day.? Switch off your devices, write your 3 priorities for tomorrow morning and clear your desk.? Your commute can be part of this.? If you work from home, I suggest changing your clothes to indicate that this is now personal time.

An Action to Take Now

Take 5 minutes to come up with a ritual that you will use from today onwards.? Try one of the suggestions above, or create your own.? Less is frequently more, so make it simple, easy to remember and make sure you have to hand the things you will need.

If you like the sound of the Morning Routine, have a look at this simple guide to creating your own.? https://neillawsoncoaching.com/morning-routine/

And - like me - you may get the additional fun of browsing for and anticipating the delivery of a shiny new Moka Pot.

*Abstract

"From public speaking to first dates, people frequently experience performance anxiety. And when

experienced immediately before or during performance, anxiety harms performance. Across a series of experiments, we explore the efficacy of a common strategy that people employ to cope with performance-induced anxiety: rituals. We define a ritual as a predefined sequence of symbolic actions often characterized by formality and repetition that lacks direct instrumental purpose. Using different instantiations of rituals and measures of anxiety (both physiological and self-report), we find that enacting rituals improves performance in public and private performance domains by decreasing anxiety.

Belief that a specific series of behaviors constitute a ritual is a critical ingredient to reduce anxiety and improve performance: engaging in behaviors described as a ‘‘ritual” improved performance more than engaging in the same behaviors described as ‘‘random behaviors.”

? 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved? https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/jschroeder/Publications/Rituals%20OBHDP.pdf