To have a successful and productive day, you need to start it off on the right note. So we’ve come up with a couple of things you should do every morning to give your productivity a much-needed boost.
Unless you’re some kind of super human, over the course pandemic, we’ve all developed some bad habits. And now that none of us are spending any time in traffic, we might be getting up a bit later and our morning routines have not been as regimented as they were a year ago. So how do you develop the right habits? There are a few simple strategies that can push you in the right direction.
The best time to wake up in the morning, according to Huffington Post contributor, Ingrid Prueher, is between two-and-a-half and three hours before work begins. So if you need to be behind your desk at 9am, you need to be waking up at 6 or 6:30am. And adults should get seven to nine hours of sleep every night, while adults over 65 should be getting seven to eight hours of rest. So you need to be in bed some time between 10 or 11:30pm every night
No screens for 30 minutes
We’ve been advocating digital detoxes for some time. And for those of us that can’t shake the social media addiction, this is much easier to pull off. Don’t touch your phone for the first 30 minutes after you wake up. Just don’t. We all know what an adverse effect being stuck to our screens has on our mental health. If you can start your morning off by spending some quality time in the real world, without being inundated with news, emails and toxic tweets, our outlook for the rest of the day can improve significantly.
Read
Replace your time spent lying in bed, checking your phone by picking up a physical book (not e-readers). And it isn’t a bad idea to read before going to bed every night either. Half an hour of reading on either end of your sleep schedule can work wonders for your brain and adding it to your morning routine, specifically, strengthens your mind.
Exercise
There’s nothing like a good workout to wake your body up in the morning, but there’s also a fine line between something pleasant, like a revitalising run, and pushing your body to its limits, tiring yourself out before the day has even begun.
We’re not saying that a full on workout is one of the things you should do each morning. But a short jog, a couple push-ups, some stretching exercises and maybe a little bit of yoga is great for your body and you’ll see the results after following a consistent routine for an extended period of time. But, even more so, being able to say that you’ve done something worthwhile before your work day has even begun gives you a sense of accomplishment and you can ride on the wave of that momentum to make the rest of your day productive as well.
Meditate
The great thing about meditation is that it doesn’t use up a lot of energy. Use apps like Headspace to run through guided meditations or learn to do the techniques yourself and spend part of your morning connecting with your thoughts, understanding them and reach a place of mindfulness so that you can calmly move forward with your day without unnecessary mental distractions.
Take a shower, put on fresh clothes & make your bed
It can be very tempting when we’re not going into the office to spend all day in your pajamas and shower later in the day. But a shower early in the morning and shaving, moisturising, whatever may fit into your routine gives you a feeling of freshness and rejuvenation. And don’t put on that same hoodie you’ve been wearing all week after your shower, because a fresh set of clothes makes you feel more professional and takes you out of the “well I’m at home, so why should I bother putting in an effort” mindset. On the same token, making sure your bedroom is looking neat and tidy by making your bed and picking up dirty clothes (particularly if you’re working in your bedroom) is also critical because clutter and mess is not conducive to productivity.
So while it shouldn’t be surprising that most of us have made a bit of a mess of our morning routines, if you can do all, or even some, of these things that you should do every morning
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