It is said that, if you can win the morning, you can win the day. And nothing is more satisfying than having a productive day and the feeling of being in control of your life. But, being in control means doing what's always best for you. Even though we know what's right, somehow we tend to ignore them and start doing the opposite.
Well, we all have this habit of going to bed late and waking up late feeling exhausted and a wave of disappointment washes through us. No matter how much we try to change it, after a couple of days, we gradually give up. As much it is easy to break a good habit, it's much harder to rebuild it when it's not built in a day. Habits are built after days and months of constant practice and once you develop them, they'll benefit you throughout your entire life.
In this article, I'll lead you through the billionaire's morning routine, explaining how it helps them to achieve success and why they follow it along with helping you to make your productive morning routine.
Waking up early:
Waking up around dawn and going to bed before midnight is something every successful person tends to follow. You can't deny how much work you can do throughout the day if you wake up early. Successful people like Tim Cook, Richard Branson, Oprah Winfrey, follow this sleep cycle, strictly acknowledging the fact that an early, waking call can be good for your mind, body, and overall wellness and, as they have to remain engaged in almost every part of their job, they wake up around 4, 5 or 6 am to clean their schedule and spend time with themselves.
Now morning is the most important part of our day. According to the academic journal Natural Communications, early risers are less likely to develop mental health problems along with less stress and keeping minds under control.
Now, you might ask whether it's possible or not to feel less drowsy throughout the day when you wake up early in the morning. When you wake up early, your body feels tired early, leading to quality sleep as soon as you go to bed. You get accustomed to the natural circadian rhythm making you go to bed early and early to rise.
But if the quality of sleep is not good or if you go to bed and tend to wake up early, your body will react differently with less sleep to you feeling sleepy the whole day. According to research, enough sleep and waking up early helps the body and mind to get enough relaxation, resulting in less drowsiness.
As much as we want to implement this routine of 'successful' people in our daily lives, it is much more crucial to know that this routine is not for everyone. Research says it is important to get a minimum of 7 hours of sleep and a maximum of 9 hours of sleep per day. But, when you look at Elton Musk, he sleeps only 6 hours and happens to function just fine.
Remember, we all have different physiology, which makes us different from others. Waking up early is good, but you also have to get a good night's sleep to keep up in the morning.
Meditation:
When it comes to meditation, billionaires love to meditate. Meditation is a place where an individual uses a technique of mindfulness or focuses on a particular object, thought, or activity, which helps them to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally controlled state. No wonder how billionaires can stay so focused and determined on their jobs.
Meditation also acts as a stress reliever. When you meditate, it strengthens areas of your brain responsible for memory, learning, attention, and self-awareness. The practice can also help calm down your sympathetic nervous system.
Over time, mindfulness meditation can increase cognition, memory, and attention. People who meditate, appear to be more aware of their unconscious mind. Scientists have found evidence that people who practice mindful meditation are more aware of their unconscious brain activity, leading to a feeling of conscious control over their bodies.
That's what makes billionaires so successful. One of their keys to achieving success in meditation and that is the only reason why billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Warren Buffet prioritize their sleep and meditation over everything. If you want to be successful, you have to keep in mind that achieving success is hard.
It needs full determination and enthusiasm to never give up. At a point, it is obvious to feel low, but what holds you from not giving up is the determinedness that lies deep down within us. So, to hold that strength, being able to meditate can lead you to remain focused and determined for a long time.
Just 5–10 minutes of meditation is enough for a healthy mind. Take that time and invest it in focusing on what matters to you and letting your mind find its way.
Exercise:
Exercise is the most common activity among successful people. Mark Zuckerberg and Richard Branson all agree with this activity.n They believe that the key to achieving success is exercise.
“I seriously doubt that I would have been as successful in my career (and happy in my personal life) if I hadn’t always placed importance on my health and fitness,” says Richard Branson in a business interview.
Keeping the body fit with the mind is very important. Exercising daily can improve your muscle strength and your endurance. It is another way of making your body more active throughout the day.
The benefits of exercising are endurable. Exercise can be a fun activity. You don't have to do those cardio exercises, just do what makes you happy. Likewise, playing tennis, going for a swim or jogging is effective too, while making exercise more fun and enjoyable.
Having a healthy diet:
Health is wealth. Having a healthy diet and maintaining it can not only help you throughout your entire life but will ensure you lead a healthy and happy life. You shouldn't negotiate about your health.
Well, a healthy diet is essential for good health and nutrition. It protects you against many chronic non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. Eating a variety of foods and consuming less salt, sugars, and saturated and industrially-produced trans-fats, are essential for a healthy diet.
The reason why billionaires don't negotiate about their diet is that they are well aware of their health. Having a healthy diet doesn't mean you have to leave all your favorite foods. Just eat what's necessary and limit your junk food, because at the end of the day, what will keep you healthy and balanced is your nutritional balance.
Planning your day while making a to-do list:
Now, this is the most important part of starting the day. While you plan, you start your day, it is more helpful when you start it with a plan starting from the most important task to the least important ones. This step will help you to manage your time along with separating your tasks according to your priorities.
This is one of the major steps for billionaires to maintain their schedule. They just create a map between them and their goals and take the necessary actions to achieve them.
By keeping such a list, you make sure that your tasks are written down all in one place so you don't forget anything important. And by prioritizing tasks, you plan the order in which you'll do them so that you can tell what needs your immediate attention, and what you can leave until later.
While unwanted distractions make your mind off track, your goals will remind you of your desired destination.
If you ask me, I plan my day the night before and make a to-do list right before I start working at my desk, it helps me manage my time along with getting things done quite quickly. What I do is review the plan which I made last night and write down all the things I need to complete while adding time blocks to every task and then stick that piece of paper in front of my desk, so that whenever I get distracted, the list is there to remind me of my priorities.
Journaling:
Journaling is a method of mindfulness. When you want to share anything but don't want to share it with anyone, and still want to lessen the burden inside you, journaling is the best way to share your thoughts with you. There are so many things out there which you want to share, but again, you step back while doing so, for example, your personal goals.
You wouldn't want to share your personal goals with anyone or your personal feelings. These things are clearly personal topics that can be written in your own personal journal.
Journaling is another common activity that almost every billionaire tends to follow. What they do is they keep a gratitude journal near them. Now a gratitude journal is a diary of things for which one is grateful.
Gratitude journals are used by individuals who wish to focus their attention on the positive things in their lives. Gratitude, the feeling of appreciation or thanks, has gained a lot of attention in the field of positive psychology. This method helps billionaires to move forward towards their desired destination.
Write down the things which you are grateful for in your journal, and you'll see how it changes your mind.
How to create your own productive morning routine:
While the billionaire's morning routine makes quite a good impression on us, it is necessary to know that it certainly isn't for everyone. Every one of us is different. We have our own methods and own physiology which our body tends to follow.
If we try to follow someone's routine, it isn't going to be good for us. Remember that a billionaire's morning routine is not like it will lead you towards making more money, it's about being in control of your life. It's the feeling of being in control that makes people follow this routine which ends them with being successful.' Success' is a word that comes after days and months of constant effort without giving up.
Now, the only thing I want you to know is that you are in control of your own life. If you follow someone's routine constantly, whether it's Tim Cook's or Richard Branson, in the end, it will lead you to nowhere. You need to make a routine in such a way which makes sure of your constant progress so that you won't remain the same person you were before.
It's about progression and being in control. At the end of the day, it's your life and your life leans on your happiness.
Here are some things you should do first to be more energetic before starting your day:
- Maintain a fixed bedtime and waking time: Keeping a regular sleep schedule—even on weekends—maintains the timing of the body's internal clock and can help you fall asleep and wake up more easily. Even if real life stands in the way of achieving the perfect sleep routine, making just a few small changes can improve your sleep dramatically.
- Do not hit the snooze button: sleep science suggests that hitting the snooze button can not only disrupt healthy sleep patterns but may leave you feeling drowsy for the rest of the day.
- Avoid your phone: A psychiatrist, Dr Nikole Benders-Hadi, said, “immediately turning to your phone when you wake up can start your day off in a way that is more likely to increase stress and leave you feeling overwhelmed.”
- Drink water: Drinking water the first thing in the morning immediately helps rehydrate the body. The six to eight hours of recommended nightly sleep is a long period to go without any water consumption.
- Eat something healthy: Breakfast is often called 'the most important meal of the day', and for good reason. As the name suggests, breakfast breaks the overnight fasting period. It replenishes your supply of glucose to boost your energy levels and alertness, while also providing other essential nutrients required for good health.
You are the one who controls you. Do what you think is best. If one routine doesn't work, then try another until you find what fits you.
There's no problem with giving out a try. The more you spend time with yourself figuring out what works best for you, the more you'll discover about yourself. We are here to help you, but you are the one who can change you.
