4 Things Every Boss Should Be Doing Before 8am

Survey: Who here sets their alarm for 30 minutes before they absolutely need to get out of bed then proceeds to hit snooze at least 3 times? Not going to lie, I used to be guilty of this exact move.  Then one day I just realized that I can either continue to lay in this comfy cozy bed and dream about how I want my life to turn out or I can get up, put some pants on, do the work and make my dream life happen. Obviously I chose the later. Everyday I wake up around 5:30am yes even on "weekends" and I do the same routine to get my brain ready to make shit happen. Here's what I do.

Drink Water

First thing I get out of bed and drink a huge glass of water, because after being asleep your body and most importantly your brain is thirsty. Your brain requires water to function and to make shit happen properly, you may think coffee first but nope water first then coffee.

Mediate

 I mean seriously if this is something big time businesswomen like Oprah swears by I'm going to try and do it.  Also, not going to lie, meditating takes work y'all. Quieting your brain first thing in the morning when you are thinking of all the things you need to accomplish that day is tough.  Here's the thing though mediation is like the anti aging regime for the brain. It helps curb mind-wandering, is an effective anti-depressant and anti-anxiety treatment, increases focus and more. When it comes to meditation, anything helps, whether it's only five minutes or as long as an hour. I'm still training myself to do this and I'm only up to 15 minutes, I'm working my way to 30 minutes. 

Eat Breakfast

My nutritionist wants me to eat 30 grams of protein 30 minutes within waking, and here's why.  While you sleep, your body is doing a ton of maintenance, and part of that means it dips into your fat stores. When you give your body sugar in the morning, it’ll burn the sugar. Eating protein right away after waking  has been shown to increase energy levels throughout the day, reduce snacking and even improve short-term memory.

Make a list

I'm a big calendar blocker, meaning that I block out sets of times for certain tasks but also while  eating my breakfast and scrolling my feeds I brain dump all the things that have come into my mind. This is an awful way to make a list for the day, so I take my brain dump and narrow it down to things that need or can  be achieved that day. 

Then I drink the coffee, fire up my computer and begin kicking ass for the day. 

Boosting Productivity

Ultra productive people don't work from a to-do list, but they do live and work from their calendar.  Do you really think that the billionaires like Bill Gates and Marisa Mayer write a long to-do list and prioritize items? Nope, if it's not on their calendar it just doesn't exist because a to-do list doesn't account for time.

I read this crazy Forbes article about time productivity and started to put everything on my calendar in timed increments, like the billionaires.  When I sit down to start the task I ask Siri to set the timer.  15 minutes of Instagram interaction, 20 minutes of Facebook group trolling, 30 minutes of email management, 60 minutes of content creation then a break.  

Bottom line if it doesn't get scheduled and Siri doesn't time it, it shouldn't get done.  It's a learning process for me but so far it's working out pretty well.