Want To Supercharge Your Productivity? Try These 5 Morning Rituals

First things first:

I’m an office guy.

Unlike most readers and visitors of Work In My Pajamas, I spend about a third of my weekdays behind a desk. But perhaps you’d agree that we all can use a boost in productivity and energy, regardless of where we work.

And if you do, please read on. You may just walk away with a technique or two that can double or even triple your output, while still having enough energy to enjoy your after-work hours.

You see, your routine after waking up can set the tone for the rest of the day. Start by procrastinating and watching cat videos on YouTube, and you’re likely to end the day with little progress on your most important projects and goals.

But if you start your mornings with the right rituals, you may find that you’re in excellent shape to take on the day’s biggest challenges. Just about any successful entrepreneur has a set of morning rituals they carry out without fail.

Virgin Group’s founder Richard Branson wakes up as early as 5AM to break a sweat and spend time with the family to prep him for the day.

“No matter where I am in the world, I try to routinely wake up at around 5am. By rising early, I’m able to do some exercise and spend time with my family, which puts me in a great mind frame before getting down to business,” he said in a blog post.

Mark Zuckerberg starts his day by working out and taking a shower. Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, spends his first 30 minutes meditating followed by a 21-minute workout.

And Arianna Huffington, author and co-founder of the Huffington Post, meditates for 30 minutes before exercising and doing yoga for another half-an-hour.

Ask any of these super entrepreneurs if their morning rituals played a role in their productivity and success, and the answer would be a resounding yes!

However, what worked for them may not work for you. Their morning rituals took a lot of experimentation and years of practice. Not to mention the challenges they face and the circumstances they’re in are probably different from yours.

So instead, experiment and try to find what works for you. And today, I will show you 5 morning rituals you should consider adding to your routine – and the science-backed reasons why.

Let’s go!

1. Drink Water First Thing In The Morning

You just spent the past 6 to 8 hours in bed, without any fluid intake. Chances are, you are dehydrated even if you don’t feel thirsty. It’s the reason why opening those eyes and getting out of bed is a struggle, while hitting the snooze button is so tempting.

The solution?

Drink at least 2 glasses or about 16oz of water when the alarm sets off.

Water, or the lack of it, can be the difference between feeling tired and feeling ready to power through your morning activities. And the amazing, productivity-friendly perks of rehydrating doesn’t end there.

Did you know that drinking only 500ml of water fires up your metabolism by up to 30%? And in case you’re not aware, part of metabolism’s responsibilities, so to speak, is to turn nutrients into energy. Energy which you’ll need to take on the rest of the day.

And remember:

Your brain is 85% water. Without the fuel your brain cells need, your ability to remember stuff, maintain focus, and give your best at work is severely impaired.

2. Exercise For 10 To 15 Minutes

We are all familiar with the physical benefits of regular exercise. But while exercise helps you lose those excess pounds and brings you closer to that beach-ready bod, the benefits go beyond the physical.

For starters, breaking a sweat increases blood flow to the brain, keeping one alert and focused as a result.

In a 2008 study involving more than 250 employees, the participants scored higher on performance indicators on the days they exercised. Not to mention the employees enjoyed a more positive mood and exhibited greater resilience at work.

And if a bigger-than-usual workload is staring at you, exercise can give you the energy boost needed to overcome the hurdle.

A study carried out by researchers from the University of Georgia found that a quick workout can reduce fatigue symptoms by 65%, while increasing energy levels by 20%. And the best part? Even physical activities with low-to-moderate intensity can produce such benefits.

No need to enroll in gruelling and expensive Crossfit classes. Strength training, a 10 to 15-minute jog, or a couple of bodyweight exercises are more than enough.

3. Mindfulness Meditation

Emails from disgruntled customers, an unfinished project nearing a deadline, monthly sales figures at a record low – all of these and more can drive you nuts if left unchecked. And when you’re exposed to workplace stress all the time, your engagement, productivity, and satisfaction plummets.

But what if you can keep your mind calm and collected despite the chaos, allowing you to find that light at the end of the tunnel?

Enter mindfulness meditation.

Mindfulness meditation is a practice in concentrated focus, maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of one’s immediate environment, bodily sensations, thoughts, and breathing.

Now, some of you may dismiss the practice as something reserved for monks living in isolation. But hear me out. While mindfulness meditation has its roots in Buddhism, it has entered the mainstream thanks to its long list of research-backed benefits.

The findings of a 2014 research from Carnegie Mellon University revealed that practicing mindfulness meditation for only 25 minutes for 3 days relieves stress while boosting people’s resilience.

The study involved 66 healthy individuals who were subjected to speech and math stress tasks in front of stern-faced evaluators. The result? The participants who went through brief mindfulness program reported reduced stress perceptions while showing greater cortisol reactivity.

But that’s not the whole picture.

Richie Davidson, a neuroscientist at the Center for Healthy Minds, found that meditating can lead to positive and measurable changes in the brain.

To be specific, 30 minutes of daily meditation increased the grey matter in the anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex, and hippocampus – regions of the brain which are associated with cognitive flexibility, problem-solving, emotional regulation, and learning.

Not bad, eh?

4. Work On Your MIT

“Every minute you spend in planning saves 10 minutes in execution; this gives you a 1000 percent Return On Energy!” says Brian Tracy, the world-famous motivational public speaker and self-development author.

But if your way of “planning” involves writing down a to-do list with 20 items (half of which you know you can’t fulfill), making real progress towards your most important goals will be near-impossible.

So here’s a much better suggestion:

Identify your MIT and focus on getting it done.

MIT stands for “Most Important Task.” Gary Keller calls it the one thing, while Brian Tracy calls it eating the frog. However you want to call it, the idea remains the same. Your most important task is the key task you have to do every day to get you closer to your goal.

But how do you identify what’s your MIT?

The first step you need to take is find your number one goal. You want to spend, perhaps, a good portion of your weekend deciding what’s your priority (not priorities).

For a freelance writer, securing 10 more clients within the next 6 months. For a blogger, adding 5,000 new email subscribers in a year sounds like a good plan. And as for a subscription-based services provider, a good target might be increasing customer retention.

Whatever goal you set, you want to make sure that it’s measurable and has a deadline. From here, you want to break down your big goal to smaller chunks – month-by-month and day-by-day.

Going back to the examples above:

If you want to gain 10 new clients as a freelance writer, your daily MIT could be to reach out and network with 10 prospects via LinkedIn.

To get more subscribers, your MIT could be to write 1,000 words for your new ebook or report, which you’ll offer in exchange for emails.

And to boost customer retention for a subscription-based business, a good daily task might be analyzing the reasons why current subscribers leave so you can fix those holes.

Once you have identified your MIT, don’t just let it be a task. Work on it day in and day out. Doing so may not feel like you’re making huge progress towards your most important business objectives. But the small steps, when taken collectively, will enable you to leap over your biggest challenges at work.

5. Drink Coffee – At The Right Time

Coffee is one of the most, if not the most, popular beverage around.

And why not?

It gives drinkers a sudden boost of energy, helping one to jump start their day or get through an afternoon slump. An excellent companion for anyone – CEO, employee, or work-at-home freelancer – who burned the midnight oil and didn’t get enough sleep.

But coffee is more than just a “pick me up” drink.

Coffee’s numerous healthy benefits earned the drink its reputation as a superfood for health enthusiasts, an ergogenic aid for athletes, and a performance-enhancer for office employees.

Caffeine, which is abundant in coffee, has been shown to boost energy metabolism in the brain while also decreasing fatigue. And if a job demands learning new things quickly, coffee lovers can rest easy knowing that 2 cups of coffee (or 200mg of caffeine) can boost their learning ability while improving short-term memory.

But if you’re like most people who consume their cup of Joe first thing in the morning, you are not getting the most out of coffee.

You see, our bodies are governed by a 24-hour hormonal cycle, also known as the circadian clock. And this biological clock “commands” the body to reach peak cortisol production 8AM to 9AM.

Now, cortisol is a hormone which makes us feel alert and awake. This means, if you drink coffee when you get out of bed, you are getting diminishing returns from your caffeinated beverage. Worse, since you are consuming coffee when not necessary, your body is more likely to build tolerance to it.

So instead, take your cup of Joe after you are finished with your other morning activities, probably around 9:30AM to 11:30AM when cortisol levels are low.