Can a Morning Ritual Help You Get More Done? Image courtesy of winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
This is Week 22 of a Year of Living Productively
This week I tested whether a morning ritual could help me get more done using Curt Mercadante‘s article as inspiration. I already have a morning ritual in place of exercising first thing in the morning followed by a devotional time. What was new was not checking email in the morning. Click here to see more details.
How a Morning Ritual Saved My Sanity This Week
- I finished everything faster. From getting out the door to my workout, everything I did prior to checking email went smoothly, allowing me to get more done.
- I had less stress. Part of my morning ritual is to review my day. Without including incoming emails in that review, I found that the day seemed more manageable. By the time I checked email at lunch time, I had already accomplished a lot and was ready to add new tasks to my list (typically to be addressed the next day).
How a Morning Ritual Made Me Crazy This Week
- Habit withdrawal. Breaking a habit requires quite a bit of mental focus. I realized how often I was relying on my email for downtime in the mornings and had to pay attention to not “lighting up.”
- Feeling disconnected. I have a few people in my life I’m close to who communicate with me primarily via email. Waiting to check my email until later in the day made me feel distanced from them and even rude. Even though this is how I felt, I don’t think it was valid. I seriously doubt anyone was thinking, “WHY hasn’t she responded yet?”
Did a Morning Ritual Help Me Get Things Done?
It really did. I didn’t realize that in trying to wake up by reading email and checking it during down times, that I was actually wasting time. I don’t feel I was any less social this week and I was much more efficient at processing email when I did get to it. I already know how critical all the other aspects of my morning ritual are to having productive days. Now I know that I should break the email-in-the-morning habit for good.
**UPDATE**
Even though I get more done when I don’t look at my email, I have to admit it’s a habit I still have. I don’t feel very motivated to break it, because it doesn’t interfere with my overall morning ritual. I’m very happy with how I use my time in the morning and I do believe it’s a critical component of productivity for me.
The Productivity Approach I’ll Be Using for Week 23
Image courtesy of arztsamui / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
This week I’ll be testing what I call Beat the Week. The idea is to work from a weekly to-do list. When you finish the list, you’re done for the week. 99u calls this “rewarding efficiency.”
The concept. If the reward for working harder is more work, the motivation is lacking. Having the opportunity for free time by getting your work done faster should foster efficiency.
There are a couple of considerations for those who work at home and those who have traditional jobs. First, the weekly list has to be manageable. It should be a true week’s work, so you can finish early and feel justified in being rewarded for doing so. Second, the reward may not be time off if you have a traditional job, but it could be more enjoyable work or tasks. Finally, not all work will be completed. As a homeschooling mother, I can’t tell my kids I can’t help them because I’ve finished working for the week. Neither can a small business owner do that. But the big weekly tasks can be finished early, leaving us with a lot more margin for dealing with urgent tasks and even fun.
If you’d like to join me this week, here’s what you do. Read the “Rewarding Efficiency” section of 99u’s article on productivity. Create a manageable list of to-do’s for the week. Get them done as early in the week is possible, so you can enjoy flexible time. I’m aiming for Thursday!
Click here to see if Beat the Week worked for me.
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If you’ve tried a Morning Ritual to increase your productivity, please vote in the poll below.
Here are the links to the productivity hacks I’ve tried so far:
Week 16: David Seah’s 7:15AM Ritual
Week 17: Another Simple and Effective Method
Week 18: Daily/Weekly/Monthly To-Do List
Week 19: Ultimate Time Management System
I’m the same way with “just check email, the boards, and my RSS feed”. They’re a nice break, and a nice routine while eating breakfast, but they take up a lot of time. I _should_ be able to pick out the things that I need to take care of, or that would make an appropriately-sized break, and ignore the rest, but…
One way to find unintended routines is imagine an outside-observer who looks at what you do rather than your official plan. Would they call an hour’s reading after breakfast part of your routine?
Cricket, that’s a really great tip. As a Christian, I find it helpful at times to imagine that Jesus was observing me. It helps me be honest about what I’m doing.
Melanie, I’ve been trying this same thing for the last week or so and i can’t believe what a difference it makes. My boundary is that I have to finish my four hours of writing and jobs related to writing before I spend any time on the internet (other than for research), including answering e-mails – if I’ve been working hard and still haven’t gotten my writing in, then I can check my e-mails at lunch. This boundary makes me MUCH more productive.
I think I’ve been wasting more time on the internet than I thought, but even if it’s not much time, the mental clutter and distraction still keeps me from getting things done – also, since it’s my main form of procrastination these days, it has developed into a stronghold – so I want to get rid of that. I’m training myself to go to God when I have writing problems rather than the Internet!
Barb, I’m delighted that you have found this as useful as I have. It makes blogging worthwhile if I feel like I’ve offered something of help to more than just me.
I must check my e-mail each morning because there are two devotionals that I use to begin my day! Other wise, your points are very good, and I should consider them. Thanks for visiting my site and for your lovely comments.
Hazel, devotional emails are exempt. 🙂 Thank you for adding that point! So glad we connected online.
Devotional emails are exempt. Thanks for bringing that up! Glad we got acquainted online.
For those of us who don’t have the discipline to walk away from the internet after the devotionals, another option is to do them a day behind. When checking email each day, print the devotional and put it with your list for the next day (or breakfast spot, or bedside table, or coffee maker).
Other options, depending on your equipment and the style of the devotional, include:
Use a devotional that you can print a week or more at the same time, rather than a few lonely lines on a whole page. (Maybe go old-school and buy a book. Our church provides free monthly devotionals.) Or make good use of the rest of the page, such as journaling or your focus list.
Send it to a safer device. (Safer as in you don’t say, “While I’m here, may as well check…) Tools include EverNote or Pocket, or Print-to-Go, RSS, or a dedicated email account.
Write out the devotional by hand. This changes the cycle a bit, since you will probably read it while copying. Let your subconscious work on it for the rest of the day, and read it again in the morning, after you’ve lived with it for a bit.
These are just excellent ideas, Cricket. Thank you so much for sharing them. I have my devotional emails in a separate Gmail folder which also helps keep me from looking at my inbox which is where I tend to lose time.