Hey guys! Pete Tansley here. I want to share with you some tips on dominating your morning.
I think a morning routine is vital for entrepreneurs and business owners to get right. Why? Because how you start your day is how it goes on.
I want to go through…
My 7 Steps To Have A Killer Morning
I’m mindful of the fact that if you’re a fitness professional who has early morning clients, then I’m not going to give you something that is going to last 60 minutes. I know you have to get out the door fast.
Everything I’ll show you this morning is going to be sort of the quick version. And if you want to expand any of these, if you have a longer morning, if you don’t have clients, or if you’re an online coach? Then great! You can spend a bit more time on some of these.
No Snooze
The first thing to really master is not hitting the snooze button.
If you hit the snooze button once, twice, three times and ten minutes becomes 20 minutes becomes 30 minutes, what message is that sending to your brain about how important your goals are? Or how important it is you get up and attack the day?
I think the first win of the day is no snooze button, hit that alarm to turn off within 10 seconds and give those feet on the floor as fast as possible.
When you snooze it’s telling the world you’re happy to snooze on your goals.
Ten minutes of extra sleep is worth more to you than going out to your mission, hitting your goals for the week.
So, I think number one is no snooze.
No Phone
The second thing as well and I suck at this, I’ve gotten a lot better this year is not reaching for my phone.
I used to reach for my phone and for some reason, I go straight on Facebook, straight on Instagram, and just check what other people are doing.
And that only led me to compare myself to others and there’s a high chance I’ll see something that annoys me or disagree with or people complaining or sort of news or spam or that.
I don’t want you to start you day but other people’s messages coming into you.
So that’s the first thing, no phone, no email, nothing yet until you’ve gone through these seven steps.
Hydration Is The Ultimate Hack
As soon as I wake up, my first goal is hydration.
You can lose a lot of water and hydration when you sleep just purely breathing, just expelling it comes out through your mouth as you breathe.
The first thing I obsess over is hydration.
So what I’ll do, I’ve got filtered water, I think that’s really important to use good quality water.
I will try to get about a liter first thing in the morning.
Try and drink more water in the first hour of the day than most people do all day.
I’ll typically add lemon and some sea salt, just a pinch.
I like the taste of it for starters but also ton of health benefits to drinking some salt or I normally juice the whole lemon for the sake of this video, a whole lemon or a half lemon and a pinch of sea salt and I’ll try to put me out close to a liter straight up I’m trying to scull water straight away.
So my first goal is hydration.
What’s funny something that’s evolved a lot for me is I used to, I still do, I love coffee. Like I really do LOVE coffee.
But having coffee first thing is just dumb…
You wake up dehydrated from sleeping. I remember someone challenging me once and they said, “Pete if you say you’re so healthy then why you need a coffee first thing in the morning?”
And it made sense. Why do I want to wake up and put pretty much straight acid into my body first thing in the morning?
So, I found if I’m hydrated and if I do the rest of the seven steps which I’ll get to, I don’t need coffee.
I use coffee later in the day. In a few hours time from now, pre-workout perhaps, I need an extra boost.
You shouldn’t need coffee first thing
Here’s the main thing about this I’m constantly amazed how little people value their sleep.
I’ll do another video in evening routine and the importance of good sleep.
If you value good sleep and if you’re taking every step possible to ensure you have a good sleep, which you should because this will going to ensure you have a productive day tomorrow.
Then, you should not be waking up and needing caffeine.
If you’re a new parent maybe that’s the exception. Luckily, my twins are four now, so they’re sleeping through, but for the rest of us, hydration should be the first thing, not grabbing the Java.
I sat my coffee in front of my awesome stovetop set up, I’ll save my coffee for later the day, pre-workout even.
Early lunch when I want that extra kick, not first thing in the morning.
So number one, no snooze. Number two is no coffee.
Number three – sunlight and movement.
If you’re waking up early or there’s no sun where you live when you wake up that’s fine but just get some movement and it’s not a workout.
I typically do a deep of squat stretch, stretch out my hip flexes and pecs which are often tight and lower back.
In the transcription of this blog and of this download, I want to give you a bonus. Check this with some of the stretches. So, go to the bottom of this page and you’ll see that download, you can get a transcription of this video and as a bonus, I’m going to throw in a checklist which has some of those stretches down below.
So, it’s not a workout.
I typically workout mid-day or late afternoon before dinner.
If you workout now that’s fine, but if you don’t, I encourage you to spend three minutes, a deep squat, stretch your upper back, stretch out your hamstrings, hip flexes whatever’s taught for you, stretch that out.
If you’re advanced, or if you know you’re going to be hitting a squat workout during the day, then that can be the focus.
If you know you’re hitting an upper body workout during the day, maybe tailor it more to that.
So, that’s 3-5 minutes. You can go for a walk with your kids, you can do some stretching in your kitchen as you board as waking up.
Next up – cold exposure and breathe work.
Now I just go I feel on this some days, I might do “wim hof” style breathing.
Other days I might do longer, deeper meditation style breathing.
At a minimum, I take 6 deep slow breaths.
A minimum of 6 breaths is being shown to decrease blood pressure, to help with benefits and to help you practice that mouth.
So, just six breaths, not three or five but six is a minimum.
Again, if you have more time and you like to do more breathe work, then go for it.
The cold is simply to expose me to some cold water. I’ll have a shower. I don’t always have just cold water.
And I’m not saying to never have a hot shower again. At a minimum, the last couple minutes of my shower will be cold water and what this does is it keeps the body some acute stress.
The same as a little bit of stress from a workout, which is good.
Acute stress can be a good thing.
And if you have any experience that then I highly recommend some cold water as part of a shower, just the last couple of minutes, it forces you to be present, it’s good for your immune system and it’s just part of the ritual of waking up and getting the day going.
Time To Journal
Last night, as part of my evening routine, I would have written down my top three outcomes for tomorrow. Not 10, not 7, but 3.
So, as I wake up I’m just reviewing those notes, and getting clear on my intention for today.
For today to be a great day, what are the top three things that need to happen?
I also review my long term goals, my vision board, and anything else I’m working towards. These are on Evernote, so I can view them on my computer or phone.
It’s just to review what I want to achieve in 3, 5, 10 years from now. What do I want people to say if they give me a eulogy, what do I want on my head stone? I think BIG picture.
Just for 30 seconds and then I drill down a bit more of the micro stuff.
What are my goals in the next 90 days? What are my goals this month and this week? And often I rewrite them, but as a minimum, I’ll just look over them and then I’ll think right.
What are the three things I need to do today to move me closer to my goal for the week, for the month, for the year?
I think…
… The key to productivity is knowing the critical few things that are going to move you forward…
…and not worrying about the majority of things which are not moving you forward.
So things that won’t move you forward, like a change in the color of your logo… or tweaking a Clickfunnels page, or writing the terms of conditions for your business.
All those are a $10 per hour tasks. Stop doing those!
I’m trying to get crystal clear on what’s going to move me forward.
What are the high priorities tasks for me, the high paid, the important task that needs to happen?
And then, after this morning routine, I get to work on my main one.
If you have to rush off to train clients, to run the kids to school, that’s fine. When you get the first chance to work on the business, you get out your journal and you get to work on the number one thing for today.
Study
What I do now as well is I study for a minimum of 10 minutes.
That’s either reading a book or if I’m trying to improve my copywriting (which I’m always trying to do) I’ll study copywriting or I’ll study whatever I need to study at the time.
There’s another video here on this blog which teaches you what to study and when, and the sequence of that.
You should click on them and watch that if you find that helpful. I’m not just reading random things as a strategy beyond what I’m learning.
After that, once I’ve done those seven steps, I get to work on my main thing for the day then I can turn on social media and e-mail and respond to texts.
The phone in the morning is the killer to a good day
If you think about it, emails and texts and direct messages are responding to somebody else’s priorities and not taking charge of your priority for the day.
I want to quickly run through those steps.
Like I said, there’s a checklist down below with the transcription of this video plus a bit of a bonus where you can print them out and take them off.
I found for a lot of people like me, I like to tick things off and have a checklist and it feels good to follow a process each morning.
I typically follow a morning routine for 3, 6, sometimes more months and then I change it up a little bit.
I might go back to working out early in the mornings or I’m onto a longer visualization or meditation but typically I have some structure that similar to this.
So, here are the 7 tips again.
#1- No snooze
As soon as the alarm goes off, show your body you’re in control.
I get 2 feet on the floor as soon as possible.
#2- Rehydrate
So, go cold your water, a pinch of salt and some freshly squeezed lemon or lime would be a good way start.
#3- Sunlight and movement
It’s not a workout, just a couple of minutes of stretching, limbering up, loosening up the spine, getting just sort of minute 10 in the body and doing some basic movements.
#4- Breathe and cold
If I’m rushed, this step is like 60 seconds total.
A quick shower and breathe works, 6 breaths in the cold water.
If I’ve got more time I might do a longer breathe work practice using “wim hof”, some other method and then have a longer cold exposure.
#5- Journal
Last night I’ve written my top three for today and I review long-term mission on 1, 3, 5-year goals.
Then I look at the month, this week and this day what needs to happen for me to move forward.
#6- Study
For at least 10 minutes. I read, listen to an audio or podcast for at least 10 minutes sometimes more.
#7- I get to work on my most important thing for the day.
My phone is still off. Now I’m on social media. That comes after I’ve achieved something which typically always occurs before 8:00 a.m. for me.
So, I hope this helps. I’d love to get your feedback on this.
Like I said there’s a download down below which has the transcription of this and a checklist bonus so you can implement this into your morning.
I’d love to hear go with this.
Talk soon.
Download the CHECKLIST & Transcription here
