Your Morning "Ritual"

I recently listened to an interesting podcast called “Become More Productive by Reengineering Your Morning Ritual” by Michael Hyatt.  Michael’s point was that everyone has a morning ritual or routine that influences what comes later and intentionally creating this foundation will enable you to get what you want out of your day.  He recommends seven steps that I’d like to summarize for you here.  His entire 40-minute podcast is worth a listen because he provides more detail and answers to some very good questions that will flesh out what I’m providing.   (Full disclosure:  Michael is a Christian and discusses his faith practices when describing his personal morning routine, but he doesn’t proselytize or dictate that this be part of your routine.)

Step one: Acknowledge that you have a ritual and be intentional about it.

The first step in changing anything is becoming aware of what you do currently.  It’s the first step in becoming more intentional about the connection between what you do to start your day and what comes after that beginning.

Step two: Document your ritual. 

Write down the things you do every morning.  Be honest about the positive parts and the not-as-positive parts, so write down, for example, that you eat breakfast every morning and also that you hit the snooze button three times before getting up.  This will help you see and understand what you currently do.

Step three: Evaluate whether your ritual is getting you what you want.

Take some time to think about the rest of your typical day and see if you can see connections.  Do you commonly feel rushed and stressed as you get to work?  Could it be because you only allow enough time to do the bare minimum of preparation and allow no time for unexpected realities?

Step four: Determine what you want and what you don’t want.

This step corresponds to Stephen Covey’s Second Habit, “Begin with the end in mind.”  Think about what you do (or don’t) want to get out of the beginning of your day before you make changes to what you're currently doing.  So, do you want to feel relaxed or connected spiritually?  Do you want to have a clear idea of the priorities for the day or be organized? 

Step five:  Reengineer your current ritual.

Once you see what you’re currently doing and what you’d like to be getting, brainstorm a list of alternative activities that help you get there.  So, if you want to feel calm and centered, you could add ideas to your list about taking time to be still, meditate, listen to calming music or sounds, etc.  Next, you will need to identify how much time each part will take and then arrange the order of the parts, so that they make sense – you don’t want to shower before you work out, right? -- and flow naturally.

Step six:  Implement the ritual.

In the words of the iconic Nike ads, “Just do it.”  You will need to practice the new routine for awhile in order to give it a chance to work and overcome the initial resistance to change that many of us feel. 

Step seven: Tweak the ritual as necessary.

Your life will change depending on your life stage and other realities.  Don’t get stuck in something if it is not working the way you thought it would or has stopped working for you over time.  Add new practices, delete old ones, rearrange the order, expand some parts or shorten others, and make other tweaks to change what you do to get the results that you want.  

In the podcast, Michael answers questions about what to do if you are a night owl, get distracted by other things, experience a disruption, and so on.  I encourage you to take some time to look at how you set up your day to get more of what you want from it.