Win the Morning, Win the Day: Morning Rituals

If you win the morning, you win the day.

If you win the morning, you win the day. Morning rituals can include everything from meditating, bed-making to drinking tea. The difference between a ritual and a habit is the feeling that underpins it. Therefore, while putting on a pot of coffee and unloading the dishwasher every morning is a useful routine, it lacks the emotional impact to quality as a ritual.

On the other hand, something as simple as drinking tea from your favorite mug while listening to a podcast can help set you up for the day. Likewise, engaging in exercise that make you feel good will boost your mood and readiness for work.

Take time out for focused thinking. Highly successful people tend to engage in thinking rituals. Producing morning pages (writing immediately after you wake up) and night-time journaling are popular. Taking time out for focused thinking might seem difficult but if you start with small goals and build off of them you are more likely to succeed.

To boost your professional productivity, why not commit to spending 10 or 15 minutes a day reflecting on your work, assessing current projects and considering future targets? While reviewing your to-do list can feel like procrastination, it’s vital if you want to plan how to spend your time wisely.

Here are some examples to inspire you:

• Writing down your most important tasks for the day
• Affirm your goals in writing or drawing
• Listen to uplifting music
• Look in the mirror and say ‘today is going to be a great day’
• Meditate
• Don’t look at your phone until you leave the house