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Stop Letting This One Thing Rob You of Your Morning Productivity

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Are you a member of the 5 a.m. club? Have you signed on to the premise that waking up at 5 a.m. will make you more productive, fit, and successful, but found your January goals lagging behind? Do you wake up kind of groggy, but otherwise loaded with great ideas, and find you need to stop the flow of creativity to do the things you “should” do every morning, like work out, meditate, breathe, journal, plan, do gratitude exercises, only to find that once all of that is done your brilliant ideas have floated off into the ether?

You’re not alone. And you shouldn’t feel bad about it, because if this is the case, you’ve likely fallen victim to one of the great paradoxes of the early rise phenomenon: Waking up early to get everything done often means robbing yourself of real productivity.

Getting up early is a great idea. Of course you get extra time while everyone else is sleeping. But to make this time valuable, you need to know why you’re getting up early, and how to use that time to your best advantage.

Motivation is a Finite Resource

First of all, it’s super important to recognize that motivation, like all functions of our psyche, is a physical process in the brain. As such, it’s a limited and finite resource. It goes through peaks and valleys during the day, but is always charged up after a good night’s sleep. That’s why you often wake up feeling ready to take on the world, but by lunchtime you’re down to barely even caring about the most mundane tasks.

If your goal is expressly self-care, then great! Do that in the morning when you’re motivated. But if your goal is productivity, and you know you have your best ideas and highest creative energy first thing in the morning, forcing that creative flow to switch off so you can meditate instead doesn’t make sense. You’re actually burning off your highest motivation of the day and training your brain to NOT be motivated in the morning. I don’t think that’s what you’re going for.

“The secret to productivity is simplicity.” – Robin Sharma

Attention is Even More Finite

Unless you’re a monk, it’s likely that your attention span is even more finite than your motivation. Your ability to stay focused on a single task is already at risk due to the environment of constant distraction we’ve built around ourselves. Purposely driving your attention span away from your most critical tasks, at a point when you’re in your most prime state to focus, doesn’t make practical sense.

If you’re already used to getting up at 5 a.m. (or earlier), but haven’t seen any increase in productivity or creative output, chances are it’s because you’re forcing other “should-do” self-care tasks into that time slot. I’m not saying you shouldn’t take care of yourself. Of course you should! But doing too much in your prime state that isn’t focused on your best energies isn’t helping you either, and may be causing you more stress and self-doubt. So, what’s the solution?

State Priming and Execution

State priming means getting yourself into a physical and mental state to take on the day. This means loosening up from a night of lying down, getting the blood flowing, and getting focused. Get up, do a quick bit of light stretching, and take a few deep breaths. Then, do a quick 10 pushups and squats. It’s not a workout…it’s just an energizing movement. Sometimes I’ll do 10 jumping jacks just for good measure; do these with a motivational mantra or cheer to really drive home the excitement for your day!

Now execute. Grab a pen and paper and jot down the most important ideas running through your head right at that moment. If you’re like me, you wake up with a conversation already going through your mind. Those are ideas. Don’t let them get away!

Scan your task list. What are the most boring, mundane, demotivating tasks you’re going to have to do? Plan those for your slumps later in the day, when your creative energy isn’t needed. If you try to wing it through those slumps when they happen, you won’t get them done. If you know in your mind, “OK, at 10:30 I can just do this like a robot and not think about it,” you can just switch gears and cruise on autopilot for a bit.

Now you can execute. Now, you should have about 60 to 90 minutes to create, execute, or do whatever is in your head with peak energy. This is the time to nail it. When you’re done, you’ll be in a great state of mental clarity to meditate. Your brilliant ideas won’t be rattling around in your head when you’re trying to quiet your mind and breathe. But for right now, you’ve gotta move those big rocks.

“Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.” ― Richard Whately

There’s nothing wrong with getting up early, if that’s when you find you can get a lot done. But if you jam that early-morning ritual with “shoulds” that aren’t moving the needle on your business or work, you might not be seeing a great ROI on either list.

Take a step back from your morning ritual, and really examine whether your morning routines and rituals are pushing your goals forward or distracting you from them. When you’re able to channel your morning energy into goal-based or creative tasks instead of ritual care tasks, you’ll be able to take those things off your plate and relax into your self-care routines with a mind that’s feeling clear and accomplished without being stressed and overwhelmed.

Steve Baric is an ISSA Elite Trainer, Nutritionist, and Transformation Specialist, as well as a certified Master Life Coach. As the founder of the Man Under Construction Project, he helps men recover from the trauma and confusion of divorce. His annual fall fitness challenge, Your Personal Reset Button, helps busy moms and dads shed extra pounds and reset their metabolic hormones in the privacy of their own homes.

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Success Advice

Why You Shouldn’t Discount A Brick And Mortar Store In 2025

We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options, but is it worth questioning this theory?

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How to grow a brick and mortar store
Image Credit: Midjourney

In 2024, you’d be forgiven for thinking that physical shopping is a thing of the past. We’re constantly told about how stores are closing down and how shoppers prefer online options. But is it worth questioning this theory? (more…)

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Success Advice

How to Alter Your Business Approach With Technological Advancements

Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner.

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altering business approach
Image Credit: Midjourney

Technology’s evolution has impacted everything, and business is no exception. Keeping up with technological trends has become a challenge for almost every business owner. Entrepreneurs unable to do so are being wiped out of the market.

There is no doubt that AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) have taken over the business world. These technological advancements are impacting decision-making, success percentages, and other entrepreneurial aspects.

Adapting to these developments is integral to business success. Let’s explore how you can accomplish these milestones.

Embed the strength of AI and ML.

AI has modified business operations in major ways. For instance, companies have employed bots for customer support. These bots go through an effective learning process via Machine Learning before being able to answer like humans.  

Bots can also perform detailed data analytics and make business moves with high success percentages.

ML is used more for the analysis of data chunks and generating successful predictions. This simply means that business owners do not have to worry about large-scale financial losses. 

In terms of deployment and usage, a reputed company like Netflix employs machine learning for decision-making.

Blockchain is increasing the count of business opportunities

Tampering of financial transactions is quite common and causes severe monetary damage to customers. With the rise of digital payments, this risk has increased. 

Blockchain is used to elevate your experience for monetary transfers. It combats penetrating events to extract confidential customer information. 

Most business sectors are using block chain but finance and supply chain management sections have a higher count. These two corporate sections have several monetary deposits and withdrawals taking place. 

In terms of percentage, approximately 72% and 5% of finance and supply chain firms have implemented block chain successfully.

Dedicate Yourself to Continuous Learning and Individual Development

You invest in learning some of the very important skills, including digital marketing, financial management, and how to gain customers as an entrepreneur.

You need to set up your knowledge base about doing business on Coursera and Udemy with the basics that are necessary for the business, building further by networking with experts through webinars.

Besides, Agile methodology will introduce elasticity to your company: this review and feedback system with further correction regularly will allow for enhancing efficiency and promptly reacting to the market.

Developing key skills to achieve goals

Running a business successfully is not only about having niche/domain knowledge. Business owners need to have communication / soft skills as well in addition to niche information.

Here are some key technical/domain-related areas that business owners should have a strong grip on.

Data Storage on Cloud: These days, companies do not store their data on physical servers. Therefore business owners should know how data is stored/edited/removed/updated via AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and other platforms.

Data Analysis/Interpretation Qualities: These days, data is as precious as gold. Business owners with data analysis abilities make correct predictions. As a result, their ventures grow in volume.

Development/Coding Knowledge

Programming knowledge gives business owners an edge whether the application is developed in-house or outsourced. It assists in getting updates deployed and handling application underperformance without getting professional support every time.

Hacking proof framework

There is no benefit of having an advanced automated system if can be penetrated. Successful business owners have above-average knowledge of cyber security and hacking attempts. They are able to choose top-notch anti-hacking software without much of an ambiguity.

Communication Abilities/Soft Skills

Here are some key communication qualities that business owners should have:

Communication/Conversation: Business owners should use to-the-point sentences in both written and oral communication.

Issue Resolution Abilities: Business owners should be able to drill down to problems and solve them. This is done successfully only if an entrepreneur has in-depth business domain knowledge.

Agile Implementations

It is mandatory for business owners to have knowledge of iterative/agile models. With such a competitive environment, it is impossible for business owners to succeed without adopting an agile framework.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

A productive business venture starts with a clear vision. The first factor making a business successful is the idea behind it. It helps with endless growth and combating competition successfully. Katherine Philips once mentioned that business goals are inevitable if goals are set concretely.

  • Goals should be based on smart achievements instead of complexity. Focus on the value that each one of them adds. 
  • Business objectives should not be vague. Key indicators should be constructed to measure the success/failure of each milestone.
  • Be realistic when setting goals. Do not aim at impossible milestones since they can be demotivating.
  • Milestones/goals need to be time-bound. Set a completion deadline for each one of them. 
  • Business goals should not be alien. Owners can think out of the box but not be obsolete / unrelated.

Create a productive well-crafted Business Strategy

Business owners cannot succeed without having a network. Some tips help in this case. Attend conferences and professional gatherings to connect with other entrepreneurs.
Here are some other related points business owners should pay attention to.

  • Attend meetings and conferences to stay updated with trends and meet business owners who already have well-set ventures. This helps in enhancing the learning curve of new / growing entrepreneurs.
  • Being a part of business communities/groups is very productive. When one shares opinions and discusses decision-making tactics, it helps in preventing errors and enhancing success rate.
  • Even the most experienced business owners have mentors as learning never stops. Take part in mentorship programs so there is an assurance that you are following the correct roadmap.

Conclusion

There is absolutely no doubt that business dimensions have evolved with technological advancements. Successful entrepreneurs have grabbed these changes in due course of time and continue to evolve. On the other hand, people following old paths and conventional steps fade out of competition. In a nutshell, keep an eye on the processes and practices you follow as these factors decide success rate.

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Success Advice

Understanding the Power of Yes and No: How to Create Boundaries For Success

These words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds

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Creating legal boundaries
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The two smallest yet most powerful words in life, “Yes” and “No,” have a big impact on our growth on both personal and professional levels. In addition to affecting the choices we make every day, these words have a significant impact on how our success unfolds. (more…)

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Motivation

From Couch Potato to Go-Getter: A Step-by-Step Motivation Plan for Everyone

By understanding what motivates you, you can turn your dreams into reality

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How to be motivated
Image Credit: Midjourney

Are you tired of feeling like a couch potato? Do you want to transform your life and become a go-getter? You’re not alone! Many people struggle with motivation, but the good news is that change is possible. (more…)

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