How To Be More Productive in the Morning
"Every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal"
Waking up early is one thing. But to be productive in the morning is a whole new ball game.
On many occasions I have risen early and then sat on my phone for 2 hours. To be honest, I would’ve been more productive if I was asleep instead.
And whilst waking up early is the cornerstone to developing healthy morning habits, for the next hour or two whilst everybody else is asleep, there is an opportunity for us to start the day in the right direction.
Being productive is unique to each of us. To some it’s taking a walk to get some fresh air, natural sunlight and stillness. To others it’s writing a 500 word article for their newsletter…ahem.
But productivity is an action that creates change. Usually that’s a change in our emotional state.
We think we want to be more productive. But in fact, what we want is to feel something different to what we feel now.
I want to feel a sense of achievement after writing my article. I want to feel confident that I have made progress toward my personal goals.
If you take a walk in the morning, you’re seeking an outcome. Nobody walks for walkings sake. You want to take a walk to feel more peaceful, less stressed, more grounded by the end.
The people that say “I want to be more productive in the morning” usually are the least productive people. I know, I’ve been there.
And that’s because we don’t really desire “productivity”. We desire an outcome.
Those of us that struggle with productivity just haven’t established what outcome we want and identified how to get there and so we turn to comfort, mainly our phones.
The mornings that I woke up early and then sat on the sofa on my phone for 2 hours, I didn’t establish any outcome. I was just going through the motions of being awake.
The mornings that I woke up early and then completed some task is because I had already recognised what I wanted the outcome of the morning to be.
We all think that we need to set some far reaching goal in order to increase our productivity.
In actual fact, it’s the small but achievable daily goals that are the most important.
Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to be Mr Universe. That’s one hell of a far reaching goal. But Arnold said:
“Every rep that I do gets me closer to accomplishing that goal. Every set will get me a step closer to turning this vision into a reality.”
That was his small achievable goal. To do just one more rep. Just one more set everyday. Because in 3 years time, the sum of all of those small achievements will transform into the big end goal.
You might have a vision, some end destination that you are heading toward, your own far reaching goal but it’s those small daily actions that will get you there.
If you want to be more productive in the morning, then choose a small and achievable task that would result in the outcome that you desire.
Practice mindfulness for 10 minutes to feel more still. Write 100 words of your new book to feel a sense of progress and achievement. Do 25 pushups to feel vigorous.
You will become more productive as you develop this muscle of completing small but meaningful tasks in the morning.