“The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.” – Mike Murdock.
‘Winning the morning’ is a phrase that seems to have skyrocketed in popularity over the past few years. Everyone and their neighbour is proclaiming the benefits of having a morning routine and sticking to it daily.
You’re supposed to wake up at the crack of dawn, 5 am or earlier preferably. Then engage in meditation, gratitude journaling, visualization, ice baths, and a myriad of other activities that supposedly help you to progress in life.
There have been several books written on this topic and most are good, but the concept itself is misleading at times.
- Are you even a morning person?
No two people are alike. Some prefer to wake up early in the morning and work in silence. These folks struggle to stay up late at night.
At the other end of the spectrum are people who struggle to wake up early, but have no problems working through the night like a desk-bound Batman.
So, how do you have a morning routine if your eyes are heavy as lead in the morning?
Simple. You don’t.
There’s absolutely no need to wake early and struggle through the day groggily just because others are doing it. What matters is what you do with the time you have when you’re awake.
Ultimately, your productivity is what matters.
- What are your commitments?
If you have kids that need to be in school at a certain time or you’re a caregiver to an aging parent with needs, you might have a ton of chores to do in the morning.
It’ll be impossible to have a fixed morning routine because your day is unpredictable. You can’t possibly wake up 2 hours earlier just to have a morning routine because you may have a day job and it’ll be too tiring.
In cases like these, you’ll need to find a routine that works well for your situation. It may not be in the morning, but as long as it helps you do what you need to, you’re on the right track.
- Your day job is an obstacle
If you’re trying to build a side business online, but you’re working as a nurse or in an on-call type of occupation, your schedule may be chaotic. So, having a morning routine to win is not even a possibility here because of your work commitments.
That’s fine. You don’t need a morning routine.
- Doing what you can with the time you have
Ultimately, what you need to do is have a list of tasks that you need to complete daily to win the day. Your focus should be on winning the day and not the morning.
If you can win the morning, that’s fine. But if you can’t, it’s not a deal-breaker. You can still achieve great success in your endeavours as long as you do the needful.
Study your daily activities and routine. Find blocks of time within the routine where you can get work done. Then be as productive as you can during these times. Prepare your to-do list the night before.
A routine has to work for you. That’s the cardinal rule. Keep iterating until you know exactly how to be productive during the time you have and how you can achieve your goals based on your current commitments.
Once you figure that out, you can win at any time of the day.
