12 morning habits that end up destroying the rest of our day

Every successful person has his own recipe for efficiency, but everyone has the same point of view: the morning is the most important part of the day. In the first hour after awakening, the foundation for fruitful work is laid, and the peak of efficiency, even in sleepy people, happens at 11 am. We know this in theory, but in practice we tend to wake up after the alarm rings three times, grab our cup of coffee in a hurry, and check out our social media. It is not surprising that later difficulties arise during the day.

O awesome.club decided to find out which morning habits reduce our efficiency and how they can be replaced in reality and not in those dreams in which we wake up every morning with a smile and meditate.

We all like to sleep longer in the morning, and the temptation to snooze our alarm clock with the phrase “yes, I have time” is very great. So, with half-open eyes, we put on the first piece of clothing we see, quickly drink our coffee and go to work at the risk of getting stuck in traffic and being late.

At first glance, being 10 to 15 minutes late increases the stress level, makes it difficult to concentrate at work, and creates the feeling of running out of time throughout the day. It’s easier to “sacrifice” 15 minutes of sleep in the morning, but get used to it in complete peace of mind.

Planning is a good habit, but in the morning we are not very willing to plan. If you woke up a little tired and without sleep, then you won’t want to schedule many activities and tasks for that day, although you can concentrate and complete what was planned. If, on the contrary, after awakening you are full of strength and energy, then you risk making an overly ambitious plan that can only be realized with the help of a time machine, and not achieving everything can be a factor of disappointment .

Therefore, on Sunday the main issues for the whole week should be written down and the daily plan corrected accordingly. The effectiveness of such planning will be as good as possible.

Everywhere we hear that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, which should not be skipped at all. However, the individual peculiarities of each person require a special approach. If you don’t feel that hungry feeling after waking up, it’s not worth pushing yourself and trying to eat.

There is a category of people who incorrectly absorbs a breakfast after waking up. Nutritionists recommend respecting the principle of intermittent fasting, according to the 16/8 scheme, that is, 16 hours without food and eating in a period of 8 hours.

In movies, we constantly see that successful people start their morning by reading the newspaper. This habit creates the illusion that they have everything under control, follow world events and are ready to talk to anyone about any topic.

In fact, the news is rarely positive, so reading it significantly increases the level of stress, which most of us are prone to in the morning. This threatens us with an increase in irritability throughout the day, an increasing amount of conflicts and a bad mood. The world’s top news won’t disappear, and you won’t miss much if you read the newspaper at lunch.

Every day we make dozens or sometimes hundreds of small decisions. In the morning you also have to choose: what clothes to wear, what to take, what to eat for breakfast, to exercise or not, what to do before work. It sounds pretty harmless, but the ability to choose is a finite resource. With each decision, we spend energy, which we need later in the second half of the day.

An ideal morning should be planned in advance: clothes and bag, for example, should be ready the night before. So you just have to stick to the plan and thus save your strength for the really important decisions.

It is enough to exercise for 15-20 minutes to wake up, start metabolism processes and focus during the day full of energy. But exercising for too long can be harmful. After waking up, your body is not prepared for intense physical activity, as this is perceived as a stressful situation, which causes enormous fatigue during the day, accumulation of extra weight and even migraines.

Of course, everything is individual and if for many years you have been intensively exercising in the morning, then the body is able to adapt, but it’s not worth starting training after the alarm clock has rung. If you can only work out in the morning, change the time to start training a little, give yourself time to fully wake up.

Social networks and e-mail have been considered “time hogs” and their visualization is almost an addiction. Email and social media in the morning envelop you in an environment of worry, prevent you from concentrating on work, and only create the illusion of being busy when you can be spending your time in a more enjoyable and fruitful way.

It’s best to check email after the first part of the job is done and open social media after lunch.

Many people who maintain a healthy diet consider that sweets can be eaten only in the first half of the day, and often change breakfast for them, but in the wrong way. In reality, eating sweets for the first meal of the day initially causes an energy surge and then a rapid loss, accompanied by drowsiness and hunger.

If you don’t want to “starve” before lunch, stick to a safe schedule. Until now, nothing more effective has been invented for breakfast than “slow” carbohydrates. You can treat yourself to sweets for the first snack after breakfast or after lunch.

When we aspire to high productivity, we often fall into the trap of multitasking. Sometimes we think that the day has few hours and that’s why we have to do several things at the same time. We usually overload the morning for two reasons:

we sleep a lot and try to get everything done; we’ve heard about the “most effective 3 hours” and now we try to do as many tasks as possible in those hours.

In fact, multitasking doesn’t work. Even if you are very agile, it is impossible to multitask with maximum concentration. Leave only the most important things for the morning and start doing tasks one at a time.

In time management there is the concept of “Swallow that frog!”, that is, perform the most unpleasant or complicated task that you do not want to do: for example, making sales calls or resolving a conflicting situation with a client. But postponing these issues takes away all their strength and reduces their effectiveness.

Morning is the perfect time to “swallow that frog”. As you get rid of unpleasant tasks, you will gladly take on other matters and be amazed at all the things you will accomplish when you stop carrying the weight of a complicated matter. But it’s important to keep a balance and not spend your most productive hours just doing unpleasant work.

Many of us drink our first cup of coffee before we open our eyes. However, the only thing you will achieve by drinking coffee immediately after waking up is dehydration, and in the long term you may experience acidity or gastritis.

If it is not in your plans to give up caffeine, it is easier to trick the organism and drink a glass of water first. The best thing would be to drink a glass of water, exercise, have breakfast and then drink coffee.

It’s not worth starting the day with socializing and doing household chores. Even if you are the mother of three children who need to get ready for school, you also need time for privacy. Even if it’s only 15 minutes. Of course, it would be perfect to spend that time meditating and focusing to have a fruitful day, but let’s be honest: for many people, even brushing their teeth alone makes them “zen”.

If you don’t have the opportunity to be alone in the morning, try introducing this habit even for a couple of weeks. Soon you will notice how, during the day, the level of concentration increases and the resistance to stress too.

How do you spend your morning? Would you like to change something?