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Productivity

How to be Productive in the Morning?

November 19, 2013

The way you start your day has a great impact on your productivity and efficiency. Due to busy and advanced lifestyle people generally sleep late in the night even if they don’t have anything else to do. Most people nowadays have a habit of sleeping in front of their television sets or while playing games on their cell phones or just surfing the web. While we think we are relaxing the fact is that we are making our mind work beyond its capacity.

So, when you sleep late it is quite obvious that you will start your day late; as a result you get up in panic and rush through your morning routine in order to catch up with time and you land up messing up your entire day.

Why are mornings best for creative work?

Those who rise early in the morning know how great it feels when you get ample amount of time for yourself and you know that nobody is going to distract you at this time. Here are some reasons why mornings are considered to be the best for creative work:

• When we get up in the morning our mind is like a blank sheet of paper, and best for creative problem solving. As a matter of fact, it is believed that the time from 5:00 am to 6:00 am in the morning is best for focusing your energies in the right direction. It is the time when you are most optimistic in work approach because your body is fully energized and you feel that you can conquer the world.

• Irrespective of what’s going on in your life, you will always get up feeling happy early in the morning. So, this is the time when you are not even distracted by your own emotions and fears. This is how the human body is designed. There is no scope of tension and depression in the early morning hours which is why it is considered to be the best time to work on your goals.

• Most successful people have a habit of getting up early in the morning come what may. We may think that celebrities have an easy life but the fact is that they rise early to polish their skills.

• Getting up early is also considered as an important part of discipline training which is again considered to be an essential attribute of a productive and creative person.

• There are some people who feel that they can be more productive during late nights but working late in the nights makes you feel drowsy in the morning and you look tired & out of focus, not to mention absent minded when you go to work and interact with other people.

There have also been cases where some students studied the whole night for their exams but could not perform well because they were too tired or sleepy to write. Late night work also causes depression and frustration because people find it difficult to tune into their daily lives.

• It is a lot better to move on to your daily work routine feeling like you have already finished or accomplished the toughest task of the day, than to delay your work until after you have exhausted all your energy fulfilling the requirements of other people at home and in office. The routine in today’s busy lifestyle is such that you get up late in the morning, get ready fast (complaining about things that you cannot find probably blaming your spouse and children for the being disorganized in life), rushing through your breakfast, reading depressing and shocking stories in the newspaper etc. You may not even realize but your mind is already exhausted by the time you start working.

• Early morning is considered to be the best time for productive work because at this time you are:

- Focused: As there is no one to disturb you and this is the best time when you can clamp down and get your work completed.
- Motivated: As you develop this routine your performance will improve and you would get motivated to achieve more.
- Able to achieve more by putting in less effort: This is because your mind is fresh at this time and there is clarity of task.

If you get up early in the morning and work on a problem with a fresh mind, you will be able to give your complete attention to the problem and also be able to resolve it in no time.

So, now the question is that- what should the mornings be like for those who want to improve their creativity? Well, the answer is simple, get up early in the morning. How early?- You must get up about two hours before you have to leave for workplace. Never get up in a rush. Spend some time in the bed thinking about what to do in the day. Maintain a book for noting down things that you have to do or achieve at any cost.

How Can One Make a Morning Habit to Get Their Most Important Work Done?

The most important thing about getting up early is to decide about the time at which you need to get up. Keep the target realistic. Getting up as early as three or four in the morning is not going to help you. When the alarm rings there is no need to rush out of the bed. Spend the first few moments thinking about the tasks that you would like to do (revise what you decided in the night)

Starting your day on the right note is important. 15–20 minutes of meditation, walk, reading of religious text or a cup of tea with family (or peacefully alone) prepares you for the day. All this is required to energize your mind and body. If you rush up with things, you will feel exhausted even before the day starts.

Most successful people have a habit of getting up early in the morning, this is because you can finish off a lot of work in the morning. Here are some tips that would help you develop a morning habit. Remember that at the beginning this may seem like a difficult task but once you get used to it, life will become a lot easier.

Religiously Wake Up Every day at the same Time

It is better to get up at least two hours before you leave for office. This gives you ample time to plan your day. Getting up at the same time everyday helps you in tuning your body clock and making it a habit. If you get up at different times your body will never get adjusted to the desired routine. Get up in one go and no, never press snooze.

Setting up the alarm

Set up the alarm and keep it at a place that is not easily reachable or else you will instantly press snooze and go back to sleep and the whole idea of getting up early will be ruined. Get up at the first instant you hear the alarm. If you find it difficult to stay awake it is best to move out of the room and stand in open space such as your garden, verandah or balcony. Sit for some time in a room that is well lighted with natural sunlight.

Getting to work

Check the book where you have noted the to-do list for the day. Focus on the toughest task that you have in hand and start working on it or decide a plan for it. If there is nothing very important written for that day, then you can focus on things that generally consume the maximum time such as cooking food for the day etc. You can also get into yoga or any other fitness activity.

What is the best diet to eat in the morning?

A healthy mind exists in a healthy body. Along with proper routine and exercise it is important to eat right in order to tune your body clock right. As per the analysis given by health.com rushing out of home without eating anything is the major cause of overeating later in the day. It is important to eat a healthy breakfast, because you have a long day ahead and morning is the time when you need maximum energy. Whatever you get in the morning gets digested easily however, as the day proceeds our energy levels starts falling as our activities begin to decrease with time. The body’s capacity to digest food is the lowest at dinner time. Most of us skip our meals in the daytime or eat irregularly and then during the night we eat mindlessly and laze around before we sleep. This is again a major cause for getting up late. The site suggests 20 best breakfast options to start the day right:

1. Oatmeal 2. Greek Yogurt 3. Wheat Germ 4. Grapefruit 5. Bananas 6. Eggs 7. Almond Butter 8. Watermelon 9. Flaxseed 10. Blueberries 11. Strawberries 12. Coffee 13. Tea 14. Cantaloupe 15. Kiwi 16. Orange juice 17. Cranberry Juice 18. Cereal 19. Raspberries 20. Whole-wheat bread

As per life.familyeducation.com breakfast seems to be the most skipped meal of the day. Our good night sleep can be as long as 8–12 hours during which the body goes without any food. In the morning it is important to restore the blood sugar levels in the body and this can be accomplished only by breaking down food in the body. Breakfast provides instant glucose and energy supplies to the body. The brain is in great need of glucose in the morning and if you are ambitious in your life then you have no right to deny yourself a proper breakfast in the morning. Eating a good breakfast makes you more productive and efficient and also helps in improving creative problem solving abilities.

Developing the habit

It can take anywhere between 30–60 days to develop a habit. You have to be consistent and follow the same routine day after day religiously and dedicatedly. So, it is important that you don’t skip your routine even for a single day. Good luck!

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