How to boss the morning before work — A Morning Routine to get shit done before the day job [A Proposal]
I imagine I am much like many of you out there. Striving for a different life, where the day job is not working for someone else but is a day where I pursue my own interest, where I grind to make a living doing the work I want to do. This does not happen overnight. So I work at it morning, night and whenever I can at work. This is normally when I grab five minutes of fresh air.
My Work Interest
It is important to start of with my main interests in what I am looking to pursue. One is my Beard Care company Beardster. This is an e-commerce site and I am normally researching new ideas, recipes, ways of marketing and grinding on social media.
My longterm interests are slightly different. I want to write — hence why I am on Medium, this place is incredible. I want to focus on self-development, motivation, mindfulness and with that meditation. As part of this I am building content on Instagram and soon to be on YouTube in order to get a wider reach. Each platform has its own benefits and I enjoying filming/editing videos so YouTube makes sense, but it is not a priority.
However, working half 7 — half 4 with 30–45 minutes worth of travel each way and now a newborn baby means the time to pursue these interests is now suffering. As I write I am off work currently, on annual leave enjoying time with my new family. I have 5 more working days off to perfect my routine and it will go something like this. Expect an update to this article to see if I can better it any more.
The Routine
My current routine, prior to the baby being born was this.
Wake up between 5–6 AM — this shows how poor this routine is/was already.
Let the Pug out — Feed the Pug (15 Mins)
Simultaneously make the coffee.
Eat something if hungry.
Check email
Check Instagram likes, comments and other interactions. Jump on Facebook and do the same.
Go shower.
Get Dressed.
Leave for work no later that 7am to avoid a later finish.
Listen to Entrepreneur on Fire Podcast/Gary V Podcast/Tim Ferris Podcast.
Get to work and switch off from my interests.
As you can see this was fine when I could come home in the evening at work until whatever time I wanted. This is no longer the situation. Thinking on it now, that routine above is utter shit. It shows that I wasn’t serious enough in pursuing those interests. This is why self-reflection is essential, I only wished I had looked into it before writing this article to realise how piss poor that routine was.
The New Routine
Wake up at 5am.
See to Dog and make coffee and eat (20 mins) (0520)
Take Dog out for walk/listen to a podcast (30 mins) (0550)
Shower and get dressed (20 mins) (0610)
Write minimum of 500 words on Medium or on www.beardster.co.uk (25 mins) (0635)
Read news (10 mins) (0645)
Read at least three posts on Medium and comment on two posts (20 mins) (0705)
Tend to Baby and Partner (15 Mins) (0720)
Leave for work (0725)
Listen to a podcast on the journey
Get to work for 0800–0815
Leave work 1630–45
So this is my planned routine going forward. I am sure I will have to be flexible with the needs of a newborn but I can move activities around. To me, this is the only way I can fit everything in. At times, my partner will walk the dog in the day, which could free up another 30 mins. When this happens, this will be more writing time on both platforms.
As you can see with this proposed new morning routine there is no wasting time with email. For one, I always make time to check this during the day job so I am sure it can wait to then. Social Media time will be in the evenings and will be more sharply focussed going forward. I will write up another article on my evening routine for getting shit done soon as this will be my most broken up part of the day going forward soon.
So the morning will now be focussed on productive activities only, with some reading to stay aware of what is going on in the world and to also better my own writing.
Let me know if you would tweak any of the productive activities on move activities around in my routine. Let me know what you do to get shit done in the mornings.
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