nlightened.me

“Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most” – Buddha

When it comes to energy, health and productivity management, it is not just what that shapes us but also when. This is how my quest for what defines a perfect morning started. I’ve been fascinated by mornings because it is the phase of the day when I feel I am at my best – spiritually, mentally & physically. After numerous experiments I finally reached a morning routine that makes my morning “perfect”. Almost 75% of the population tends to be most active in one form or the other in the mornings. Therefore these learnings should apply in some measure to most people. For the rest, the routine can still be applied to their most high-energy phase i.e. evenings. If you are unsure about your Chronotype, try the Power of When diagnostic quiz developed by psychologist and sleep specialist Dr Michael Breus.

I simply call my routine My Morning MAKER and it constitutes 5 key parts.

Meditation
Our lives are getting busier. Constantly evolving technology offers many advantages. Enhanced focus is not one of them. Switching off distractions permanently may not be a viable solution. Meditation offers the best start to the day with benefits ranging from building balance, faster learning, decreased anxiety and increase in creativity. There are a number of scientifically documented benefits of meditation that has spurred a multi-billion dollar industry of meditations courses & Apps. I use Headspace, a simple guided App for meditation but there are multiple options to choose from. More than the App, what works well for me is a quiet spot with no distractions where I can meditate for 10-15 minutes every morning. You might be skeptical but attempt meditation for a week and I can assure you that you will be hooked. It is no coincidence that Tim Ferriss says that more than 80% of the world-class performers he interviewed were using meditation to get better results with less stress and to effectively recover from the feeling of “being in a trench on the front lines” throughout the day.

Appreciation
If meditation helps us relax, appreciation helps us feel grateful. There are many uncounted blessings that we ignore everyday like good health, loving relationships and nutritious food to name a few. Recounting these blessings fills us with gratitude and happiness. The simplest way to do this is to say it aloud or write it. I have found writing works better as I am able to recall things I appreciated later during the day. But experiment with what works for you. Start by appreciating 3 things or people you appreciate in your life. As someone said “What we appreciate, appreciates”.

Knowledge
The simple equation for human development is Stress + Rest = Growth. After a good night’s rest, exposure & acquisition of knowledge is the stress that kickstarts the brain into active learning. Knowledge can take many forms – reading books, writing about a  topic, practicing an art or listening to news. I prefer reading with some writing. I have noticed a huge difference between the quality of reading in the morning versus any other time of the day. Night reading tends to be more relaxing whereas morning tends to be more intensive and absorptive. I therefore try to read topics that require deep concentration in the morning while enjoying poetry or light biographies at night.

Exercise
Exercise is the best natural biohack to get your body into full throttle irrespective of the kind of sleep you’ve had. In fact, if rest or sleep has been of poor quality then the best way to “wake up” the body is an intense workout session. There are different kinds of physical exercises that one can do and these depend on fitness objective, age, current physical state as well as availability of equipment. For most people, moderate resistance and interval training gives the best returns. But irrespective, you can never go wrong with a morning workout. I try to workout every single day and have always felt better after it.

Reorganise
A lot of us try to let the day lead us rather than leading the day. We often have ideas, thoughts and things we want to do. But very few end up doing all of it. I call this the execution inefficiency. The best way to maximise this and start the day is with a plan. This means drawing up all that you want to achieve in the next 12-16 hours, prioritising it and then blocking time to make it happen. As the famous saying goes “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It takes 15 minutes every morning to plan my day. This helps me actively pursue the most important things. Often the plan evolves due to unforeseen events but it still ensures I give up what I can to pursue what needs to be done. I also experimented with planning a night in advance but that left my head buzzing with thoughts during sleep. So now I transcribe my last thoughts at night to get them “out of my head”, and reorganise them next morning as part of action plan for the day. I use a bulletproof journal for reorganising with Wunderlist to jot down sparks and thoughts.

So that is my Morning MAKER – Meditation, Appreciation, Knowledge, Exercise and Reorganise. Try these and you might benefit with a more productive and satisfying day. If you have your own morning routine and hacks, please share with me in comments below.