_____How to Start a Productive Day

[cmw333]

finally a positive topic to read about instead of the usual winning about penguin and how it fucked up peoples rankings.

To add to what has already been covered I only spend periods of 1 hour at most in front of the computer and then take a 5 min break. I found this not only keeps me focused, those with ADHD this work wonders trust me. Not only that I used to get chronic stomach pain from spending hours staring in front of the computer, not only that my productive level was next to nothing.

I haven't quite got to the stage of writing own what I'm doing each day as I keep it in my head, not a good habit but after reading this post I will change.

 

[jetti789]

great post.

I would add that you plan exactly what you will be working on the next morning.

when you work a 9-5 job your work is planned for you, but when you work IM you
need to plan it out for the next day too. I always plan the next day before going
to sleep.

 

[florflor]

First thing I do when I wake is to go get breakfast. I eat it and do some surfing (can't work while eating anyway).

Then I take a dump.

Then I take a shower.

Only then am I ready to work.


Some advice I heard once which I do from time to time is: Figure out the most important thing you have to do that day and make sure you get it done.

Because many of us make huge todo lists that realistically we cannot do everything on them. So long as you always do the most important one (and start it first) then that is OK, the day was still productive.

 

[WizIMS]

Thanks for the comments each and everyone of you. I'm glad you like it, I'll make more soon.

About waking up early, I have to say that it was my mistake. Some people just can't work in the morning, and they're much more productive in the evening.

I'm a morning person.. so I'm sorry I didn't consider the other type of people

 

[harry911]

Thanks for the comments each and everyone of you. I'm glad you like it, I'll make more soon.

About waking up early, I have to say that it was my mistake. Some people just can't work in the morning, and they're much more productive in the evening.

I'm a morning person.. so I'm sorry I didn't consider the other type of people

I'm also a morning guy. Its quite and peaceful in the morning, and I am at least 3 times more productive in morning!

 

[Remington]

To wake up fresh, you need to sleep early. Of course you will feel f##d'ed up, if you sleep at 4 am and try to wake up by 6 am.

Going to sleep early means you're wasting the night. Wouldn't you rather be 12 hours ahead of the day creatures?

(Those who notice the time stamp should note that I'm on my way to bed now! 4AM EST.)

 

[jollymonsa]

I said it before and ill say it as i sip it today..... STARBUCKS

 

[crosnake]

waking up early is most important step. Sometimes it's hard because you worked all night

You have better filling and willing to work.

 

[twentytwo]

I wake up early, drink some coffee and work for a few hours. I then go on a run come back more work, make breakfast and more work tell the clock strikes 3:00....

 

[blackouts]

I hate waking up early, but my daughter is helping me every morning at 06.00 to motivate me by putting a smile on her face!

 

[Alexx11]

 

[kazumasama]

My routine for productive day:
1.) Wake up early
2.) Pop 2 of my adderal (prescription)
3.) FLY through all my "Have-to-dos"
4.) Do my "like-to-dos"
5.) Rinse and Repeat

 

[apoorv]

I'm guilty of not doing all of those, apart from perhaps the second one.

I wake up late around 11 AM usually; check my e-mail first thing (trying to get rid of this for a few months with zero success — at best, I'm able to stop this for a couple of days), grab a book and my morning coffee and start reading. After a couple of hours, get on the Internet, check stats, traffic, sales, RSS feeds and waste some time. Get coding at around 3 PM and keep working till 5. Food. Start working again and keep working till 10.

Waste time for a couple of hours again and then grab that book again. Go back to sleep. This could be a lot, lot better. Waking up in the morning would be absolutely wonderful but despite trying, I'm absolutely unable to do that. The days I have been able to wake up in the morning, my productivity skyrocketed and I've felt better.

I use Things to keep a track of my to-dos and Notational Velocity for notes so as far as organization goes, I'm pretty organized. However, social media sites (twitter specially), e-mail and vanity stats are a big time suck.

 

[brainstorm1]

I agree 100%. I was actually thinking about this recently. Much of my work that I have at night I just save for the next morning. When I wake up, get a bowl of oatmeal and get straight to work, I am very productive. Not sure how much correlation there is with the rest of the day, but during that period of time I definitely agree. First few hours are crucial for getting productive.

 

[WizIMS]

My routine for productive day:
1.) Wake up early
2.) Pop 2 of my adderal (prescription)
3.) FLY through all my "Have-to-dos"
4.) Do my "like-to-dos"
5.) Rinse and Repeat

Nice one man. Your morning routine is one of the most important stuff you can do - that's super productive when it's a static routine, as you don't need to waste time and energy deciding what to do next..

I'm guilty of not doing all of those, apart from perhaps the second one.

I wake up late around 11 AM usually; check my e-mail first thing (trying to get rid of this for a few months with zero success ? at best, I'm able to stop this for a couple of days), grab a book and my morning coffee and start reading. After a couple of hours, get on the Internet, check stats, traffic, sales, RSS feeds and waste some time. Get coding at around 3 PM and keep working till 5. Food. Start working again and keep working till 10.

Waste time for a couple of hours again and then grab that book again. Go back to sleep. This could be a lot, lot better. Waking up in the morning would be absolutely wonderful but despite trying, I'm absolutely unable to do that. The days I have been able to wake up in the morning, my productivity skyrocketed and I've felt better.

I use Things to keep a track of my to-dos and Notational Velocity for notes so as far as organization goes, I'm pretty organized. However, social media sites (twitter specially), e-mail and vanity stats are a big time suck.

You need to work on one thing at a time mate, you need to change your habits if you want to succeed.
About waking up early, don't make it too hard for you. Changing a habit isn't easy.. you need to make it slowly and persistently. Start waking up 15 minutes earlier every day. Just 15 minutes. And you'll be able to wake up early everyday, and it will last forever.

Good luck man..

Going to sleep early means you're wasting the night. Wouldn't you rather be 12 hours ahead of the day creatures?

(Those who notice the time stamp should note that I'm on my way to bed now! 4AM EST.)

It depends dude. You are not "wasting" any time in both cases (working in night or working in morning). As you'll sleep more or less the same time in both cases.
The thing is, it all depends on HOW you work. If you have energy in the night, then you should definitely work in the night and avoid the morning tip.

 

[reichstagsuperstar]

Great advice! I always find that if I stick to watching TV/doing lazy things first thing in the morning always sets me up to be lazy throughout the entire day.

 

[peerless2acme]

I am always pleased to see such posts because they have a touch of difference and focus more on our life as a whole and are futuristic. We all are crazy for making money but in order to actually achieve it we need to be aware of techniques and advice offered by http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackhat-seo/members/225013-wizims.html in this thread. I was a chronic procrastinator and ended up wasting lots of time on facebook early in the morning and by the time I used to sit back to work, it was already afternoon and then, I used to feel drowsy and eventually I would doze while working. This used to happen for many months until one day I finally decided to do the following things and I think the steps incorporated by me would help many members on this forum:

1) Sleep Early & Rise Early: You may say that why am I starting right from night but I have a point here. When you sleep early, it gets easier for you to rise early. When I was young, my parents always told me " Sleep early, Rise Early" but when I entered online world, I started sleeping late and by the time I was on verge of collapsing I used to sleep at 4 am and wake up at 9 am. However, when I decided to change my routine, the first thing I changed was my sleeping time. I decided to start reducing slowly and finally now I go to bed positively before 12 midnight. This makes it easier for me to wake up at 5 am morning.

2) Go to Jog or a walk: I never went to jog in the past so initially it seemed like a mountainous task but it took me just one month to get habituated to wake up early and go for jog. These days I positively cover 10 kms during my morning jog. It is scientifically proved that getting fresh air early in the morning is good for our health. If you can't jog, then go for a 2 kms walk. It would hardly take 20 minutes. Common now, I know you will have ready made excuses but think for a while, you spend hours on facebook and other social media platforms, this is just small part of day, which you need to devote towards your body, so that you can live a healthy life.

3) Meditate: This is a must and most of you would laugh at me and believe me even I mocked the person who told me this. Meditation can be done in different ways, depending upon your comfort and choice you can meditate daily. I believe in spending time on visualizing my goals and thinking of ideas related to my business. I sit early in the morning, generally, this is the time when most of my family members are sleeping so I easily get a good ten minutes to visualize my goals and feel like I have already achieved them. Believe me, if you have a goal, then there can't be a better feeling than achieving it, so why not get that feeling daily. Feel that moment, enjoy it and embrace it. I do the same. It will take a week, to get a hang of visualizing but over a period of time I am sure that each one of you can master the art of visualizing. Another thing, it's a request, write down your goals and read them daily. I got to know about this when I was reading Law of attraction by Rhonda Byrne and since then I have been regularly reading my goals.

4) Stop or Reduce Facebooking: This may sound crazy, but if you are not using facebook and twitter for business purposes, then I would suggest you to reduce its usage. I was addicted to facebook and I had a hard time getting rid of it. Though I haven't completely got over it because I have a few clients on Facebook, still I have successfully been able to curb its usage.

I think these things will definitely make your day productive. At least, I have noticed many positive effects into my life by incorporating these basic things. Hope I could help you guys. I would love to hear from you and those of you who don't agree with my ideas or steps you can please let me know. It would be a pleasure to know your thoughts. Have a blessed day people.

 

[bashhunter]

Great Post.

I have actually start today really well.

But then in the middle of the day I got distracted.

It all went down hill from there.

Will try again tomorrow.

 

[Exclusive8]

all the stuff in this thread is so true

 

[creativeway]

I listen to nature sounds on youtube when doing my stuff, definitely calms and relaxing. And also read something related to your business/success/time mgt ect for like 30mins in the morning before you do anything else helps aswell