Mornings Are Not for Producing, They Are for Saving Your Day
How your mornings affect your whole workday and your mood stays longer than you think.
Unsurprisingly, there is power in morning habits.
The hype around the first hours of great CEOs has become practically a cookbook for any contemporary professional.
However, one thing almost no one talks about is that it’s no use copying other people’s routines.
The best way to increase your productivity and your daily well-being is to understand how your body works in the morning.
This study from Wharton Business School demonstrated how your morning mood defines the rest of your day.
SPOILER: using your smartphone and screens is not in any of these moments.
A Good Mood Is Formed, Not Acquired
So you must fight for it every morning.
Even the most humorous people have bad days. The difference is that some have a greater propensity to be in a good mood as soon as they wake up.
In that case, a little discipline is indispensable. Your previous day (and night) will make the difference.
After all, as I’ve mentioned in other articles, the most intense activity in our brain is greater in the limbic system during the morning.
The limbic system, in addition to quick-access and quick-forgetting memories, is also related to emotions. This explains why we don’t want to get out of bed when we’re going through a tough time in life or work.
The emotions generated early in the morning will dictate how your “intelligent self” will prepare for the day in the prefrontal cortex.
Activating the Prefrontal Cortex
The cortex is more related to rational decision-making as well as long-term memories and goals.
The problem lies in the fact that the cortex wakes up after the limbic system, so it will carry with it the emotions that were generated in the first hour of the morning.
Although it’s more difficult, the more you focus on the good things in your morning, the better, such as:
- Breakfast with the family.
- Meditation, prayer or other spiritual activity.
- Wisdom, literature etc.
- Exercises, weight training.
Of course, this is tricky, because in bad times we rarely have time for all of this.
It’s not always possible, but it sure makes a difference if you can do one or more of these activities when you wake up.
At the very least, try to avoid bad things like news, social media and emails. All of this will activate your sense of urgency and defense.
The Intentional Transition
Separating work from personal life, as I said, is often not possible.
However, doing this decoupling at least in the morning will guarantee greater productivity — even if it doesn’t seem like it.
The “intentional transition” is precisely the ability to do things exclusively yours before starting to work, to prepare your body and head for the moment of high responsibility.
Morning routines are small steps to eliminate negativity before starting work. These are activities that will make your body breathe before focusing for long hours.
The Harms of Being a Night Owl
Let’s face it, how many people do you know who work in high performance and only do it at night?
- A bodybuilder who only trains overnight?
- A businessman who begins after the working hours?
- A blogger who only publishes texts when his audience is asleep?
There may be a few, yes, but an extreme minority — and you’re probably not part of it.
Okay, we know that our bodies were designed to function during the day. But what exactly does this mean?
This means that all of our brain and hormonal activity is linked to the circadian cycle. In other words, the fluids that activate our intelligence, our disposition and our strength are not produced when we change the day for the night.
Therefore, this exceeds the limit of the discipline. Even if you have a high level of self-control, everything in your body will do the opposite.
And so begins the development of severe disorders, such as:
- Insomnia.
- Anxiety.
- Depression.
- Uncontrolled food intake.
- Lack of memory.
And many, many other factors.
Therefore, even though some periods require long hours, well into the night, consider whether the time spent at night would not be better used if performed early the next day. And never, ever let it become a habit.
Here’s What To Do for an Amazing Morning
On the other hand, what do you need to know to put into practice a morning that will guarantee a full day of high performance?
We already know all that stuff about not using your cell phone etc. Let’s go to more practical things and fewer clichés.
It’s Not About Getting Up Early, It’s About Getting Up on Time
5 AM Club is a bourgeois myth. It works for some, but not for others.
The normal thing is to wake up a little later, but some prefer to wake up earlier. The fitting of sleeping hours is extremely personal, and it has more to do with a certain logic than with strict schedules.
Reconcile with your corporate schedule, the time for your morning routine and the time you prefer to sleep.
Morning Nutrition Really Matters
Another bourgeois myth is the cinema breakfast.
I, for example, don’t even feel hungry when I wake up. The important thing here is to focus on foods that spark your day and that have nutrients that are not present in other meals, such as fruits, oats, nuts.
Plus, there’s also the practicality factor. Hardly anyone has a cook at home, so preparing breakfast can take up precious time.
Thank God we live in a world where the food industry is fully developed, providing good quality ready-to-eat food.
In addition, food supplements are also very practical for this time, especially for people who do not like to eat so much at this time.
Not to mention that the breakfast ritual is a great time to interact with your family and the people who live with you.
Caffeine Is Good, but Go Easy
If you’re a person who doesn’t wake up until you’ve had coffee, this is the consequence of addiction.
Coffee is good and has great benefits. This is undeniable.
However, few people say this, but our production of cortisol — a hormone that regulates stress, blood pressure and the immune system — is stimulated by the consumption of caffeine.
It turns out that cortisol is produced in the early hours of the day, and if you drink coffee in large amounts early on, your body assumes that it doesn’t need to stimulate cortisol production by itself, as an external agent — coffee — does this work for him.
The result is addiction, and the absence of coffee will raise your blood pressure, your stress and lower your immunity.
The good news is that this can be safely avoided by leaving coffee drinking for 1–2 hours awake.
Look at Your Whole Day
Before you change your status to “online” in company chat, make sure you have a preview of how your day will start and end.
Even though things are different (and possibly will be) from what was planned, this practice will bring a sense of division of tasks.
You will know when you need more concentration and energy, and that makes all the difference.
Bonus: Writing Is More Important Than Reading in the Morning
This is a 100% empirical experiment applied to me.
Reading books in the morning is wonderful indeed. However, unlike what “successful CEOs” say, the best way to generate focus and resilience for an entire day is to write by hand on paper.
Every morning I open a notebook and freely write anything that comes to my mind. There I put reflections, expectations for the day, feelings and sometimes meaningless things.
It’s not about creating a plan for the day or anything like that, but getting rid of the thoughts that have accumulated in my head while doing integration of my sensory-motor system. This activates areas of the brain that cannot be activated only by reading, and no way they can be done via keyboard and monitor.
