I recently listened to a podcast on LinkedIn Learning titled: The Six Morning Habits of High Performers and thought I would do a bit of an experiment. I’ve been feeling like I’m falling off track lately. Being unemployed and stuck at home has really had me loosing my motivation. I’d wake up late, slowly get into my routine, and by the time I had any motivation to get some real work done it would be 3 – 4:30PM and I would decide it’s too late in the day and that I’d get whatever it was done tomorrow.

It’s not day 2 of my experiment, and granted, still a bit early, but I’m definitely seeing the results I want. I’m more motivated, WAY more productive, and generally more positive. So here’s what I’m doing, and here’s where I want to take it.

1. Wake Up 1hr Earlier.

Attainable even when I don’t really want to, getting up and out of the sweet sweet comfort of bed HAS its payoffs. Once I’m up and started, there’s no stopping me.

2. 10-15min Meditation.

Finding myself a quiet, comfortable spot in the living room away from my partner soundly asleep in bed in the back of the house. While meditation should in its self be a quiet act, I currently do guided meditations which I find quite helpful that require me to use sound. The app that use for my meditations is 10% Happier. I can’t say enough good things about how much this app has helped me over the last year or two; working or not. So for now I’m going to stick with it. It’s also probably worth noting that I’d being falling off and on trying to do my meditations regularly so putting it as a solid part of m routine will help.

3. 5 Minute Journal.

This is something I had tried before and didn’t really stick to. But the podcast suggested it so I figure it’s at least worth trying to pick back up. To be fair, I tend to try and do a lot of the stuff required for the journal in my nightly routine. However I’m finding getting it written down in the morning does really help define my day. I record my 5 min journal in an app called Morning! and here’s what it looks like:

Morning:

3 Things I’m Grateful For to help start my day with gratitude.

3 Things That Would Make Today Great which I try to centre around my goals for the day. What I want to accomplish. I’m usually having a good day when I’m being productive. However it’s good to also use this to think about what other things make me happy and to try and make them a priority. For instance, I’ve been dearly missing being in the gym coaching and training aerial silks during COVID. And, I own my own silk so I could reasonably find somewhere to hang it outside, it just need to go do it! Alternatively (or even additionally) I could spend time researching what other gyms are doing that allow them to use their silks so I can be back in the gym sooner!

Daily Affirmation. What I’m I going to do today or what will my mindset be to get the things above done.

Evening:

3 Amazing Things That Happened Today. It’s always good to remember to celebrate your wins. Maybe I accomplished everything I was looking to to today! Maybe I saw something or something happened that just made me happy. Maybe I got some really great feedback on a project!

3 Things I could have done to make the day even better. There’s always room to improve.

4. Let the dog out, 5-10min Stretch, 10-15min Exercise, 5 min Stretch.

In that order. Dusty, our dog, always brings a smile to my face and make stretching a bit interesting (but also fun). Next, there’s a walk, or a workout depending on the day, followed by some more stretching now that my muscles are a bit more warm. I have to say, I’ve lost so much of my flexibility from not being in the gym. It’s one of my goals to get my fitness and flexibility back up to be able to hit the ground running. That and it just feels good to get the blood pumping.

5. Breakfast.

Breakfast for all! The dog, cat, boyfriend, and myself. The most important, and in my opinion the best meal of the day! The extra hour usually allows me to have everything done by 9:30 when my boyfriend is up and starting work.

Now, it’s time to go DO THE THINGS!

So Far…

So far I’m finding the extra hour helpful to ground myself and to take the time and space to work on myself. If anything, it’s nice to have the time to THINK AND PLAN helping to relieve some of the stresses and anxieties throughout the day. 

Where to go from here:

I’ll probably try and keep this up for a week or two before I try and add more of the things talked about in the podcast. For instance, getting up another 30min – 1hr earlier. Using that time to read, learn, or even do a workout AND a walk. Maybe I’ll spend some of that time working on other projects, who knows. In the podcast, they recommend spending your meditation time in silence rather than using guided meditations as you can use the time to really focus your mind on being specific to developing your own success. But for now, I’m enjoying the gratifying little check mark at the end of my guided meditations.