7 Successful Things You Should Be Doing Every Morning

1. Sleep Well and Get Up Early.

Yes a good night’s rest in important. Some people need 8 hours while others only need 5 to be fully rested. It’s not the quantity but the quality. Studies show just even having your phone in the bedroom even if you do not use it disrupts your sleep. How much more a TV? In the information / digital age. You can get all of your local news, sports and weather through an app or a website in 5 minutes. Why stay up way past you need to just to watch the news. Is late night talk really that important to you? It's wasting valuable time. Yes entertainment is essential to our lives, but at the cost of what. Let do some simple math. (Link here to 'What is your time worth?') Say your time is $50 and hour, 1 extra hour a day, 5 days a week. 50 x 1 x 5 = $250 a week. And for arguments sake, 4 week in a month. $250 x 4 = $1000 a month. How would you like a $12000 a year raise? Think of the possibilities you can accomplish with an extra hour. If you normally wake up at 7, wake up at 6. If 6 then make it 5. Trust me the "the early bird gets the worm" montage isn't just an old English proverb, it is proven that the one who arrives first has the best chance for success.

2. Make a TO-DO list.

Actionable and specific things that can be done that day.

Never! Never! Never try to finish off yesterday’s TO-DO list. You failed at it because you did not consciously think it through or you were way too broad.

3. Schedule you day. (One thing at a time)

Make it a habit to set times for the things on your TO-DO list. Realistic timing. Think of it as deadlines. I know many people tout being great "multi-taskers" (Trust me that is the one of the top things people boast about on resumes) but realistically no one can do more than one demanding act at a time. Simply put, the brain doesn’t really do tasks simultaneously, as we thought (hoped) it might. In fact, we just switch tasks quickly. Each time we move from hearing music to writing a text or talking to someone, there is a stop/start process that goes on in the brain. That start/stop/start process is rough on us: rather than saving time, it costs time, it’s less efficient, we make more mistakes, and over time it can be energy sapping.

4. Get Energized

Do you know why you always need that cup of coffee to get going? Its simple physics. The focus of Lesson 1 is Newton's first law of motion - sometimes referred to as the law of inertia. Newton's first law of motion is stated as an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion. Do some Jumping-Jacks, Walk around for 5 minutes. Dance to the song stuck in your head. It doesn’t matter as long as you get moving for a few minutes.

5. Visualize and Affirm

Have something that you want to manifest. Be realistic and focus on the positives. How are you going to get things done?

6. Be positive

If you are positive in the morning, you remain positive throughout the day. Be a positivist. If you can’t think of anything to be positive about, go to the local food mission or soup kitchen. You will see what it means to be grateful.

7. Clean up and organize.

We all make messes and sometimes we leave messes behind. Make your bed, wash the dishes, take out the trash and put things away. 1. It's one less thing you have to put on your TO-DO list and 2. Messiness leads to chaos. How many times you just need that one staple and you take apart everything to find the stapler and when you can't find it you just run out and buy another one? See what happened, you have lost time, gained stress and wasted money.

#success #organizationalbehavior #intelligence #skillset