Summary
Succeeding takes talent and knowledge – as well as the time to make the fullest use of your gifts. For many of us, time is a commodity that always seems to be in short supply. We just can’t seem to extract all the time we need from our days. This is especially difficult if you are working or studying full time while also trying to launch a business or side venture you care about.
The obvious answer is to carve out more time – most likely in the morning. Studies have shown that morning people are almost invariably more successful than their counterparts who sleep in.
Not everyone is naturally wired to rise early in the morning, but it is worthwhile to experiment and see how you like it. There is nothing quite like aggressively knocking out a to-do list very early in the morning and discovering just how much work you are capable of completing while everyone else is still in bed. I managed to aggressively build a lucrative business simply by getting a head start on my day.
Read on to learn more about how you can get the most out of your mornings and make sure that you win the day.
Transcript
There are morning people and night people. Both have their pros and cons. The night owl is more likely to be a good weekend companion in Vegas than a morning riser. But the early bird is far more likely to be a millionaire.
Research shows that those that get up early reported feeling more positive emotions compared to night owls. I myself am up most days between 5am and 5:30am. I don’t set an alarm – it is far more pleasant to wake up naturally instead of to the piercing wail of a clock. In order to do this, however, I need to get to sleep around 10:30pm the night before.
A Key To Success
I am a success because of my habits in the morning. I can say that without a doubt. No, it isn’t just how my clock is wired – it also required skill and talent in other areas as well. Waking up early just to watch more television certainly would not get you anywhere. But that time in the morning has certainly given me a crucial window of opportunity that adds to how much I am able to get done. That time in the morning when most people are sleeping gives me the chance to really get a lot done without interruption. By the time that 9am rolls around, I have already put in most people’s half day of work. I can sometimes be winding down just as other folks are arriving at the office, perusing the day’s headlines, and beginning to think about settling down to do some work. This allows me some time to go to the gym, read or do something else that is productive in a different sense.
Plan The Night Before So You’ll Hit The Ground Running
The key is that I sit down the night before to map out and plan exactly what it is I intend to do with my time when I wake up early. This ensures that I can wake up and immediately begin driving toward a key goal rather than having to first figure out what it is that I should be doing with those early morning hours.
You may just find that you really appreciate the feeling of being a morning person. When you pass someone else in the wee hours on their way to the office or the gym, you could even find that you feel a sense of being kindred spirits with the other strivers out there making their dreams happen.
Jumpstart Your Productivity
I built a multi-million dollar business using this method of getting up one hour earlier and making calls to time zones that were hours ahead of me and “at work” already. You would be amazed at what a boost of energy you can get by kicking off your day by starting to knock items off of your to-do list with ruthlessness and energy. It will give you a head start on everyone else out there like you cannot even begin to imagine.
I am not suggesting that you can’t succeed on the same high level if your rhythm is more set to nighttime – it is merely a statistical statement that more early risers tend to aggressively tackle goals. But the same general principle of maximizing time that others waste can also apply to those who work late at night. Many creative artists and musicians famously prefer to work nocturnally and find more inspiration in working by moonlight. The same ethos applies of carving out time that others neglect or do nothing with to focus relentlessly on meeting your goals. Success lies in creating a plan and routine in advance and then sticking right to it.
If you would like to switch your schedule to be able to fit more productivity in, you would be wise to try out an experiment to begin getting up earlier to get more done. Even if you only try to do it over the course of a few weeks, it can be a worthwhile experiment to see how your body and mood adapts over time. You should begin by gradually increasing your wakeup time to an earlier hour rather than try to begin waking up several hours earlier all at once. Making small and incremental changes over time makes it far more likely that your body will respond positively and you will quickly acclimate.
Discipline Will Get You There
This can be bolstered by refusing to hit your snooze alarm. It’s a guilty pleasure that too many of us are guilty of. You are really only hurting yourself by hitting it and sleeping longer. Get in the right habits by moving your alarm farther away from your bed so that you have to physically go turn it off, making it less likely that you will just turn over and head back to sleep. You can also choose to focus on a love of coffee if you are a caffeine person. Setting out the coffee pot right on the counter when you can see it will remind you of your favorite beverage when you wake up in the morning and give you a nice jolt right away so you can begin attacking the day. The same concept applies to exercise – not only does exercising in the morning make you more likely to do it, but it also gives you a boost that can help you shake off any lingering lethargy from your night of rest. This fits a general trend of integrating some activities into your morning that you enjoy doing so that you won’t see this part of the day just as something to be dreading.
Timing and Priorities
You can also arrange to schedule obligations with other people first thing in the morning, such as appointments to meet friends, to exercise or staff meetings first thing in the day. This method will make you less likely to blow off obligations that come in the early part of your day – even if you might be a bit drowsy at first as you are getting used to your new schedule.
Try to use part of your morning to focus on your number one priority as well. It might mean writing pages of a book or completing a design or generating ideas for your business. Not only will you be less distracted by other items jockeying for your attention, but you will bring that sense of accomplishment into the rest of your day of already having knocked off your major goal for that day of the week.
I don’t suggest that you neglect sleep. That is obviously a very important part of the relaxation and refueling that you need to ensure you have maximum energy to be tackling your day with. But don’t sleep your life away and miss out on all of the opportunities that abound to create things of value and help others around you while you build your personal wealth and litany of experiences. All of those minutes and hours of your life really do add up – make sure they are adding up to help you to get where you want to be.
What is your morning routine like? What steps can you be taking to squeeze as much productivity and personal satisfaction out of the first part of your day?
Let me know here. Post your questions and comments on Facebook and like my page as well. Register on my web site, old.tonyneumeyer.com to receive free trainings and subscribe to my YouTube Channel.
