5 WAYS TO WIN IN THE MORNING

2:18 PM Posted by MS.NOVA

"Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it. ~Richard Whately"

Great days start out with a loose structure of wake, wash, eat and exercise. This sixty to ninety minute routine can set you in zone of production for the next 16-18 hours. More then being organized, its the act of putting yourself first so you can meet the world at your best. If the President of The United States has time to work out, then baby, so do you.

Before you get all crabby pants on me and drone on about how haaard moooornings aaaare, let me share a little story. With three hours of sleep under my belt, I woke up to a funky living room where my two Flamepoint Siameese cats decided to poo and pee on the living room floor (in their defense, the door locked behind me and they were trapped all night).

Awake for nine minutes and I'm scooping moist poo off a beige rug and "Shouting It Out". Gross. The rest of my day could have been coated with bad vibes and grumblings of putrid felines. But I'm learning that life is moment to moment and I took one in order to turn the remaining moments around.

It was not even 8:30am, the morning was salvageable and I KNEW action had to be taken before my own miserableness took hold. Armed with sweatpants and an upbeat mix from DJ Baby Yu, I set out on a powerwalk thinking about the productive day I was about to make happen.

Winning in the morning or in the entirety of your life begins to happen when you decide to. Rather then letting life happen, DECIDE how you want it to happen and when the cat shit hits the carpet, clean it up and keep it moving.

5 Tips to help you win tomorrow morning, thanks to the good folks at Dumb Little Man.

Get Up On Time
I won’t say “get up early” – because we’re not all morning people. Getting up on time means setting your alarm early enough that you don’t feel rushed right at the start of your day. Often, just getting out of bed ten or fifteen minutes earlier transforms a stressed, harried morning into a much more relaxed one.

The best way I’ve found to get up on time is to go to bed on time. Yes, it’s obvious – but it’s surprising how often we seem to forget it! Many people need more sleep: are you one of them?

Eat a Healthy Breakfast
We all know that it’s important to eat breakfast, though many of us don’t – or if we do, we eat all the wrong things. If you’re trying to lose weight (and a staggering two-thirds of Americans are overweight or obese), theneating breakfast will help you do so.

Even if your weight isn’t a concern, you still need to give your brain some fuel first thing in the morning ... so eat ahealthy breakfast that’ll give you the energy you need for your work. Good options are wholegrain cereals with skim milk, wholewheat toast with eggs, or oatmeal.

Plan Your Day
When you arrive in the office (or, if you work from home, when you sit down at your desk) – resist the temptation tocheck your emails. Unless you work in tech support, it’s very unlikely that anyone needs a reply at 8.30am.

Instead, spend just five minutes planning out your day. What major projects do you want to make progress on? This is what you should work on for at least the first hour of the day. What small but urgent tasks need to be done today? Batch these together and knock them out in a bunch – or get them done during those “gaps” in the day, like when you’re waiting for someone to phone you back.

Minimize Interruptions
When you’re working on something that’s mission-critical – like that mail-out to new customers – do you really want to keep stopping to deal with trivia? Let your calls go to voice-mail, leave your email program closed, and shut your office door.

It takes several minutes to refocus on what you’re doing after an interruption, so you’re wasting a lot of time if you’re constantly stopping to deal with people’s queries.

Stay On Track
Productivity can become a positive spiral if you stay focused: the more work you get through, the more energized you’ll feel. You’ll be encouraged to keep achieving and to keep doing meaningful work (rather than busy work or low-value tasks).

To stay on track, learn to recognize and control your impulses. Don’t give in to distractions like Twitter, Facebook and other socializing websites – save these for your lunch break or for after work. If you find yourselflosing focus on a task, take a five minute break from your computer – then get straight back to it. In many cases,mono-tasking is more effective than multi-tasking.