I just finished reading this article on Easy to Rise (http://zenhabits.net/10-benefits-of-rising-early-and-how-to-do-it/) after it was recommended by Peter Crocker who is a member of the Flying Solo community (http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/). It was a great reminder of how we can bring a bit of early morning productivity to help achieve our goals.
I’ve been praticising the art of early rising throughout most of this year and it is definitely a productive and energising (once you wake up) way to start the day.
As per the suggestions in the article what I found has worked quite well is to spend some time the night before going through my plans for the week (s) ahead – checking how i’m tracking and then from this identifying a key task to focus on the next morning. I set myself the goal of finishing this task before I check emails or undertake any admin tasks.
In addition to this early morning productivity other rewards include enjoying the dawn and the changing colours of the morning, the sounds of the world ‘waking up’ and freshness that comes at this time of day. I also believe that coffee tastes that much better early in the morning.
ps – whilst talking about ‘to do list’ I have changed these to achievement lists. It feels that much better to tick off on what i’ve achieved through the day than what was on the ‘to do list’ – subtle semantics that i’ve found energise and motivate and recognise what I accomplish.