How you start your morning is how you continue your day, which is why it’s vitally important that you do not skip breakfast, but also start purposefully pumping yourself up for the rest of the day, giving yourself a fighting chance to actually commit to training, eating enough food and indulging in any activity that gets you moving.
- Drink 2 glasses of water. When you wake up in the morning you’re in a dehydrated state. Think about it, you just went 8 hours without drinking anything – how can you possibly expect to function properly? Get yourself to a tap asap and start chuggin’ that H20. Your brain will appreciate it.
- Use momentum-based exercises. I’ve written about why momentum sucks before, but that’s when it comes to building strength. As a way to get your blood flowing momentum is what you should crave. Any type of exercise that can involve a quick succession of reps will do, although perhaps the easiest is to just do 5-10 push ups in under 20 seconds. Pull ups, sit ups, and just jogging on the spot work well too.
- Step outside. I find this easy to forget to do simply because I do all my work inside sitting at a computer. And with the wonders of the internet it’s too easy to get sucked into hours of work until you suddenly “wake up” and realize the day is gone. But don’t be like me. Catch some Vitamin D in the morning and if you want to be ultra awesome, go for a short, slow walk around the block. Nothing more revitalizing than some fresh air while strolling around your town.
- Avoid digital connection. For over 90% of my life I’ve been a huge computer geek so I know what it’s like to be connected 24/7 through mobile phones, game consoles, regular computers etc. And I also know how mentally draining that constant connection is. Try to avoid any form of electronic device (including TV) for the first hour (or even two hours) of the day when you wake up. This makes a huge difference for how the rest of the day goes.
- Understand what needs to be done. You need a plan. And that plan needs to be written the day before. I fall down on this step too and the effects are horribly noticeable. Every day at 5pm get out a pen and piece of paper and write down the top 2 things you need to do in terms of work and top 2 things you need to do in terms of other goals. With this specificity and act of physically writing your plan down you’ll be able to find your groove much quicker and slide rather than stumble into the day’s activities.
Photo: joshuahoffmanphoto
