Waking up to a blaring alarm and rushing off to work is a common morning ritual followed by working professionals. For most of us, mornings start on a stressful note starting with struggle to evade traffic and reach office on time, sift through massive list of emails and a never-ending to-do list. Dedicated and repeated efforts can make even the impossible achievable. So, here are a few steps to help you make your mornings more productive and stress free:
#1. Take small steps
One of the major obstacles while creating a morning ritual comes when you try to suddenly make a lot of changes in your lifestyle at one go. Take small steps to achieve your final goal. If your aim is to rise at 6 am while you currently rise at 8 am, keep setting your alarm 15 minutes earlier every week till you reach your target time. It may seem like a task when you suddenly ask your mind and body to wake up at a time that they are not used to, thus making rising early a difficult act to accomplish.
#2. Think of your second step
Now that you have made sure that you are awake at your targeted time, think of what you would like to achieve next. Is your next step to drink 2 litres of water, have a smoothie or just sit and meditate for a few minutes before getting started with the day?
#3. Exercise and Meditate
The importance of exercise cannot be stressed upon enough. It activates your mind and body thus providing you with an extra dose of productivity through your day. A satisfying work out session when followed by a 5-minute meditation session definitely calms you down and keeps you ready to deal with conflicts and hurdles through the day. Meditation can be as simple as closing your eyes to focus on your breathing to calm your thoughts and free your mind of worries.
#4. Create an action plan
Once you have focused on completing all the tasks above, focus on what you would like to achieve through the day. Note down all your tasks from the toughest to the easiest that needs to be completed before your work day ends.
#5. Focus on the toughest task first
It has been observed that the human brain has the maximum potential for productivity in the morning. In this case, focusing the first 90 minutes of your work day on replying to emails and going through social media would amount to wasting precious time. Therefore, complete the toughest and most important task on your action plan first. Priorities can change based on what clients want. Try to schedule meetings after lunch hours or in the evenings, keeping aside precious time for the most important tasks that need to be completed first.
Following a morning ritual can be quite a task when you are starting out. However gradually building your habits and then following them for a minimum of 30 days will guarantee that it becomes a part of your routine, something that you do instinctively. Make your mornings more productive; decide a diligent routine to keep your mind and body healthy!
What’s your morning mantra? Awfis provides co-working spaces in Churchgate, Mumbai or shared office spaces in Indiranagar, Bengaluru to make your mornings more productive.