Do you often have this feeling of being pumped and motivated to get up and do the work in the evening before, then next morning hitting that snooze button, waking up late, and procrastinating?
Frustrated feeling and question why does this happen probably followed many of us. Let’s see two vital elements allowing you to actually get up and do the work.
Compelling reason to wake up and do the work
Motivation comes and goes. Compelling reason or goal is with us all the time.
You need to digest if you really have a compelling reason or you just try to force yourself in completing a bunch of non-compelling tasks.
Your compelling reason doesn’t have to be self growth centered. Maybe in your current season of life you don’t need or don’t want follow personal growth pursuit.
It’s perfectly fine to have selfish reason. Like wanting to buy a car you wish (therefore you’re willing to work on extra project) or wanting to play in park with your kids every day for an hours (therefore you’re willing to start workday an hour earlier to have extra time in the afternoon).
It must resonate in your head. You must really want it.
Once you have a compelling reason, I propose you to start by dedicating an hour and having just one task which moves you forward. Now your goal is to complete this one task every morning.
Consider it your most important task of the day. Your core enabler for everything else. No matter what happens with other tasks you’ve planned for the day, once you complete this task, you’ve won the day.
You start your day with impactful task, get mental reward once you finish it, and continue your day positively charged.
Setting the stage to do the work
First of all I strongly suggest making sure that you have enough sleep.
If you want to get up at 5am, then you need to go to bad at around 9:30pm. If you want to get up at 7am, then you can enjoy the night until around 11:00pm. Body and brain need rest. Don’t neglect this if you want to avoid quick burnout.
Having same kind of morning routine every day would be beneficial. Please, don’t run searching for morning routines online. You already have one. Just write it down, review and maybe make minor changes if you wish. Keep it practical for you.
Mine super simple: toilet, wash face with cold water, boil a kettle of water, 5-minute morning exercise, make tea, grab my laptop and a cup of tea, and start working on my main task of the day. This routine takes about 20 minutes. Nothing fancy. Just a way to wake up my body and brain.
Make sure you know what’s your plan for the day.
I find planning next day in the evening is a great approach. I always define what is my morning task for tomorrow and remind myself why it is so important to get it done. Then this works as my fuel to get up next day early.
Instead of trying to rely on motivation you better find your strong WHY. Once you have it, give yourself a boost by preparing the stage the evening before.
Talk soon,
Andrii
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