Over the years, I have realised that whenever a day starts well, it sets the tone for the rest of the day which only continues to get better. After realising this, I have tried real hard to create an effective morning routine.
I have tried to put a bunch of strategies to test and see if they help me achieve a productive morning.
I have tried waking up before the world.
I have tried waking up and allotting a few minutes in the morning towards planning my first few activities before getting out of bed.
I have tried setting focus times at the start of the day by snoozing notification on Slack.
I have tried starting the day with a run.
I have tried starting the day with writing my thoughts down.
… and the list goes on.
All these have helped. Yes. But only up to a point.
However, there is one routine that I have found the most effective and one that I continue to benefit from the most and I hope it works for you as well. Counterintuitively, it is something that I do the night before.
What I have tried to do is, before going to bed, I write down the first two or three tasks that I wish to focus on at the start of my day. Preferably in the order in which the tasks have to be attempted. I call it a “Run-up list”. These are typically the tasks that will occupy the first half or first third of my day.
This routine has helped me a lot. And the first and foremost reason I believe is that, by writing the tasks down, you remove the ambiguity from the picture. You are no longer bound by how you are feeling in the morning or what you feel like doing. If you have ever tried to rely on these factors to guide what you should do, you know it seldom leads to great results and often leaves you frustrated. Can you imagine how liberating it is to be able to get to work without factoring in your mood, feelings or even motivation? All that is left for you to do is open the “Run-up list” that you created the night before and just get started.
What I should also mention here is, that, I often don’t get a chance to “come up” with what tasks to focus on the next morning. On most days, speaking for myself, the tasks that make up my “Run-up list” are the tasks that get carried forward from the day before. Which is also a good thing because that makes this exercise of creating the list a lot easier.
You might wonder then, if the tasks going onto the list are (at most times) a foregone conclusion, why write them down at all?
I believe, writing them down, nevertheless, makes you feel that it is your choice. Rather than “I have to do this task x”, you are changing the narrative to, “I chose to do task x”. And I think, that helps. When you make the choice, it becomes substantially easier to commit to doing it. That makes you feel like you are in control and frankly, who doesn’t like that feeling.
Yes, not all mornings pan out as planned; but it is fine. By the time disruption strikes, you are already off the mark, in a good state of mind and better prepared to deal with it.
If you like the idea of a “Run-up list”, do give it a try and share your experience with me in the comments below. Also, if you do make your own tweaks to the “Run-up list”, would love to learn about them as well.
