by Soundview Editor-in-Chief, Sarah Dayton
If you have any aspirations to become the best version of you that you can be, the word on the street seems to be that you need to get yourself a morning routine. Peak productivity will remain beyond your reach if you don’t figure out how much of a full working day you need to put in before everyone else starts their working day.
Sure, some of us are larks or early birds, and others do their best work as night owls, but these morning routine people are hard core. There are over six hundred books and nearly two hundred morning routine journals on Amazon alone. Where do these people find the time?
Hal Elrod promises miracles, Gary Vaynerchuk brags about his 20-hr days, and Tim Ferris asks every guest on his podcast to reveal their morning routine as the secret to their success. Exercise, cold showers, meditation, free-form writing, strategic thinking, and healthy eating – and all before my half-asleep fingers have even made their first of several forays to the snooze button on my alarm.
Don’t get me wrong. If this hybrid of Type A mixed with OCD works for you then I am happy for you but evangelizing that as the next secret sauce assumes that the same approach will work for everyone, which it definitely will not.
Competing over who gets the least amount of sleep has a finite end-point: no sleep! Why not just focus on finding a pattern that works for you? A routine that keeps you well-rested, moderately active, and on top of your work and life responsibilities without raising your stress level. Focus on the quality of your life, not some artificial quantity of tasks that someone else says you should achieve. And if you find that this routine works better for you in the evening than in the morning, congratulations on making it your own.
Oh, and if you find that you need a bujo (that’s a ‘bullet journal’ for the uninitiated) to help you organize that routine, buy yourself a nice one. You deserve it.
Soundview subscribers get in-depth summaries of the key concepts in best-selling business books delivered to them every month! Take your career to new heights by staying up-to-date with the trends and ideas affecting business leaders around the globe. Download a free sample now.
Sarah is the Editor-in-Chief at Soundview. When not in the office or at her desk at home, Sarah can be found on area walking trails or patronizing small, local businesses. She is also a board member of the local land trust. Sarah and her husband, Sam, are “empty nesters” and currently share their 1824 Chester County, PA farmhouse with two spoiled basset hounds.