Our self-control is at its strongest in the morning, which means we should make the hours until lunchtime the most important of the day. Photo: calm.com.
Whether you are a morning lark or a night owl, Travis Bradberry says the hours between waking and lunch are crucial to your energy and self-control.
Researchers at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom have published the results of their exploration of 83 separate studies on energy and self-control — their findings should change the way you start your day.
The researchers found that self-control and energy are not only intricately linked, but are also finite, daily resources that tire much like a muscle.
Even though we don’t always realise it, as the day goes on, we have increased difficulty exerting self-control and focusing on our work.
As self-control wears out, we feel tired, find tasks more difficult and our mood sours. This exhaustion of self-control kills your productivity, and it makes the morning hours, when self-control is highest, the most important of the day.
This means you should do the things in the morning that will make your energy and self-control last as long as possible.
The Nottingham research has led me to uncover ways we can break bad morning habits and maximise our energy and self-control throughout the day.
Whether you naturally wake up feeling alert and productive or with the brainpower of a zombie, these tips will help you transform your morning routine and set a positive tone that lasts the entire day.
Start with exercise: Researchers at the University of Bristol in the UK have found that people who exercise during the workday have more energy and a more positive outlook.
Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses.
No screen time until breakfast: When you dive straight into emails, texts and Facebook, you lose focus and your morning succumbs to the wants and needs of other people.
It’s much healthier to take those precious first moments of the day to do something relaxing that sets a calm, positive tone for the next few hours.
Exercising, meditating, or even watching the birds out the window are all great ways to start the day.
Eat a healthy breakfast: People who eat breakfast are less likely to be obese, they have more stable blood-sugar levels, and they tend to be less hungry over the course of the day.
When you eat a healthy breakfast, the doors to a productive day swing wide open. A healthy breakfast gives you energy, improves your short-term memory, and helps you to concentrate more intensely and for longer periods.
Set goals: Research shows that having concrete goals is correlated with huge increases in confidence and feelings of control.
Setting goals specific to the day puts everything into motion. Narrow your goals to a few achievable ones that can easily be broken down into steps.
Vague goals such as “I want to finish writing my article” are counter-productive because they fail to include the ‘’how’’ of things.
The same goal rephrased would read something like this: “I am going to finish my article by writing each of the three sections, spending no more than an hour on each section.”
Getting your morning started off well at home is important, but it’s only half the battle.
If you fail to maintain that tone once you set foot in the office, your morning can lose momentum quickly. Here’s how you can maintain a productive tone once you are back at your desk.
Clean your workspace: Even though it’s a pain to clean right when you get to work, it makes a big difference to your ability to concentrate.
A recent study found that people who worked in a clean workspace outperformed those who worked in a cluttered one because clutter pulls your attention away from your work.
No emails until you’ve eaten three ‘’frogs’’: Eating a ‘’frog’’ is the greatest antidote to procrastination, and the most productive people know the importance of biting into this delicacy first thing in the morning.
In other words, spend your morning on something that requires a high level of concentration that you don’t want to do, and you’ll get it done in short order.
Make a habit of eating three ‘’frogs’’ before you check emails because they are a major distraction that enables procrastination and wastes precious mental energy.
Keep morning meetings on schedule: Meetings are the biggest time waster there is, and they can ruin an otherwise productive morning.
People who use their mornings effectively know a meeting will drag on forever if they let it, so they inform everyone at the outset that they’ll stick to the intended schedule.
This sets a limit that motivates everyone to be more focused and efficient. Keep your morning meetings on time, and your entire day will stay on track.
Don’t multitask: Multitasking in the morning — when you have lots to do, tons of energy, and it feels like you can do two or three things at once — is tempting, but it sets your whole day back.
Research conducted at Stanford University in California confirmed that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time.
It found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information, or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time.
Multitasking reduces your efficiency and performance because your brain can only focus adequately on one thing at a time.
When you try to do two things at once, your brain lacks the capacity to perform both tasks successfully.
Finally, say no: No is a powerful word that will protect your precious mornings. Saying no to a new commitment honours your existing ones and gives you the opportunity to successfully fulfil them while your mind is fresh.
Travis Bradberry is the award-winning co-author of the bestselling book Emotional Intelligence 2.0, and the co-founder of TalentSmart. His books have been translated into 25 languages and are available in more than 150 countries. He can be contacted at TalentSmart.com. This article first appeared on the TalentSmart website.
