Advice from Alea Global Group
With no pressure to commute or travel at all, and yet with many of us continuing to work, we are in a unique position to tackle one of the most essential elements of success – a morning routine that works.
Where life may otherwise have prevented us from making big changes to our daily routine, lockdown gives us the opportunity to form new habits and have them really stick.
Mornings are incredibly important because they dictate our mindset for the entire day ahead.
They are a chance to relax, or to catch up, or to look after our health in a way we are unable to do once the working day is in full swing.
Here’s how you can build a winning morning routine.
WHAT TIME TO GET UP
Many successful people famously rise early, and are disciplined about it too. Muhammad Ali favoured 4am starts, as does Cristiano Ronaldo, while Conor McGregor is even earlier to rise at 3am.
There’s no need to be this extreme in your own life, however. Richard Branson, Jack Dorsey and Indra Nooyi are all 5am risers, while Steve Jobs favoured 6am, and Elon Musk starts his day at 7am.
The key thing is to ensure you have enough time in the morning to run through a productive process and do what you want to do before being hit with the usual demands of your day.
If that means getting up one hour earlier than usual, that could work for you.
But if you want to try and pack a lot of extra elements into your day, you may need even more time than that – find out what you want to do with your morning, and work out a suitable alarm clock time from there.
EXERCISE
Mornings are an ideal time to exercise. There is less chance you’ll have your exercise delayed, interrupted or sidelined completely by unexpected developments.
You’ll also be more wide awake after a workout, and you’ll feel more accomplished for the rest of the day.
MEDITATION
No time of day is as still and calm as the morning, which makes it perfect for meditation.
Meditation calms your mind, making you sharper and more productive during the day.
You may wish to do an audio guided meditation on an app, or simply sit quietly for a few minutes with your eyes closed and focusing only on your breathing.
Meditation is a key habit for many successful entrepreneurs, who use it as a balance to their hectic and sometimes stressful working days.
A MORNING PRAYER
Regardless of your religion, the morning is a peaceful and reflective time for prayer.
Reaching this kind of elevated state of mind so early on can help you to see the deeper meaning in everything that unfolds throughout the day.
READING
Whether catching up with the news or working your way through some personal or professional development books, the morning gives you some valuable uninterrupted reading time.
With no phone calls to get in the way, and no feeling like you should be working on something else, this bonus time can be used to further your mind, your happiness and your business.
GETTING A HEAD START
While we would always advocate for using your mornings to do at least one of the suggestions above, you can also use some of the time to get through work tasks that are best done when you have time alone.
This can put you ahead for the rest of the day, giving you more of a sense of control, and leading to better decision-making and mental health.