When it comes to getting up and starting the day, far too many of us are hitting the snooze button instead of hopping out of bed. The morning rituals of successful entrepreneurs start their day without hitting the snooze button. While we’re still struggling to remember to hit the snooze button again, these successful entrepreneurs are jumping out of bed and feeling great. If you’re looking to become more successful and learn about what successful people do for their morning routine, you’re in the right place.
1. Wake Up Early
Getting up early is a habit that nearly all successful people have in common, and we’re not talking about getting up at 8 am. We’re talking about getting up at 5 am, or even 4 am. Successful entrepreneurs know that the best time of day is in the early morning hours before anyone else is awake. Your body and your mind are at their best during these hours. You can get the most done in the shortest amount of time without distractions. But the exact time that you get up is going to depend on you.
2. Get Enough Sleep
This is halfway a morning habit and halfway a night habit. Try to get at least 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night. Make sure you’re going to bed early enough that you can get the right amount of sleep. This will help you feel more awake and prepared for anything that comes up the next morning. If you don’t get enough sleep, you’ll feel groggy and move in a slow-paced to get tasks completed. Get the right amount of sleep to feel great and not feel groggy the next morning.
3. Drink Plenty of Water
Your body is dehydrated after going 8 hours (or more) without anything to drink. The first thing to do when you wake up is to drink a glass of water. Whether you leave it sitting by your bed, by your sink where you brush your teeth, or on a counter, make sure it’s within easy reach. If you set it out but don’t see it in the morning, you won’t remember to drink it. Drink at least 16 ounces of water first thing in the morning. While that may seem like a lot to drink in one go, it’s actually going to help jumpstart your body to do what it’s supposed to do the rest of the day.
4. Exercise Your Body
No matter what sort of physical shape you’re in, you have probably been told by a doctor that you should exercise every day. Exercising first thing in the morning is a great way to get your body primed and ready for the day. It also promotes the creation of endorphins, which actually make you happier and help you feel more awake. You don’t need to get out of the house or run 10 miles. You don’t need to hit the gym for 2 hours. All you need to do is stretch your body and get it moving. This can be Tai Chi or yoga if that’s what appeals to you (or that 2 hours in the gym if you prefer).
5. Exercise Your Mind
Stretching your mind is another way to help you feel more awake. This is a good time for meditation, writing in a journal, reading a good book, listening to a podcast, or other activities that make you think and focus on improvements for your mind. Getting your mind working this early means that it’s already trying to work out problems, form new connections, and more before anyone else you know is even out of bed. That means it will take less effort for you to get your work done (which you’ll be starting in a moment).
6. Do Something For You
Take a minute or so to do something you can enjoy. Self-care is anything that you do for yourself, so it could be giving yourself a foot rub or using a facial mask or scrub if that’s what you like. Or it could be something like taking a little longer shower than you really need, listening to a podcast for fun instead of for learning or reading a book that you enjoy rather than one that will teach you something (directly at least). Your morning shouldn’t be all about business.
7. Eat Healthy
This is right up there with exercise when it comes to things you’ve heard a million times, but it’s absolutely true. Eating healthy makes you feel better and it prepares you for your day. Getting a good amount of protein and greens (or non-green vegetables are good too) will help you get the energy you need. That lets you get up and get going right away (without the slow slog you might feel otherwise). Try to eat a balanced meal, but nothing too large. That big breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast and hashbrowns might taste good at the moment, but it’s going to slow you down.
8. Set Your Goals
Before you get started on that first task, however, you’ll want to sit down and set goals for the day. What are the things that you want to accomplish for the day? This is something that helps set you up for success and gives you a blueprint to work off of. Successful people don’t just ‘wing it’ and expect things to work out. They make a plan and then stick to it. So, take a minute to write down a couple of things you want to get done. The exact number of tasks will depend on the difficulty of the tasks you’re working on.
9. Start on Your Most Important Task
Speaking of those tasks, first thing in the morning is an excellent time to start working on the most critical task of the day. Chances are no one in your household or even in your business is up this early, which means you won’t have distractions to deal with. No one will be calling, messaging or popping into your office to distract you from that most important task of the day. The best morning routines start by working on the most important thing first, so you don’t end up missing out later on.
10. Make it a Routine
If you want to be successful at something, the most important thing to do is turn it into a habit or routine. If you follow the same process every single day, you’ll start to do it automatically. You won’t even need to think about it anymore, but you’ll still continue to reap all of the benefits that you did before. The best morning routines are just that, routine. That way, when you get out of bed, you could be halfway through your routine before you even realize you’ve done anything at all.
11. Use Visualization
Where do you want to be in 5 years? 10 years? 20 years? What is your ultimate goal for yourself or for your business? Take a few minutes to visualize just where it is you want to go and how far you are on the path to get there. Picture yourself in that place you want to be and visualize it down to the smallest detail. Research has shown that visualization can actually help increase your chances of making those big dreams a reality.
12. Be Grateful
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘it’s impossible to be angry/frustrated/upset when you’re grateful?’ It’s absolutely true. So, take a few minutes to write out something (or preferably a few somethings) that you’re grateful for. It shouldn’t be things like your family or your job. Instead, write about the less common things, like being grateful for the soft sheets that you changed last night. It’s about appreciating the little things. When you can write out at least two or three little things you are grateful for you’ll feel better right off the bat.
13. Be Positive
No matter what happened yesterday or what you expect to happen today, it’s always a good idea to be positive and have a positive outlook. Put a smile on your face and tell yourself today is going to be a good day. If you start out this way, you’ll find that everything else you’re doing seems a little bit easier and a whole lot more fun. So, even if you have a hard day ahead of you, you’ll feel like you’re better prepared for it because of that positivity.
What Not to Do
Now that we’ve taken a little time to talk about what you should be doing with your morning routine let’s take a look at a few things that you shouldn’t be doing. These are things that far too many people engage in that take them away from that killer morning routine. Instead, these can slow you down, wear you out, and otherwise contribute to you not getting where you want to be by the end of the day.
1. Hitting the Snooze Button
Successful people do not hit the snooze button. If you’re looking at a morning routine builder, you should absolutely ban this from your life. Instead, set the alarm for the time you want to get up in the morning and then get out of bed immediately. Yes, your blankets are warm. Yes, you are really comfortable snuggled in there. But if you get out of bed immediately, you tell your mind and body it’s time to wake up. That jumpstarts everything rather than keeping you slogging behind.
2. Checking Social Media
Social media has a time and a place, but it’s not first thing in the morning. It’s far too easy to get distracted by what everyone else is doing or what you’ve missed out on during the night. Before you know it, 20 minutes has turned into an hour or longer, and you’ve missed out on the essential parts of your daily routine. Not to mention social media means looking at your phone, which isn’t healthy for you to do first thing in the morning. The longer you can put it off, the better.
3. Checking Your Email
This is another thing that many people assume is part of the morning rituals of successful entrepreneurs. The truth is, it’s not. Checking your email is something to do later on. Don’t pick up your phone or turn on your computer and immediately start checking emails. You’ll start your day with other people’s problems, and you’ll never get the time back again. Instead, start your daily routine by taking care of your needs and tasks, then get to other peoples’ needs later.
4. Starting on the Easy
It can be all too tempting to start your day with the easiest tasks instead of the most important. Successful people start with the most important task because they know that’s what is getting them closer to their goals and plans for the day. Starting with easy tasks may feel like a little win right off the bat, but it’s not getting you any closer to where you need to be at the end of the day. That’s the most crucial thing in the long run. So, make sure you focus on where you need to spend your time, not where you can get a quick win.
If you’re curious about what successful people do in the morning, then this is a great place to start. You can check out some of these habits and see how they work for you. You can tweak or add to the routine to create a killer morning routine that will help you be more successful and happier going into your day. Sticking to a morning routine maybe a little more complicated, but as you turn it into a habit (or a series of habits), you might even be surprised at just how much you can accomplish.
