Isolation Inspiration: The Top Twelve Morning Routines from some of the World’s Best Minds to Kick Start Your Day
For the first time in history, you can save the world just by staying home and doing nothing… Or better still, stay home and introduce a new activity into your morning routine so that you emerge from isolation happier and healthier!
Here at Thriverapp we’ve curated thousands of habits, tools, techniques and success-systems that many of the world’s best minds use to excel. Today we’re sharing twelve of the simplest, quickest and most effective morning routines that will kick start your day during lock down. 😊
1. Wake Up Early | Tim Cook. You don’t have to wake up at 4am like our Thriverapp Hero Tim Cook (Apple CEO) does. However, if you commit to waking up 30-min earlier every day you’ll create over four weeks of brand spanking new time every year! Then use that time to start a new hobby, get fitter or work on something you’re passionate about! NB: Four weeks calculated from an average working week of forty hours. “Lose an hour in the morning and you’ll spend all day hunting for it.” Richard Whately
2. 10–15 Push Ups (exercise) | Tim Ferriss. It doesn’t get much simpler than this! Crawl out of bed, drop to the floor and do 10–15 push ups to get your blood flowing. Push ups are a great exercise for improving muscle mass and cardiovascular health. Although Motivational Max - our Thriverapp AI Life Coach - may suggest something a little more challenging, I suggest you start here... Once you’ve been doing 10–15 reps for a week, gradually increase the rep count over time to uncover greater health benefits. “How many push ups do you do? I don’t know. I only starts counting when it starts hurting.” Muhammad Ali.
3. 3-min Body Weight Workout (exercise) | Gareth Robinson. That would be me! If you want to try something a little more challenging than 10–15 push ups, then this 3-min at home body weight workout is a great place to start! First up are Jumping Jacks for 1-min, then Squats for another minute followed by Mountain Climbers for 30-seconds. Rest for 30-seconds and you’re done! Once you’ve done that for 5-days in a row try two rounds one after the other. 🏋 “Exercise is the key not only to physical health but to peace of mind.” Nelson Mandela
4. 90-seconds Mindfulness and Grounding (meditation) | Satya Nadella. When asked during a recent podcast interview Satya said that the one meditative thing he does every day is a mindfulness and grounding exercise. Michael Gervais a high performance psychologist taught him it and it starts while still in bed by taking a deep breath, which should last about 12 seconds. Next, you mentally name something you’re thankful for. Then make one intention for your day and see it in your mind’s eye. Finally, put your feet on the ground and just feel your feet. “It grounds you, it gets you in touch with yourself and the world around you, it’s fascinating,” Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO)
5. 10-min Priming Exercise (meditation) | Tony Robbins. This Priming Exercise that Tony does every morning to give himself more energy is split into four separate activities. Start with a 1-min Breathing Exercise: Sit straight with your eyes closed. Inhale deeply through your nostrils while simultaneously lifting your arms in a shoulder press motion, then exhale forcefully through your nostrils while bringing your arms back to your body, palms up. Perform the breaths in quick succession and repeat three times with a brief break in between sets. 3-min Expressing Gratitude: Spend one minute each on three things which you are grateful for, reliving them as moments. 3-min Connection Experience: Imagine a light flowing in through your head and through to the rest of your body, feel as if the light is energising and healing you. In this visualisation, the light flows back up to your head and then flows outward to the rest of the world, reaching your loved ones as well as strangers. Finish with 3-min Visualising Success: Spend a minute imagining what it would feel like to accomplish one of your goals, then repeat for two more goals. Focus on how these accomplishments not only benefit you but also allow you to help others. You are now ‘primed’ and ready to go! “The goal of meditation is not to get rid of thoughts or emotions. The goal is to become more aware of your thoughts and emotions and learn how to move through them without getting stuck.” Doctor P. Goldin
6. Write down Three Things I’m grateful for | James Clear. Practising gratitude is an important part of the previous two exercises and it’s what this journaling exercise from James Clear is all about. Since I started practising gratitude a few years ago, I’ve found it extremely beneficial. When I’m feeling a bit down it has helped me focus on the positive and overall has shifted the dial in my life so that I am consistently more content. As the title suggests, every morning simply write down the three things you’re grateful for! There are dozens of online articles offering advice on how to best start a Gratitude Journal, so find one technique that resonates and begin. Of course journaling isn't all about gratitude (more on that later), and it can also be done at other times of the day. In fact, a number of our Thriver Heroes journal at night, or better yet they journal both in the morning and night (like our next Thriverapp Hero below Ryan Holiday does). Finally, remember that one of the benefits of actually writing down what you’re grateful for, rather than just saying it, is if in future you need a lift, you can always open up your journal and reread what you have to be thankful for. “Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die; so, let us all be thankful.” Buddha.
7. Journal | Ryan Holiday. I want to expand a little on introducing journaling into your morning routine because research has shown that it can boost your mood, improve your sense of well being, increase your working memory and even reduce symptoms of depression. According to Ryan, journaling is The Most Important Thing You Can Do Each Morning (he wrote a blog post titled exactly that!). Ryan quotes Tim Ferriss as saying; “journaling is the most cost-effective therapy I’ve ever found.” This statement is backed up by many psychologists who recommend journaling as an important tool to improve your quality of life. As with the previous activity there are thousands of online articles sharing tips on how to start journaling. Alternatively, you can check out Ryan’s blog post here. If after reading Ryan’s tips they don’t resonate, then spend 30-minutes doing some further research to find a method that does. And, don’t forget to a] start small and b] that you don’t have to journal in the morning, if the evening suits you better then that’s OK! A bonus to journaling in the evening is that it can improve your sleep by decluttering your mind. “Keep a notebook. Travel with it, eat with it, sleep with it. Slap into it every stray thought that flutters up into your brain. Cheap paper is less perishable than gray matter. And lead pencil markings endure longer than memory.” Jack London
8. Drink a large glass of water | Tom Brady. As soon as you wake up, drink 600 ml / 20 ounces of cool clean water. Tom (arguably the most successful Quarterback in history) chooses to add an electrolyte concentrate to his glass of water, however, here at Thriverapp we’re happy for you to take or leave the electrolyte concentrate. “Drinking water is like taking a shower on the inside of your body.” Unknown
9. Take a Cold Shower | Paul Taylor. Speaking of showers, cold showers can help improve your willpower and ability to manage stress. According to many, even just 30-seconds of cold water (at the end of your hot water shower) will recharge your brain, improve lymphatic and cardiovascular circulation, strengthen your immune system and ultimately make you healthier and happier! “We can do more than what we think.’ It’s a belief system that I have adopted and it has become my motto. There is more than meets the eye and unless you are willing to experience new things, you’ll never realise your full potential.” Wim Hof
10. Decide Your Outfit the Night Before (start the night before) | Gretchen Rubin. This super simple habit is possibly the easiest ‘morning’ routine to embed in your life. Choose what you’re going to wear the night before and get it out ready to go tomorrow. This means that in the morning you do not have to think about your outfit, you simply get dressed and get into the rest of your morning routine (shower optional!). You can take this routine one step further and decide on one or two ‘work uniforms’. This is a technique that a number of Thriverapp Heroes do, including Mark Zuckerberg and Barack Obama. By choosing a work uniform they are removing the need to choose, therefore, saving time and ‘turning a small decision into a habit’. That’s a great productivity tip! “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. Style is what you choose.” Lauren Hutton
11. Write down 2–3 Important Projects to Focus On Tomorrow (start the night before) | Shane Parrish. Another great routine to start the night before - and one I try to do every evening - is to write a short list of the most important tasks or projects that you want to work on the next day. You then allocate some blocks of time in the morning (ideally at least one hour for each block of time) where you can focus on the few important tasks you’ve written down. In addition to improving your effectiveness and efficiency, this routine can also improve your sleep (much like journaling) because it declutters your mind. “We don’t manage time. We manage activities within time.” Bernard Kelvin Clive
12. Get One Thing Done Before Checking Your Phone and Email | Ryan Holiday. OK, so this isn’t exactly a ten minute or less morning routine. And, in the example Ryan gives he talks about email rather than his phone. However, I’m using some artistic license here because not only will this technique make your morning routine more effective, it will also increase your happiness and health! I could write a book about the risks of smartphone addiction, and how to manage it, however, there are plenty more qualified people out there who have already done just that. Suffice to say that for most of us, if we reduced our time on the phone we’d be happier and healthier. So this routine is another simple one; every morning make sure that you finish one professional or personal task for the day before you get on your phone! ”Turn off your email; turn off your phone; disconnect from the internet; figure out a way to set limits so you can concentrate when you need to, and disengage when you need to. Technology is a good servant but a bad master.” Gretchen Rubin
Going forward, my suggestion is that you introduce one to two new activities into your morning routine for one week. Following that week, review your success (or not) and continue to take positive action moving forward. And please bear in mind that even on a good day I only do seven out of the twelve routines. 😊
If you’re curious about what other inspirational morning routines, books, habits and success-systems we have on Thriverapp, or you want to check out our upcoming Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, you can find out more @ www.thriverapp.com
Please give me a ‘clap’ if you found this helpful, and watch out for the next collection of Thriverapp favourites coming soon to a social platform near you…
Stay healthy and good luck with that new morning routine!
Cheers, Gareth
Thriverapp co-founder
