I hope you enjoyed my last video. I wanted to share something with you all today which will hopefully help a number of you over the next few weeks.
Think about the period from when we wake up until we start our first few working tasks of the day. We face different challenges and distractions.
Are those ‘morning habits’ you find yourself implementing as you navigate your way through this time period helping you to achieve your aims or are they minimising your chances of making progress?
These are my written thoughts about ‘morning habits’ and how you can adapt your thinking and corresponding actions to enable a more productive outcome for yourself.
It is not an exhaustive list of all the things that you must try do daily. Choose the most suitable options for you. From personal experience, they are ideas and habits that helped me on my journey as I travelled to work in the smog of Central London and also kept me sane throughout the challenging periods of remote working during COVID. They are habits that have also continued to benefit me by improving my productivity, effectiveness, and health over the last few years. I know a few people that have joined the 5 am wake-up club but I would say choose what works for you.
Five years ago, I would wake up and immediately grab my phone to look at the news and alerts. Then, I would rush out the door, buy my infamous fried bacon and egg sandwich near the station, grab the metro newspaper and catch the train for my one-hour journey into London. The habit continued and I would either read this newspaper or listen to my diet of rap music of Snoop, Dr Dre and Eminem – then begin my day of work.
It was not healthy, didn’t promote personal growth or prepare my mind for the challenges of the day ahead. Earl Nightingale says that,‘we become what we think’ and our thoughts turn into actions which then turn into results. I realised that I was not doing anything that was helping me to think in a more empowering way.
My epiphany moment and realisation came whilst watching an old athletics video featuring Linford Christie, the UK Olympic Gold winning 100m sprinter. I saw his bulging eyes and the focus that he demonstrated before the race. He was visualising success, clearing his mind and having that determined tunnel vision. I thought about my own actions; what could help to give myself an edge like Christie and drive more successful outcomes at work and for my day.
Commute
The first step was to replace the Metro newspaper, my daily blast of Snoop Doggy Dog and Dr. Dre. I had to treat my commute to work as an opportunity to learn and inspire myself. I developed a new habit and started to make progress by reading and listening to great books such as Steven Covey’s 7 Habits Of Effective People. I realised that my time commuting to work annually was the equivalent of a semester at university and this time in my car or train could provide a huge opportunity for learning about personal growth or my craft.
Phone
I would typically pick up my phone immediately as I woke up in the morning and open my emails. The notifications from apps such as the Daily Mail would fire out articles which were mostly negative and certainly not empowering me. I decided to switch these notifications off and adopted a more careful usage of only reading emails at a key point in the morning.
(Interestingly, I know a Health Coach who has decided to go a step further by going back to a Nokia Mobile Phone with no Web 2.0 apps and he has shared that it has made a world of difference to his daily performance daily making him far less distracted.) There has also been the trend of new phone apps appearing that can strip down the access to apps and prevent notifications.
Breakfast Food
I decided to cut down on the bacon sandwiches and pastries from three times a week to once every two weeks. Porridge, spinach, and boiled eggs became some of the new regimes much to the amusement of my HR Advisor and Manager at that time.
Meditation
I am no Zen Monk but for the past couple of years, I begin each morning listening to a 5–10-minute meditation podcast by Bob Proctor or Jason Stephenson. This has helped to clear my mind and set my thinking first thing in the morning. Many studies suggest that the first 20 minutes of the day is the most critical point to programme your direction, set intention and fuel your paradigm and RAS filter. What is your RAS filter? It is what can subconsciously pull you to notice something particular which you find yourself then drawn to, filtering out all other things around you e.g only spotting yellow cars when you are driving along a road. However, if allowed to work in an unchecked manner it can hurt your day based on your mood, the brain food you digest and the influences your pump into your brain each day.
Exercise
Covey talks about the benefits of three Cardiovascular sessions a week in his Sharpening The Saw Habit. Studies suggest we should do some exercise twice a week as a bare minimum. However, if we can do this three times, this last one will have an exponential impact. For me, this has meant going for a jog first thing in the morning and doing Joe Wicks’ HiiT routine a couple of times a week including his infamous Advanced or Savage workouts on a Thursday and the dreaded Spiderman lunges. I began my exercise journey struggling to do the BBC App- Couch to 5km. A few years later, I ran my first Half Marathon at Hampton Court and then a few Brighton Marathons.
The key to this was my planning the day before – even at times wearing my gym kit to bed and having the rest of my kit at the door to prevent the issue of not finding it.
I soon realised that I could use the term by James Clear; Habit Stacking. Fast forward to present day, my habits now also involve listening to podcasts to give me a dose of Brainfood alongside my physical workouts. So, I get two for one – BOGOF for each session!
This habit has helped to give me a serotonin boost, gain more energy and use this activity to tackle the stress and bad thoughts the day before. It also provides me with enjoyment and many new, fulfilling experiences. I never thought I would have conquered two Tough Mudders over the last two years making a number of new friends during the process.
Gratitude
This is an extremely powerful force that has helped me to become grounded. We often run around in life wanting the next thing; money, cars, success and the next great experience. Not many of us take a moment to appreciate what we have in life and doing this can help us to develop a more balanced centre.
For the last two years, I have been journalling each day. Choosing 8-10 things in my life now, in the future and around me that I feel an appreciation for. Each day, I try to think about a couple of new ones to add to my list.
This action has been a useful process which has helped me during challenging times in my life- giving me an appreciation for the good. Unfortunately, it is often the case that our imagination and fears create a feeling of doom which hangs over us like a black cloud. This habit has empowered me to see the positives each day, enabling me to control my reaction to events in a more rational manner.
Personal Mission Statement and Affirmations
I had a major moment of reflection, evaluation and went through the process of setting a longer-term strategic vision. This was a few years ago during the COVID period. I decided to complete Steven Covey’s amazing ‘Begin With The End in Mind’ exercise.
This exercise allows you to explore how we wish to be remembered and the values and beliefs that we promote to our friends, family and community. This exercise was amazing as it was the first time I had ever sat down and thought about myself in terms of the next 10 years and beyond. It provided me with a permanent beacon and direction. It has helped me to make decisions based on fulfilment rather than going down the route of doing things that are maybe more immediate and that are based on happiness but can quickly dissipate.
I now have this on my fridge and on the wall in my office to read every morning- it continues to provide me the perspective I need, my key goals and final destination, and how I wish to be remembered by the most important people around me.
Eating My Frog and Planning The Day Before
It is often said that we never have enough time to do every task. But that’s not true. It is all about how we ensure that we are using our time to do what is the most important.
Most professionals are drowned with emails and firefighting tasks or find themselves immersed in mountains of distribution lists. By picking up the phone each morning and not having any mental warm-up or prioritisation process, you leave yourselves exposed and vulnerable. Merely working through the list of emails from the top down or working reactively means that it is really easy to lose a sense of control and direction leading to a feeling of being blown around with no sensical direction.
The great book ‘Eat That Frog’ by Brian Tracy gave me a useful A, B, C and D priority process. I have personally interwoven this method with Covey’s adaptation of ‘The Eisenhower Matrix’. These major strategic projects may not always have a deadline but are the opportunities that will enable us to grow. Due to a habit of a lifetime, it is too easy to tackle lots of the small fires or other peoples’ fires and put off the higher value tasks or even fail to do them at all. It is essential to carve out core time, ideally first thing in the morning, to deliver high-value tasks each day.
The concept of taking on the nasty-looking frogs first thing in the morning has helped me with the grind of running my own business and juggling many different demands. Doing these first has given me a greater sense of control and energy.
By planning what we do the day before, we help to increase our productivity by over 20% the next day.
I have come across some professionals who don’t believe in this and try to ‘wing’ it. Most people who do not have a process for planning tasks will often become frustrated in their roles consequently hitting a glass ceiling. They prefer to feel the pressure and go with how the day pushes them. If you don’t run your day, your day will run you. As harsh as it sounds, your day doesn’t care about you.
Keep Calm Slow Down
Start slowly and prioritise! There is the question of how a soldier can put up a huge army tent by themself. They take only one corner at a time and it’s the same with the above. Don’t try to make too many changes in one go.
Far more advisable is to go for one corner or specific area and work with this so it’s embedded for a few weeks. You’ll need a little help on this new journey.
A way to plan effectively is to write these goals or habits down the night before.
Using a freehand planner or creating handwritten goals is a great way to keep on track.
If you wish to make a change, one of best ways is to programme yourself to think of your goal, the sequence, where they will be done and prepare them the night before. Consider the following; ‘When I get up, I will do X followed by Y and then A’. This will significantly improve the chance of committing yourself to this new habit.
Being realistic when we start a new habit is best. It is also best to avoid your meditation attempt on a Monday when you are responsible for the school run and have two screaming kids to prepare for an early start. If you do feel brave on this day, you will probably need to wake up a little earlier to implement some of the suggestions above.
Falling Off The Wagon
If you do decide to make a change and adopt one of the morning habits above, it is okay if you miss the habit once. However, you need to set the standard that you will never miss the habit two days. If you do not like jogging, it is okay to swap this for another activity such as a brisk walk, rowing machine, cross-trainer or a game of squash. Any type of exercise is a great place to start.
To improve your chances of success, set up a WhatsApp group or find a mate or accountability partner. Be empathetic to yourself and give yourself a mini reward each week for successfully sticking to this in the early stages.
I hope the above has helped to give you some ideas. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions on the above and the topics raised or if you need me to help you as a coach or accountability partner as the amazing team at David Lloyd HQ and others have chosen me to support them.
EldonLifeCoach.com 