Rise and Shine: Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Day
This is how I get my mind in the right place for the day ahead. Whether it be a work assignment, a newsletter post or something else going on that day. This is what works for me.
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Rise and Shine: Laying the Groundwork for a Successful Day
Over the past two years of writing this newsletter I’ve experimented with a number of different techniques to bring more productivity to my life. It’s been quite a journey to be honest.
In fact, being more productive isn’t the only thing I’ve achieved along the way. It’s been more than that. I’ve learned to be more aware of where I am mentally and developed ways of getting myself in the best mindset to approach the day. In a round about way, this has been my most productive learning from the past year. We must get our minds in the right place to deal with the day ahead. It’s even more important than that really. It’s about getting our heads in the right place to thrive and get the most out our lives.
Our lives are built in building blocks of days. Not weeks or years. It’s the days that ladder up to creating a good life but we can only deal with one day at a time. That leads me to the first building block of how to get our minds in the right place.
1. Make sure you live today (not yesterday or tomorrow)
For so many of us, we live in the past or the future and very rarely in the present day. I can show you this with two examples.
Anxiety - this is what happens when we live more in the worries of tomorrow and the future yet to come. We can spent hours worrying about what might happen and for some of us this can be the worst case scenario. I know I’m one of those people - in the good times I can problem solve but the dark side is worry and anxiety if the problem can’t be solved immediately.
We must remember that the future contains a whole spectrum of potential futures. One of those might be the worse case scenario but there are hundreds of other futures that won’t be nearly as bad and actually could be rather good!
Regret - this emotion is probably even more pointless than anxiety. At least, anxiety could lead to you mitigating some of the downsides. I know I’ve come up with quite a few solutions at 3am in the morning while worrying about future possibilities. Regret though is pointless.
There really isn’t much we can do about regret. Yes, we could turn it into a learning opportunity and you should do that but if it turns into a negative emotion then you need to stop it right there and then.
Start the day with an intention to be present.
2. Build a morning routine that sets you up for the day
Scroll through any of the terrible social media channels out there and you will find a thousand posts on how to create a productive morning routine. It’s painful to see some of the suggestions but there are a few things that I know work for me. If you can nail a good path for you to move along in those first two hours of the day then you’ll reap the benefits for the rest of your waking hours.
So in that spirit, this is my pathway of habits that get me on the straight and narrow each day.
Wake up at a consistent time - Your body likes consistency and will want to wake up at the same time where possible. Everyone is different. Don’t believe those posts that say you need to be up at 4am writing your next Substack post. If it doesn’t work for you, you will simply burn out within a couple of days. Pick a time and stick to it - 7 days a week if you can.
Leave your phone downstairs over night - The first thing I’d do when waking each morning was reach for my phone. In fact, my phone was my alarm clock so that’s exactly what I HAD to do. From a tech overlord point of view, the alarm on a phone was a stroke of genius. From the get go each morning you are building the phone habit. In fact, I’d ban alarm clocks on phones. Stop the scroll being your first action of the day.
Exercise - Whenever I work from home, which is about 3 days per week, I go for a run. I do this before I’ve had breakfast. It has the amazing effect of keeping me fit but it's also magical at clearing the mind for the day ahead. I’ve experimented with podcasts while running but I’ve found the best way to get that clear mind effect is to go headphone free - listen to those birds!
Cold Shower - I know, I know! But, trust me on this one. I do a normal hot shower and then turn the tap to cold for 30 seconds. It is absolutely incredible for waking you up and getting the body ready for the day. I have also used it as training for something that I don’t want to do. I count down from 5 to 0 and the turn on the cold tap. Then, later on in the day, you may experience something you really don’t want to do you can wheel out your new found trick. Maybe it’s a presentation you need to give or a difficult conversation to have. Counting down from 5 to 0 again tells the mind you are aware you’re about to do something you don’t want to do but you’re ready for it. You know you can do it. Bring it on!
3. Build in checks and balances on your phone usage
The final building block we will consider here is that time sucking brick in your pocket.
Ok, so you’ve had your phone downstairs overnight which has prevented the immediate doom scrolling when you wake up but danger still lies when you finally get to your phone. It lies in wait on the kitchen worktop throbbing with bad news, social media wormholes and an endless stream of messages to keep you “busy” for the next hour or so.
Stop.
You can quickly build in checks to your phone usage. The phones themselves have some features that allow you to do this. Here are a few ways you can take back control of your phone:
Identify which apps are stealing most of your time and set time limits on these under your phone settings. Even if you know the password to give you more time it will at least introduce some friction into your usage so you can pause and think.
Make your home screen boring - the mind wants to be entertained. It is seeking those little dopamine hits that the bright colours and apps can give it. In a strong moment remove anything enticing from your Home Screen. Leave the bare essentials and bury the interesting stuff deep in your phone.
Use the One Sec App - One Sec is an app that interrupts your flow into specific apps that you decide are taking up too much of your time. Once you’ve selected the apps you wish to use less, a pop up will interrupt you when you seek to open that app each time. It will create a ten second pause that allows your conscious brain to catch up with your automatic brain. You can then, at the very least, be intentionally wasting half an hour scrolling through Instagram!
Making it happen
Firstly, you need to want to make changes to your morning routine. Without that drive you will struggle to make habits of the items I’ve discussed above.
The next step is making the steps as easy as possible. Want to exercise when you wake up? Put your running clothes out ready by your bed. With this type of action you can send little messages to your future self that can help you.
Chaining these good habits together through those first couple of hours in the day gives you the best possible chance of keeping to them. One leads to the next to the next.
But above all, be kind to yourself. This type of habit building takes time but persevering will give you the rewards you deserve.
What do you find works for you?
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Thank you for reading and see you next week!
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As always, great reminders.
Great tips here Martin. The first one about living today, not tomorrow or yesterday, would probably be the one I struggle with the most.