10 Morning Habits That Will Boost Creativity and Productivity
Every day the first few hours after you wake up are critical to the rest of your day. You wake up, and what you do shortly after can be the deciding factor on how productive you are that day.
The easiest way to maximize your productivity and creativity is to create a morning ritual involving a series of habits you can work your way through. Otherwise, you may just find yourself feeling stuck all day as you try to get things done.
Mornings are so important that cultures all around the world have popular proverbs about mornings. In the US we say "Early to bed, early to rise makes a man health, wealthy and wise." In Russia it is said, "One is wiser in the morning than in the evening," and there is a Sicilian proverb that states, "Morning makes the day."
It is because mornings are so important I decided to make this list of the best habits you can have to make your morning, and day, far more creative and productive.
1. Wake Up Early
Now, you don't have to wake up at five o'clock every day, although many successful entrepreneurs do say it's the perfect time. That being said you also can't sleep in to noon. This one habit alone has been shown to improve mental health, increase productivity, and your quality of sleep. Getting up just a half hour or hour earlier than you do now can make a huge difference by freeing up time to do any of the next nine things on this list.
2. Eliminate The Screens
Our minds our constantly being barraged with information and notifications via the internet. For the first hour of your day it's best to eliminate screens like your phone, computer or TV. Your e-mails can wait, the twitter notifications aren't going anywhere, and all the shows that are on that early are reruns anyway. Now I'm a blogger, I spend a decent chunk of my day looking at screens and social media, yet I still manage to forgo my screens for an hour and a half every morning.
Starting your day by checking social media or sites like reddit is the perfect way to start distracted and stay distracted.
3. Eat Breakfast
In the United States 1 in 10 people skip breakfast every day. It's the meal that gives you the most energy for the day and cooking something can get your brain running as the food wakes up your senses. You don't need to make yourself something huge to benefit from this simple habit, even a cup of coffee and oatmeal will suffice. The important thing is to make sure you're getting the sugars and nutrients your body needs to replenish energy in the brain and muscles.
4. Read
We all tell ourselves we'll read more, but rarely get around to it. Instead of waiting to read, read first thing in the morning. Usually it's after I make my cup of coffee that I'm sitting down with a book.
The benefits of reading cannot be understated. Reading helps stimulate your mind, improves focus and concentration, and can make you more creative. Reading in the morning takes advantage of those early quiet hours and sets your mind on a path of concentration that will stay with you for the rest of the day.
5. Meditate
Meditation is on the rise all around the globe, and for good reason too. Meditation has been proven to change the way your brain works for the better. The good it can do for you includes increased focus, creativity, immune health, and brain function as a whole. Many entrepreneurs, celebrities and athletes meditate and attest to its benefits including Elon Musk, Derek Jeter, Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey. Best yet, any amount of meditation can be good for you, five minutes, ten minutes or more. For the most part, it doesn't matter how long you meditate as long as you do. It's also not difficult to learn, to learn how to meditate you can visit How to Meditate.
6. Visualize Your Goals
One of the best tactics for setting and accomplishing your goals is to visualize them. It's hard to argue against something that can be so helpful, especially when it takes only five minutes to do. If you set your goals the night before, it's easy to set the timer for another five minutes when you're done meditating and start visualizing.
All you've got to do is imagine a picture of what you want to achieve that speaks to all the senses. If you aim to write more that day, hear the sound of pen on paper, see the page in front of you, feel the pen between your fingers. Doing this encourages the subconscious to act on these desires and help you achieve them.
7. Practice Gratitude
Practicing gratitude has an array of mental, physical and social benefits that every person can benefit from. Similar to meditation and visualization, practicing gratitude takes only five minutes or less to do. You can be in the shower, making coffee, or feeding your pets and still be thinking about all the things you're grateful for. You can even get a gratitude journal to write in before you go to bed or when you wake up to maximize the benefits. As I stated in my guide to positive thinking, gratitude and positivity is contagious, so by practicing gratitude every morning, you can make those around you happier as well.
8. Do Something Creative
Doing something small yet creative from the get go will put you in the right frame of mind right away. Maybe it's a sketch while the coffee is brewing or after you have your breakfast. Perhaps a haiku or my personal favorite, coloring. Anything creative no matter how small will give you the force of will later in the day to work on your larger project. Your mind will be full of great ideas from your dreams so have at it and start your day in creative-mode.
9. Ask Yourself One Question
Every morning, once you've gone through your routine and you're ready to sit down and work you need to ask yourself one question. "What is the most important thing I can do today?" We all have a long list of things we could be working on. You need to stop and think about what's important, and take that task as your largest goal for the day. We can all occupy ourselves with small tasks but you will feel far more accomplished for the day if you do your one important thing.
10. Eat That Frog
This is a term coined by author Brian Tracy, author of Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Bull's-Eye: The Power of Focus. He actually took the term from Mark Twain who once said that "If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worse things that is going to happen to you all day long." So eat your frog and do the most important thing you have to do that day early in the morning. If you take too long it will only get less and less appetizing and it's already pretty low on the things-you-want-to-do list.
There you have it, ten ways you can make your morning great and boost creativity and productivity. Of course any one of these habits has its own benefits. That being said stacking these habits is the key to getting the most out of your mornings. I do all ten of these things every day and it only takes an hour and a half, not counting when I finally sit down to eat that frog. Since I've started I've been far more motivated throughout the day and have been accomplishing each goal I set for myself everyday. Once you start these ten habits I can promise you you will immediately begin to note better productivity, mood and creativity. So give it a shot, you have only got to gain more success and if it doesn't work for you, what have you got to lose?
