Five Ways to Help Kick-Start Your Morning
Let’s face it, not all of us can be morning people. Many of us would rather hit the snooze button 100 times before taking that first chilling step from beneath the cocoon that is our comforters. But eventually the step must be taken, and after that first cup of coffee we are ready to take on the day.
As a PR professional I have started to notice the morning habits of those around me, especially colleagues who seem to always have an extra spring in their step in the dreaded AM hours. Below I have compiled a small list of morning habits that could help you start the morning off on the right foot and propel you into a more productive work day.
Settle in. Grab your morning coffee, tea, water bottle etc. and take a seat at your desk. Before jumping directly into your work take a deep breath, give yourself a few minutes to recover from that morning commute, and ready yourself for the day ahead. This meditation-like exercise may seem unnecessary but I have found that by jumping directly into your email you are allowing others to dictate how your day will start. Focus on you for just a moment.
Read. Open up your browser and pull at least 5 articles relating to your line of work, current events and/or pieces of interest that cause you to think. This helps you keep up with your industry or your clients’ issues while giving your brain a little morning warm-up/exercise.
Write an email, a tweet, an idea for a blog post. Just write. Get your creative juices flowing and hone your skills. As we mentioned in our blog post last month writing is a fundamental element to PR which gets better with practice and persistence. Take a few minutes to put pen to paper every day.
Now, and only now, start your work. Check your email and reply to time sensitive requests. Check your to-do list and put the most tedious items at the top. According to an article from The Harvard Business Review, research shows that those who jump into tasks in the morning rather than pushing them to the afternoon get the most accomplished. Use those morning hours to get stuff done, take lunch, and then ride your food-coma into your slightly easier afternoon tasks.
A great morning starts with the night before. I am sure many of you can relate to a morning being made easier when you set out your next-day outfit before bed or pack your lunch so it is ready to go. The same can be said for your morning office routine. Before you leave each night make sure that your to-do list is up to date, your email correspondences have been taken care of and that you have saved all documents you were working on. Again, not everyone is a morning person (myself included) but your mental state will subconsciously thank you for lightening some of the load the next day.