CHECKLST FOR EFFECTIVE MORNINGS

Table of Contents
About the author .............................................................................. 3
Introduction ...................................................................................... 4
Don’t check the phone as soon as you wake up ............................ 6
Do not snooze .................................................................................. 8
Get out of bed in a few minutes....................................................... 9
Start your day with a plan .............................................................. 11
Eat and drink right in the morning ................................................ 13
Postpone checking emails............................................................. 15
Skip the unnecessary decisions ................................................... 17
Keep the blinds open ..................................................................... 18
Conclusion ..................................................................................... 19

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About the author

Maxim Dsouza a self-improvement,
productivity, and time management
enthusiast. He spends every day of his life
trying to find better ways to do things. Many
of my experiments fail and some of them
succeed.

He loves to share what works for him and

what hasn’t on his blog, Productive Club.
His resources are practical and actionable.
You can access them for free here.

On this blog, he shares his thoughts, ideas and tips on:

• Goal Clarity
• Productivity
• Time Management
• Decision Making

He is the author of the book, the Magic of 2 Seconds. Your mind can do
amazing things in 2 seconds. This book is all about learning how to
become self aware by improving your decisions and avoiding mistakes in
less than a couple of seconds.

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Introduction
Trring.

“Time to wake up” says the clock.

But, you stop your alarm, and hit the snooze.

After a back and forth battle, you drag yourself from bed zombie-eyed
cursing your morning.

As the clock ticks, you realize you are running late. You rush to complete
your morning chores. You pack your bag while stuffing toast down your
throat and making a phone call. You drive in a hurry and reach work just on
time.

Some people have a hurried morning routine while some others approach
their morning with a lot more grace.

Have you realized when your morning starts in a hurry, the rest of
your day follows similar chaos? If you start your morning well, the
rest of the day follows suit.

In short, your morning usually sets the tone for your day. Doing the right
things in the morning and avoiding the bad habits will make the rest of your
day pumped, peaceful and productive.

Therefore, you must spend your morning well. You do not have to wake
up early at 5 AM for a fruitful morning. If you want to know tips on how to
wake up early, follow the article.

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But be more wary of how your morning goes by. Be aware of the habits
which can harm your mornings and the rest of your day.

This resource will take you through 8 things to keep in mind for an effective
morning

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Don’t check the phone as soon as you wake up

if you asked me what should you not do first thing in the morning, I would
say using the smartphone.

But what is the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up? Most
people slide their hand under the pillow, pick the phone and check what did
they miss.

You scan Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp to find out who reached out to
you and what people are doing. Such behavior is now ingrained as a habit
for many.

When you start the day by looking at your phone, you crave to check what
you missed each morning. Also, your day starts as a comparison with other
people’s lives. It dampens your fresh mind which could otherwise be used
to accomplish fruitful things.

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The Center For Humane Technology is an organization that tries to

understand how technology hijacks our lives.

Tristen Harris, it’s co-founder said “Looking at your phone as soon as you
wake up frames the experience of ‘waking up in the morning’ around a menu
of ‘all the things I’ve missed since yesterday.’”

Such a mindset impacts your productivity the entire day.

We also spend time in the morning browsing, checking news feed and
reading news articles. Morning time is precious and wasting them on such
activity can be avoided by not checking the phone first.

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Do not snooze

Many people love to snooze two or three times before waking

up. Some people even account for the snooze when setting the alarm.

For example, to wake up at 7 AM, you set an alarm at 6:45 AM to allow 2

snoozes. Snoozing gives us the relief of having to sleep some more when
the alarm sounds.

Little do you know that when the alarm sounds, you are alarming your
heart. When you snooze a couple more times, you add more alarms. Every
time you snooze, you jolt your heart a little.

To save your heart from this trouble, set the alarm to the exact time you
want to wake up. Once the alarm sounds, turn it off and get out of bed.
Snoozing does more damage to you than waking up at the first go.

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Get out of bed in a few minutes

Some people roll around in bed for a long time while some get out of
bed in an instant. Neither of them is good for you.

Waking up abruptly does not give your body enough time to adapt to
waking up. The way your body and mind works when you are asleep vs
when you are awake is a polar opposite. When you wake up, your body
needs a few minutes to prepare for the awakened state.

You do not have to lie in bed for a long time. 2 minutes in bed serves as
enough time for the body to adapt.

People ask can getting up quickly and immediately after waking up harm
my health? The internet is full of rumors about increased heart
attack/stroke due to waking up abruptly. However, such claims do not have
any medical sources yet. You may not have a stroke but give your body a
couple of minutes to settle down.

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On the other side, staying in bed for too long can urge you to stay for some
more time. For example, if you have been in bed for 10 minutes, you feel
like staying for 5 more. Chances are those 5 minutes extend to another 15
or you might even fall asleep again. Waking up 2-5 minutes from the time
you woke up works best.

All you need to do is sit up. Once you have sat up, you have won the
battle against sleep.

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Start your day with a plan

So you decided to wake up early and you did wake up too. You have an
hour of extra time, so what do you do? You go about it at random. You do
what your mind tells you during that time like thinking about random things,
reading the newspaper, watching a Youtube video and whatnot.

By approaching your morning at random, you fail to use your mornings

effectively. You do not have to use your morning as per some written rule.
All you need is a decent way to use your morning time. Do something
which helps you improve and grow.

If you do not wake up early you might wonder what to do when you wake
up early in the morning? Here are a few things to do to transform your
morning and make it fruitful.

• Do something you are passionate about

• Work on your long term goals

• Work on a side hustle such as blogging on your topic of interest

• Plan your day

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• Learn a new skill or improve your area of expertise by taking an online

course or reading a book
You do not need a plan as detailed as launching a satellite into orbit.
You only have to ensure your morning time gives you its best worth.

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Eat and drink right in the morning

A hormone called cortisol is at peak levels when you wake up. Cortisol
makes us feel alert and awake in the morning. Drinking coffee during this
time is equivalent to watering the plants when it is raining.

Over time, drinking coffee will lead to your body developing tolerance
to cortisol and you will need a coffee to keep you awake and fresh
always. Drinking coffee after 10 AM is advised by the experts when your
cortisol levels have reduced.

What you eat makes a difference to your day too. While a croissant,
doughnut or a smoothie tastes yummy for breakfast, you are better off
avoiding them. Sugary items are not bad per se but they do not do enough
justice for the calories you intake.

Sugary eatables have a chunk of their calories in sugars which are broken
down by the body as glucose. Sugars are easy to break down and your
body is quick to absorb them. Therefore, sugary items release a burst of
energy which your body does not need.

Such sugary food does not keep you energized for long. Complex
carbohydrates such as cereal or whole-grain food are digested by the body

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at a slow pace over a few hours. During the slow digestion, energy is
released little by like like your body expects it.

As for breakfast, people have different views. Some people believe

skipping breakfast helps them lose weight while some others believe that
eating breakfast boosts their metabolism which helps them burn more
calories. None of these theories have proof to generalize them.

How the metabolism responds to breakfast varies from person to person.

Skipping breakfast causes no harm or benefit to health as far as you eat
healthy for the rest of the day.

Having said that, skipping breakfast can cause low energy levels until you
eat because you are running empty since dinner. It also increases the
chances of you eating junk for lunch due to the prolonged hunger.

The same applies to water, Your body is deprived of water from the time
you slept. Hydrate your body after you wake up so that the body can
function well.

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Postpone checking emails

These days people feel the need to read emails now and then. Since most
people have their emails configured on their phones, checking emails is
only a few taps away. So people read emails outside their work hours,
during weekends and vacation.

Reading emails has today become an addiction. People feel the need to
check emails many times a day.

Ask yourself, how many times do you check email because you are
expecting an email? In most cases, you are checking email due to the force
of habit hoping to find an email to entertain you.

Due to the habit formed, you tend to check your email as soon as you wake
up.

Once you check your emails, your mailbox dictates your day. You jump from
one email to another, performing tasks that others are asking you. You forget
your own goals, dreams, and passion.

Do not check your emails first thing in the morning. Emails can wait. You
live under the false presumption that you need to check emails.

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If you don’t check emails, you feel like you miss something. Truth is, you
miss nothing. You have portrayed an image of yourself as a person who is
super active on email when no one asked you to.

Skip the email for the first few hours of your workday. Most roles and
professions do not need emails attended first thing in the morning.

Ask yourself, does your work need you to answer emails as the first thing in
your day or have you made it so? The chances are it is the latter.

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Skip the unnecessary decisions

Do you remember searching for a good hotel for a long time on the internet
and not finding one? When you finally found one, your head felt heavy and
exhausted. You felt tired because making a decision consumes
energy.

Keeping your mornings simple helps you avoid fatigue incurred due
to decision making. Avoid breaking your head on what breakfast should
you cook or what clothes should you wear.

You do not have to wear the same T-shirt every day as Mark Zuckerberg
does. But that doesn’t mean you try 3 different outfits to decide which one
suits you best. Pick something which you look good in and start your day.

Use your morning time for action instead. Make some progress
towards your long term goal, learn something new or improve your
skills. You have the whole day ahead to do the rest.

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Keep the blinds open

This is more of a tip for the night which yields results in the morning.

You may not like the sunlight creeping into your house during the wee
hours of the morning. However, this sunlight has many benefits. Your body
expects sunlight in the morning.

Light works as an indicator to signal the start and end of a day. Your body
follows the day and night cycle based on the availability of light. At least
your body learned so due to evolution. These days, artificial lights have
disrupted nature’s way of identifying night and day.

Irrespective of the cyclic rhythm of the body, morning sunlight helps fight
diseases, strengthens bones and prevents inflammation.

Leaving your blinds closed might give you a feeling of a prolonged

night, but you miss out on the benefits of the early morning sunlight.

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Conclusion
You do not have to transform your morning into a schedule of a billionaire
which includes meditation, visualization, exercise, eating a breakfast which
comprises of 40% protein, 40% carb, and 20% fat. Half of such crazy
morning schedules are made up by authors of articles on the internet than
the billionaires themselves.

If you read such schedules, you give up even before you start because it
seems beyond your abilities. Therefore, you mustn’t try to transform your
morning from one of extreme laziness to that of the richest man in the
world.

Approach the change in your mornings gracefully letting your mind and
body adapt at a slow pace. Trying to force drastic changes is like braking
abruptly causing your tires to wear off. Smooth braking might take a little
longer and be a tad second slower but is far more easy on the tires.
Changing your morning schedule over time is easier on your mind and
body.

All you need to do is build some good habits and avoid bad ones. Get a
sound sleep, use the mornings and the rest of your day fruitfully. Using
simple techniques you can make the most of your mornings. Keep your
morning simple stupid.

I would love to know your thoughts on how these productivity methods

worked for you. If they made a difference in your routine, I would be thrilled
to hear about it. If you believe these tips were useless or need
improvement, I would be all ears to your feedback because I am eager to
find ways to improve. I will listen to negative comments with an open mind
and make an effort to fix your concern.

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Drop me an email on maxim@dsouza@productiveclub.com. I look forward

to hearing from you.

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