Five things to do before 8 am to double your productivity

The way you start your day sets the tone for how it will continue.

That is why the key ingredient to a productive day is a positive and focused morning routine. Many people think it means you have to start your day at 4am. However, in reality, that is not always a practical solution for people to follow.

Most people have family responsibilities and therefore it’s not always possible to always spend lots of time in the morning on a perfect outline. Successful people put an emphasis on the quality of their morning routines, and not necessarily the length of it. We’ll be discussing five activities, based on scientific research, that can double your productivity.

Increase your energy with exercise (30 minutes)

Perhaps there is a method behind the madness of people that wake up before the sunrises to engage in physical activity.

The above pyramid, created by the Harvard Business Review, Ascend, shows the effect of exercise on performance. Physical exercise is the basis for emotional stability, which allows for a clear mind leading to deep and meaningful work.

Studies show that exercise stimulates the production of new mitochondria within your body’s cells. The body then uses it to produce energy — which becomes your productivity fuel.

Exercise also increases the blood flow to the brain and as a result, sharpens the mind and its awareness. This does not imply you need to mimic the exercise regime of top athletes or go to any extreme measures to alter your morning routine. There are simpler guidelines to start the day energized:

• Make sure it’s 30 minutes or longer.
• Include aerobic activity at a moderate level.
• Include a mix of muscle-strength based training.

To get into the habit of exercising, consider doing something you already enjoy. Perhaps play tennis, squash or football which incorporates all of the above mentioned recommendations. Get someone to join you for the sake of accountability and encouragement. Many people have found that walking or jogging to work is a way to kill two birds with one stone.

Not only will morning exercise boost your health and wellness, it will also steadily increase your work quality and output.

Practice mindfulness to visualize a productive day (15 minutes)

Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce, has found that mindfulness increases his productivity, helps visualize the future and creates space for creative thinking.

There’s a reason Steve Jobs, Marc Benioff, Oprah Winfrey and other successful entrepreneurs practice some type of mindfulness in the morning. It increases energy and productivity, and declutters the mind of unimportant information.

Some of the simpler ways to practice mindfulness in the morning are:

Visualization — this technique requires you to close your eyes and map out every part of your day. Think about the goals for the day and the outcomes you want. Create a plan for positive thinking throughout the day and how you want to translate it into fruitful work.

Do nothing — this may seem counterintuitive to productivity. However, if done correctly, sitting and doing guided breathing exercises even for a short period of time can accelerate your ability to get things done. Doing nothing also means resisting the urge to reply to any emails or text messages on a mobile device or laptop first thing in the morning.

Journal — the power of writing down positive thoughts and ideas in the morning results in greater emotional prosperity and mental health. A journal entry can be done on a mobile device, laptop, a whiteboard, or any other tool you prefer. The journal entry could be positive affirmations, words of gratitude or even doodling your day ahead.

Be a Ninja warrior-like organizer (15 minutes)

The image illustrates why it helps being organized — it reduces the amount of decisions that needs to be made and helps declutter the mind of unnecessary thoughts.

Have you ever arrived at work and found that you’re only productive two hours later? Or perhaps have several interruptions in your day that minimizes your output?

Typically, these interruptions are based on activities that could be organized during your morning routine. It is not possible to organize every hour of your day, but there are activities that you should plan for well in advance, including:

• Food and beverage — whether you prepare lunch at home or get food at the cafe / canteen, that choice can be made in the morning. It eliminates that moment you spend going back and forth in deciding what you want to eat. If you do take food to work, then take the time to prepare it at home and double check that it is in your bag.
• Clothing — the decision of what you’ll be wearing everyday can be one of the most daunting and time consuming morning activities. Founder of Zara, Amancio Ortega, once the richest man in the world, wore the same clothes everyday to work — a blue blazer, white shirt and grey pants. It was one less decision he had to make in the day to make room for decisions that are more important. There’s no need to take the drastic step to wear the same clothes everyday — but you can take 10 minutes every morning to focus on the clothes you will be wearing and prepare them.
• Managing your calendar — before you set foot in the office, your mind should already have a map of how your day is planned out. The early morning is the perfect time to manage any conflicting meetings, remove meetings that are not important and block time for important work.

Time box your day — 20 minutes

An example of what a time boxing calendar may look like

A few years ago Harvard Business Review had an article as to why to-do lists are ineffective. In summary, people typically tackle items that are easy to do, avoid the important tasks and some tasks often require longer term planning that a to-do list does not cater to.

Time-boxing was suggested as an alternative with good reason. For those not familiar with the concept put simply it is defined as: “Allocating time to a task in your calendar and then completing the activity”.

Thus, a portion of your your mornings should be spent in time boxing your day. The benefits is that it prevents unimportant meetings being placed in your calendar. Your mornings should include at least 20 minutes where you time box your day:

• Deep / Meaningful work — this is the type of work which requires creativity and focus. Look at your day and understand your energy levels to best understand where to time box this. Activity.
• Projects — Depending on the status of the project, you need to allocate the deliverables across your week and review them each morning if you’re on track.
• Admin — the task most people dread is admin. Look at your day and see where you can do admin, perhaps when your energy is lowest as the task does not require that much focus or brain power.

The theory in summary, is to place your to do-list in your calendar and stick to them.

Engage in something creative (10 minutes)

There is an endless amount of hobbies to choose from — it should inspire creativity, not be work-related and make you happy.

Finally, your mornings should not only be about vociferously preparing for the day of work ahead. It should include activities that make you happy and take your mind momentarily away from work. The mornings are the time of day where the mind is most productive and creative.

An unintended consequence of a hobby is that:

• It inspires different ideas and creativity in the workplace or for a project
• It reduces stress levels
• Achieving mastery in a hobby can be used as a source of motivation and self-discipline

As Charles Duwhigg argues, habits work on a cue — routine — reward system. With mastering the ability to focus on a hobby, for no less than 15 minutes without distraction — our brains become trained in the habits needed to be more productive during the day. This means not reaching for the cellphone, focusing on a singular task without distraction and feeling a sense of achievement.

That’s a total of one hour, thirty minutes to double productivity

It may be the most valuable one hour and thirty minutes in the day. Continued practice of the above mentioned suggestions leads to habits which results in behavior change. That’s the end goal — a change in the way you do things to increase your productivity.