My morning routine

Here are the six things I do every morning before I do anything work-related:

– Nourish my body. Coffee and bagel with cream cheese (my favorite)

– Nourish my heart/ soul. Listen to music on my drive to work ex-advertisements

– Be proactive. Schedule my day. Look at my calendar for meetings, then plan out and prioritize what will get done in between set commitments

– Do something fun. For me, it’s playing with my finance spreadsheet (don’t ask)

– Nourish my mind. Read the headlines

– Prepare a work-friendly environment. Make sure my desk area is neat

All this takes me less than 15 minutes once I get in the office but keeps me on top of my day. The worst is when you come into work, see a bad email and your day gets off on the wrong foot, leaving you flustered for the rest of the morning. One of the keys to being effective is being proactive and managing your time and day, rather than letting it manage you. The more you leave yourself susceptible to external forces to set the tone for you or to start your day for you, the lower your chances of getting back on top. I don’t mean, on top like you’re above others. I mean on top, as in, not underneath your work. Trust me, all those emergencies can wait an extra 15 minutes if no one called you at home while you were sleeping. So, if you need to, close your door, tune out the world and make sure you get through your “list”. If you don’t have a list, create one. It doesn’t have to be mine above. It’s whatever routine you decide is the way you want to start your day. Remember, we are condition-able creatures whose mental and physical responses trigger to recognizable events. You hear a siren, you get nervous. You hear an elevator bell, you start moving toward the door. Every morning, you have the opportunity to define what your triggers will be and your mind and body will start responding to those triggers: ah, she’s reading the news… the day is starting – time to kick it into high gear!

And things I avoid:

Negative programs. Who needs to listen to a radio show that spends four hours bashing other people. If you find yourself drawn to that, maybe ask yourself if that’s what you want to expose yourself to. Hey, if that’s your thing, I won’t judge you – but I don’t want to be your friend!

Advertisements. Thus another reason I avoid the radio in general. I used to listen to the radio in the shower each morning but I realized that I was exposing 40% of my precious hot shower time (a time for great revelations) to nonsense media that tries to get you to buy stuff. Same concept, if you want to avoid allowing yourself to be vulnerable/ easily influenced – avoid the explicit and subliminal messages. Not that you can escape this all the time, but you can certainly make it a point to avoid these in the morning.

Traffic. I now have a fabulous commute, which has reduced my level of stress significantly. There is no worse way to start your day than to be fighting with traffic and being worried about being late.

Too much mirror-time. Thus allowing myself time to scrutinize my outfit or my puffy face, leading to frustration and unnecessary measures to damage-control. Whatever, who cares – just go!

Aite peeps, I’m out!