What The Most Productive Entrepreneurs Do Every Morning
What we can learn from great morning routines
Whether it’s deliberate or not, most of us have a morning routine. We have an alarm that goes off, and a time that we eat and leave the house. The morning can be an under-utilised part of the day because the focus is often to simply get work. Those hours can be used to our advantage to improve our productivity.
We look to other entrepreneurs for inspiration here. There’s a different mindset for entrepreneurs who want to be able to get the most out of their day, and value each hour. Here are some of our favourite morning routines, from some of our most inspiring entrepreneurs.
John Paul DeJoria
DeJoria is the cofounder of Patrón tequila and Paul Mitchell hair products. He worked his way from homelessness to being the head of a multi-million dollar company, and he begins each morning the same way. The first thing he does every morning is take five minutes to reflect. Before any work begins, he takes some time to sit and just be.
Anna Wintour
American Vogue’s editor is a formidable force, as we saw in The September Issue. Her morning routine is equally impressive. Each morning, she rises at 5:45am for an hour long tennis match, before having her hair styled into her trademark bob and heading straight to the office. Anna’s routine is about doing the things she loves, and ensuring that she feels like herself by the time she starts work at 9am.
Steve Jobs
Legendary Apple CEO Steve Jobs explained this routine in a commencement address he gave in 2005. Each morning, Jobs would stand in front of his mirror and ask himself ‘If today was the last day of my life, would I be happy with what I’m about to do today?’. It’s a question that forced him to think about his goals, and to know that if the answer was no then action was required.
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the US, and proof that things like visualisation and morning mantras aren’t just a modern thing. Franklin’s to-do list is available to see, and his morning routine is something to be envied. He sets aside his morning, from 5am to 7am, to get himself ready for the day. Each morning he asked himself ‘What good shall I do this day’, and planned to follow up that evening to evaluate if he had been successful in his hopes.
Arianna Huffington
Huffington is a vocal advocate of making the most of the first minutes of your day by avoiding your email. That rule extends to keeping your phone away from your bedroom when you’re sleeping, in case you’re tempted to check them overnight. The intention is to allow yourself to get the rest that you need in order to perform best once you’re at work. She feels that your own wellbeing should always come before what everybody else wants of you. Before any work, she practices Yoga and meditation to begin the day with something beneficial.
Oprah Winfrey
America’s richest self-made woman explained that she only has around five and a half hours of sleep each day. She allows herself to be woken by her own natural rhythms instead of an alarm clock, and still wakes up in the same seven minute window every morning. She said that “Everything begins and ends with stillness: a conscious awareness of my presence within the greater presence of all, whether I’m paying attention to the way the sun’s rising, or whether it’s misty out in the morning on the trees,”
Your morning routine will vary on your personality type. You might be a night owl, and need a few more hours in the morning. You might wake up full of energy, and need to burn some off immediately. The most important things to remember are that the best productivity comes from somebody who looks after themselves. A good breakfast, and a focus on staying healthy and well is the key to a perfect morning.
