One thing I’ve really desired and battled for is a consistent morning routine.
Michael Hyatt wrote on this topic a lot. He brought up a great point that once the day starts it’s hard to get the things done that you want to do, so you need to get them done in the morning before the day starts.
There are 3 things that I want to be a part of my day that are hard to do, but that I want to do.
Exercise. Reading. Writing.
Once the day starts and there’s a million different things asking for my attention, exercise gets thrown out the window. I want to do that, but I don’t really want to do it, so it’s easy to make an excuse saying I’m too busy to do it.
Reading. I want to READ a lot more. I want to read the Bible more, and I want to read books more. I want to be a learner. But once my day has started and my mind is going a lot of different directions, it’s hard to focus and quiet myself enough to read. Therefore I’ve got to read in the stillness of the morning.
Writing. I want to write more. But just like reading, writing takes focus. And focus is hard to come by once you’ve checked your e-mail and are being pulled in a bunch of different directions.
Here’s 3 tips that help me in my morning routine.
1. Be prepared the night before
Go to bed at a decent hour. If you’re burning the midnight oil, you aren’t going to wake up refreshed and ready to do your morning routine. Have everything set up ready to go so you can easily roll into your routine. Water already in the kettle, coffee grounds in the french press, reading and writing materials out and ready to go, socks and shoes by the door. Early planning, removes obstacles between you and success.
2. Set an alarm
If I just rely on waking up when I wake up, it doesn’t provide a hard start to the day for me. But if my alarm goes off and jolts me awake then I can get the day started appropriately. This morning when my alarm went off I battled with myself, it was still dark out, today’s my day off, but I reminded myself that successful men wake up early and I want to be a successful man.
3. Don’t get on the internet
Nothing will distiract and deter you from what you want to do like the interent. I used to check e-mail and social media while still in bed. The problem is that it pulls my mind in a million different directions making it hard to focus. So part of my night before routine is to turn off the wifi on my iPod which is my alarm, and and off of my computer which is my reading and writing device.
