Saturday, May 12, 2018

FYI: "If you win the morning, you win the day"

From the personal Quotes Of The Week section of my personal diary: "If you win the morning, you win the day..." (Tim Ferriss)

This is something that showed up on my radar several months ago.

Today. I Googled the exact quote...
... and several sites popped up.

The quote comes from a podcast posted on: September 18, 2015, and a link to that podcast is at the bottom of this page.

The Inc. Magazine article 5 Morning Rituals That Help You 'Win the Day'ranked first in Google's Search Engine Results.

It listed these five bullets:
  1. Make your bed (gives you a sense of accomplishing something right away)
  2. Meditate (thumbnail: don't jump right into your first activity; reflect on the day for up to 20 minutes.)
  3. Hang (or Exercise) - The Inc. article says Tim  hangs from a self-built frame. He hangs for one minute at a time several times during the day.
    • The CNBC version says he does 5-20 reps (of pushups).
    • Tim says "The 5 to 10 reps here are not a workout, They are intended to 'state prime' and wake me up."
  4. Drink Tea.
  5. Journal.
    Here are two tools listed/linked by the Inc. article.
    • The sections of The Five Minute Journal are:
      • Inspiring Quotes
      • Weekly Challenges
      • What would make Today Great
      • List 3 amazing things that happened today
      • Gratitude
      • Affirmation
      • How could you have made the day better?
    • Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, ideally done first thing in the morning.
      • The Video uses a reference to thinking of this (process) as a vacuum. This reminded me of Mom's book Give Me A Broom...
      • Specific Steps:
        1. Focus on doing the morning pages tomorrow. Just focus on one day.
        2. Get a pen and a notebook ready and laid out the night before.
        3. Wake up 30 minutes earlier than you normally would. Be okay with that. Tell yourself the night before that you are doing this and that you will feel well-rested in the morning (that simple statement will really help).
        4. Wake up, say “This is going to be the best day ever!” (you can skip this part if you want) and write three pages. Be proud of yourself for this.
        5. Try to do it again the next day. Use Jerry Seinfeld’s productivity secret here and don’t break the chain.
Entrepreneur Magazine actually has a video of Tim titled "Win the Day With Tim Ferriss's Morning Routine." (This particular web page didn't serve the video very well for me.)

Finally, here is the link directly to Tim's 30-minute podcast: The Tim Ferris Show. The first 5-1/2 minutes are a commercial, so you can skip directly to 5:30. Apparently this podcast was posted on: September 18, 2015.

My takeaways:

Making my bed~

I have been half make my bed every morning for as long as I can remember.

I smooth the comforter; I pull it, and the sheet, to the top of the bed and throw the three sleeping pillows across the top. The king-size decorative pillows stay on my reading chair most of the week.

Rarely do I leave the bedroom with crumpled sheets/comforter.

And yes, the ritual does promote a positive start to the day.

Meditate~

I'm beginning to appreciate that as a morning action.

Now that my alarm is being turned back (currently 6:30am), I'm not rushing into my day.

Today, I padded "down the hall" then returned to bed. I propped up the pillows and watched TV for about 10 minutes.

Perhaps I should try this without the TV.

Hang/Exercise~

I haven't done anything like this in years.

I like the idea of 5-10 reps of something.

I like the idea of using this to "get the blood pumping" and not as a full exercise/workout routine.

Tea/Hydrate~

Naw. This isn't going to happen.

30 minutes after the alarm sounds my 4-cup coffee-make is brewing a pot of Cuban espresso coffee.

Journal~

I mostly do this, anyway.

I maintain a private diary that has these headings:

  • Links of Interest
  • Quotes for the Day
  • What went well
  • What would I like to repeat
  • What didn't go well
  • What did I plan for the week (I delete each day as it passes)
  • What did I actually did day-by-day with approximate times
  • What will I do next week (When I start a new week, I copy and paste this to the "What did I plan for the week" section.)
...and I've taken an hour this morning writing this... 😎

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