Morning Matters Most

 

Let's do a random sampling.  For many entrepreneurs, the most important time of the day would likely be lunchtime WHEN they will meet up with business partners OR they're itching to close a new sales deal.  Heard of those Martini lunches [especially @Wall Street].  For most folks @workplace, probably their most important time of the day is that LAST LAP, that last hour OR so of their workday WHERE you would NOT hear any side chats [oh oh, because maybe that LAST LAP really triggerst our last adrenaline shot for the day?].  BUT alas, you are all wrong.  Experts tell us that the most important time of our day is WHEN we wake up, WHEN we start things off.  Unfortunately, many of us start our day in a frantic scramble to get kids to school, rushing for work, leaving us stressed and unprepared for the day ahead.  WHAT is NOT known to many of us is the effect of the alarm clock's loud ringing😡😡😡 

Studies showed that waking up to a loud alarm can trigger our body's FIGHT-or-FLIGHT response, thus hindering our own productivity for that day [and worse, even our well-being].  Instead, we are counselled to try a gentler approach, like using a sunrise alarm clock that gradually lights your room OR sets your phone to a soft, calming sound.  And if possible, leave the curtains slightly open to let natural light wake you.  Experts tell us that this method helps your body transition smoothly from sleep and over to wakefulness, thus reducing that morning 'groginess' and setting a calm tone for the day.  Compare it with waking up, then waking up your kids with a loud voice OR haranguing them with those incessant warnings LIKE "YOU'LL BE LATE AGAIN" blah blah blah, then unconsciously, you're setting up the tone of your day, impacting a big chunk of the tasks and activities you'll be doing the rest of the day.  Talking about that FIRST MISSTEP!@#$%?

Rather than reinvent the wheel, let's hear WHAT experts say:

• PRACTICE MINDFUL BREATHING - LIKE taking a moment to focus on breathing, with eyes closed, take five deep, slow breaths, feeling a sensation of air entering/leaving your body
• CULTIVATE GRATITUDE - I heard this zillion times.  Once we wake up, silently thank that you WOKE UP for another day, being grateful on the positive aspects of your life
• LIMIT TECHNOLOGY USE - Avoid [LISTEN I'm screaming] checking your phone first thing in the morning to prevent distractions [and STRESS - I'm screaming again now].  If you're using it as an alarm, switch it to AIRPLANE MODE

Talking straight from all my share of travails & tribulations, I WON'T forget the multiple times I [WRONGLY] started my day, manifesting all the NO-NOs we're now pitching.  LIKE grabbing my smartphone even before freshening up.  Imagine, I'll deep dive into my messages via SMS, WhatsApp and Viber.  Just those bulk of messages sent to me [over the previous night] leads me to be in that frenzied state.  Imagine the severity levels of my state at the very first few minutes of my day, reading alerts of workplace incidents & issues [BTW that tapers off maybe sometime Christmas time, huhuhu], follow throughs and those endless Calendar reminders from Teams, Zoom, Google Meet, Calendly, name it, there you go😡😡😡

Our takeaway:  That old quote "WHAT YOU SOW IS WHAT YOU REAP" rings so loud over and over again because that's NO different from our thread today.  Similarly in the NBA hoops world, bench tacticians would always and tirelessly cascade to the players for them to DICTATE THE TEMPO right when the game buzzer starts off.  And WHEN they pile up significant leads early, it leaves their opponent huffing and puffing the rest of the game.  YES dude, MORNING MATTERS MOST [because you DON'T want to be huffing & puffing the rest of the day, right dude😁😁😁