5 Things We Do Wrong In The Morning
I used to hate mornings — for much of my life in fact — yet now I thrive in them. Which creates so much free time during the day so much so that, in a sense, my days feel longer (in the best kind of way) and my life is absolutely much more productive. I am slowing life down. Here’s what I have changed and learned so you can potentially do the same.
1. We lie around in bed upon waking.
The Fix.
Like most of us, I have gone through phases when I wake up and lie around. In fact, I have a friend who likes to say that his morning routine is to wake up, lie around, then move to the couch and lounge around. I get it of course, but I also don’t do it. It’s an absolute waste of waking hours, and those are far from unlimited in our lives. I’m reminded of the Colin Wright quote, “You have exactly one life in which to do everything you will ever do. Act accordingly.” Here’s a trick: I have my caffeine, which admittedly I look forward to when I wake up, ready to go. So I have to get out of bed and go to another room and have a sip. I wake up and that is my routine. Now I’m up, and there’s zero impulse to go lie back down. I also don’t set an alarm (some of course won’t have the luxury) but wake up super early, between 3:00 AM and 4:30 AM almost every morning, the benefits of which I wrote about here. Even at that early hour, once I am up, I’m up. It took a bit of time, but it’s a pretty easy transition. I can’t remember the last time I stayed in bed for absolutely no reason.
2. We stress about everything that needs to be done that day.
The Fix.
Two things. One, not everything that seems to need to be done in that day has to be. You should treat your day like an E.R. doctor triages. Red, Yellow, Green, or “Urgent,” “Less Urgent,” “Not Urgent.” I actually do this with my to-do list the night before. Things that are in the green zone there’s no reason to worry about. Maybe you get to them, no bother if you do not. They certainly don’t need to dwell in your thoughts all morning long.
Second, life has shown me that no matter how busy I may be on a given day, grinding for 2-3 hours with complete focus alleviates a ton of that. It’s the focus that matters; if you can lock in away from your phone/kids/partner/whatever and just start jamming out work, you can do much more than you think. I’ve noticed this trait in very successful people; once they lock in they really lock in. Even if you aren’t born with this, it can easily become a habit if you practice it. Even an enjoyable habit because, again, it frees up the rest of your day.
3. We focus on needing food versus energy.
The Fix.
To be fair, a calorie is just a measure of energy, so at face value it makes sense to eat in the AM. And everyone is different here, so this is something you’ll want to sense for yourself. But for me, and just about everyone, at minimum eating causes some degree of postprandial somnolence: decreased blood flow to your brain as it is used in the digestive system and thus less focus and energy. For me it can be a good deal. So I do the opposite; the second I see sunlight I go hike or run. Rather than feeling lethargic in the morning, it is when I am most awake. Most thriving.
4. We put off the most stressful or most difficult tasks.
The Fix.
This, for me, took a long time to come to terms with. Difficult calls, meetings, deadlines — the more stressful they are, the more we want to delay starting them. Or put in other terms, the easier it is to push them off to another hour, hours, or day(s). I’ll give an easy example of a hack, although the gravitas of the stress in this example is nearly insignificant. I hate folding laundry and hanging it up. If left to my own devices, I’d just let it sit in the dryer all week. Seriously. So I focus on just going and folding or hanging one item. Once I’m doing it, I often keep doing it until I am done, after which I get some gratification. And it’s done! Now think about a super stressful work call. Start dialing the number at 9:00 AM. You have to make the call anyway, why wait all day and let that stress kill your day? Plus, often what we think is going to be a nightmare turns into just a small amount of drama. it’s done and you can forget about it.
5. We don’t enjoy just how amazing the morning is.
The Fix.
Nature, for me at least, is most exhilarating when the sun is about to rise and then rises, or is about to set and then sets. Dawn and dusk. Animals come alive, the world comes alive, and at dusk to darkness the entire world shifts. You can see stars. In the constellation Cassiopeia, we can see a star that is 4,000 light-years away. Just think about how absurdly amazing that is. By contrast, Pluto is 3.2 billion miles away, which is .000628 light-years. Yes, get your stuff knocked out, but also take some time each morning to marvel. To be in the present. You’re here another day, you made it. Make the most of it!
– Mike Spivey
We are our own griefs. We are our own happinesses. We are our own remedies.