9 Morning Habits (Sequence) of Highly Productive People

Everyone should have morning habits to make these sensitive moments of morning flow smoothly. When we reduce number of decisions (by aligning habits), we automatically shift focus on our priorities and work, which then improves our productivity.

Ideal morning habits give a boost to entire day. So why not make an ideal morning routine?

Below are nine plus a bonus morning habits (with sequence) that you must choose to implement now for an immense boost in your productivity. All these habits have to be performed before 8:00 am or at most 9:00 am.

Table of Contents

#1 Waking Up Early

Being an early bird gives you an unfair advantage of extra time, which can be invested in most valuable activities– like starting the day with calmness, investing a few minutes with your body, by exercising or meditating. Everything would be missed if you wake up at last moment for school, college or office.

Studies have shown proactive people are morning people.

Begin your first minute of day by getting some natural light for at least 5 minutes in morning, even if clouds are covering sun there are still photons (particles) that benefit. This natural sunlight will boost your cortisol level which will boost your level of alertness and focus for entire day thus, helping stay aware of your tasks.

So start getting up early. And do not check your phone first thing in the morning.

#2 Ditch The Coffee get to Water

Number one reason for getting water instead of caffeine is you have not consumed water for last 8-9 hours while you were asleep. Drinking water will refill your energy.

Another core reason for choosing water before tea/coffee is this research. Which says, in morning our cortisol levels are at its peak (naturally) and caffeine gives a boost to cortisol which will eventually impact negatively, resulting in secretion of stress hormones. And that’s what we don’t really want. It is suggested to not consume caffeine empty stomach.

Our metabolism is down in the morning and water (warm), by removing toxins enhances our metabolic rate.

#3 Make body Ready

Exercising has tons of benefits. And highly productive people never miss this part of their morning routine.

Tip to beginners;

“Exercise in the morning before your brain figures out what you are doing.”

Your mind will give you some silly reason to not exercise if you are late. So without giving it a second thought, exercise.

Morning exercise is especially known for increasing energy capacity. Exercise in morning increases your energy capacity, every time you exercise and push your limits, your body recovers and your energy capacity is increased.

Exercising also improves attention span, memory and information processing of our brain. Which helps us with better decision making thus, increases our productivity.

#4 Bathing (Better, Cold Bath)

Taking a bath refreshes body and brings back heart rate to normal.

To simplify this part, taking a bath in the morning makes all of us more awake (alert).

While in shower you have enough time to plan your to-do list as well. This part of routing also includes clearing your digestive system.

#5 Meditate

Main function of meditation in productivity is that it enhances our work efficiency. Meditation doesn’t directly impact our productivity, but it helps improve our focus and decreases our chances of getting distracted.

Meditation helps us to reduce distraction.

The fact is, stressful and anxious person can not achieve higher state of productivity. To newbies in productivity community, the first step should be to control their mind from wandering, for them meditation is recommended.

Meditation is the habit of all high performers. It keeps them stable and aware for entire day.

#6 Having Ideal Breakfast

Eating breakfast boosts concentration and memory throughout the day. Studies show that people who eat a healthy breakfast are more proficient at problem-solving and tend to have better eye-hand coordination.

And that healthy breakfast must contain all necessary vitamins and nutrients that include antioxidants, healthy fats, magnesium, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin Bs, vitamin C, vitamin E, and folic acids.
Jim Kwik shared amazing brain foods in his book Limitless, a must read book for learning how to learn.

#7 To-Do List

Then comes preparing a to-do list. Some people prefer making a to-do list the night before sleeping, it reduces one more decision, to directly get to work.

There is no need to dig deep to explain importance of making a to-do list for higher productivity. Without making a to-do list you will just wander with several tasks and at the end of day feel like nothing has been achieved.

Your to-do list should include these 4 things;

Tasks
Most important task (only one)
Subtasks
Deadline for each task (for eg. before 3:00PM)

#8 Stimulate Mind (Journal)

After you have to-do list in front of you, now go for self-reflection. Self-reflection is clearing the intention for the day. It is habit that every productive person practices, by visualizing the day. Have short self-talk.

It is a rough visual of how your day will look like. This visualization practice will help you with creating paths for day.

It is roughly a ten minutes practice that can be performed on paper as well. Without a clear intention you might come back to starting position having no idea what happened. That’s why setting intention is essential.

#9 Read Book

Since, this section is about *habits of productives* not *habits to be productive* It includes the habit of reading books.

All productive people are high performers in their fields. Reading books is what helped them to reach clarity and higher potential knowledge. So, they would not choose to quit reading books at first place.

Reading books is common habit in all successful peoples. Twenty minutes is ideal for reading book in morning.

Begin with priority [Bonus]

After setting an intention and reading a book, now is the time to start working.

“Eat the live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you rest of the day”
Mark Twain

In book Eat that frog, Brian Tracy said that doing the hardest task first will empower you and you will be able to work calmly with other tasks. Because this hardest task often pokes us to procrastinate. And procrastination eats our time, a lot of time.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

This routine might seem little off the track with your current routine. But this is what most people say they do every morning which makes them effective and productive for entire day.

It is not necessary to pick all of them, you can adjust according to your need. But it is recommended to take at least 3 habits from these, to add in your routine.

Good DAY✌

RECOMMENDED READ: 7 Effective Ways to Double Your Productivity