Productivity drives efficiency, performance, and effectiveness. Productive people feel confident in their abilities! But it’s harder than it sounds to just manifest this kind of go-getter energy, especially if your days get off to a bad start.
A lot of productivity begins the moment you wake up. The goal is to set a good precedent for the rest of the day. If you start every brand new morning with sluggishness, that feeling will carry forward through the day, which isn’t great for you or all the things you have planned.
It’s not too difficult to learn to incorporate some productivity into your life, but what’s more of a challenge is learning to unlearn habits that are making you less productive.
Ironically, it’s this “unlearning” that might be more useful for your progress in the long run! Here are six things productive people don’t do in the morning.
1. They don’t drink coffee immediately
If you’re a coffee addict, you can probably share this sentiment – you’re not genuinely awake until you’ve had your first cup of joe. But have you noticed that coffee doesn’t have the same effect on you it once did?
If you do, it’s not your imagination. It’s well-known that the active ingredient that jolts you awake in the morning is a drug called caffeine – and as it turns out, research has shown that caffeine can interfere with the body’s natural waking process, making it harder to wake up.
2. Productive people don’t immediately check their phone
With just how fast events unfold, it seems only proper to check for updates and news first thing in the morning. It’s easy, however, to get wrapped up in the cyclone that is the news cycle – and the next thing you know, several hours have passed, and you’re still in bed!
The world can be hard enough as it is – so why not look towards starting your day on a positive, productive note instead?
3. Use tons of alarms to wake up
We all know someone who has at least five alarms on their phone. Maybe you’re guilty of having 20 alarms yourself!
This is all unnecessary work and delays the waking-up process. Just make sure to manage your sleep correctly, and then train yourself to wake up to your first alarm of the day. That way, you can ensure both your sleep and your time is spent effectively!
4. They don’t plan for the day
Unless we’ve appointments to attend to or deadlines to meet that day, most of us don’t plan our day. This is actually to our detriment, as it means we usually end up starting our mornings with lots of rushing about!
As you can imagine, this often leaves you feeling drained and perpetually short on time. This is something that scheduling out our to-do list the evening before can counteract. After a few weeks of adjusting to this new habit, you’ll find yourself feeling more positive and productive as you tick off your tasks for the day!
5. They don’t get struck in negative news
There’s a reason the term “doomscrolling” or “doomsurfing” now exists among internet users – and the experience it describes may be something you’re familiar with yourself. You hop onto Twitter or Facebook to check the news, and the next thing you know, you’ve been struck scrolling for hours.
It’s not that you’re looking for information to make you feel better, really. Most of us who admit to doomscrolling often deliberately look for information that depresses us further.
6. Productive people don’t stay undressed
When you’re working remotely, it’s easy to stay in your pajamas all day. It’s comfy, convenient, and you can argue it saves on washing!
However, if you find yourself struggling to focus on work, then those cozy jammies may be the problem. It’s hard to get into the right frame of mind for work if your brain still thinks it’s time to chill, after all.
