Mistakes I've made in the Morning (that I'll never do again)

Getting the right start to the day can make all the difference.

That means avoiding the things that will steal your energy, rob you of your motivation, and distract you from your productivity.

Here's a few that I've done in the past and vowed never to do again…

1) Oversleep

Plenty of times I’ve decided to go back to sleep, thinking that the extra shut-eye would do me good. Only to wake later and feel even more tired.

Maybe you’ve experienced something similar?

We do need to get enough good quality rest. How much is unique to your own body. But it’s usually between 7-9 hours a night for most people.  Yet we shouldn’t be tempted to constantly hit the snooze button.

When we regularly oversleep, getting more than 9 hours a night, here is what can actually happen:

• We have lower energy levels and more fatigue

• Our immune function suffers

• There are changes in our stress response

• We increase our risk of certain diseases

2) Waste time on things that lead to decision-fatigue

To be honest, the I'm not sure whether decision fatigue is definitely a thing or not.

But it’s said that we make around 35,000 conscious decisions a day.  I've often felt drained at the end of a busy day, and I have wondered (and still do) if I can help it in anyway by automating a few decisions in the morning.  It may not seem like much, it I think it's making a big difference.

The likes of Barak Obama, Steve Jobs, and Elon Musk all adopted the same approach.  The theory is that the more we have to think, the more it wears out our brains. And that power could be put to better use.

So instead, they rely on habits and routines. For example, already knowing what you are going to wear or eat.

3) Skip the morning routine

Morning routine sounds pretty pretentious, but it doesn’t have to be.

It can be as simple as making your bed straight after you get up, making sure you sit down at the table to have a proper breakfast, and dedicating 5-10 minutes to relax and read the newspaper.

But the purpose of a routine is to provide a structure that guides us. Without it, we can waste time or fall into bad habits.

When I get up, I know what I am meant to be doing.

Creating order at the very start of the day sets the tone and ensures we get off on the right foot.

But to do that, we also have to hone in on what additions to a morning routine will work best for us. So we need to choose wisely!  It's taken months to find a few things that work for me, and I'll probably never stop changing it, but for now, I'm happy with mine.

4) Neglect what energizes me

…And the truth is that is different for all of us.

I can't sit here and tell you that you must exercise every morning if you want to have a productive day.

Whilst exercise has been shown to improve your performance, concentration, creativity, and even your time management — the truth is that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to fitting it into your day. 

Personally, I much prefer to do my exercise in the morning (otherwise, I know I'll find reasons to put it off). It meets my energy needs better. So it’s about finding what gives you that little boost you need. 

Another thing that energises me, and maybe you too, is getting outside.  Breathing the fresh air, and the sun on my face really puts me in a great mood.

6) Doomscroll or get sucked into social media

If we’re not careful, the tech in our lives can throw us off course in the morning.  What’s more, it can strip you of your motivation and leave you feeling flat — depending on what you’re consuming.

A lot of us reach for our phones from beside our beds before we’ve even had a chance to wipe the sleep from our eyes.  We then proceed to open Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, or some other social media site.  It can happen mindlessly, without us even knowing what we’re looking for.  But it’s one of the worst ways to start the day.

It’s a similar picture when we fall down the rabbit hole of “doom-scrolling”, consuming negative news story after negative news story.  Not only is it hijacking your time and attention, but picking up your phone first thing is priming your brain for distraction. That’s because, as reported in Forbes, we end up skipping important brain wave states when we do so.  Seeing or reading something negative at this time of the day can trigger your stress response and put you in a funk that lingers.

To combat this indefinitely, I've kept my accounts, but I've deleted all social media apps from my phone.  So if I want to go scrolling, I'll need to do it from the laptop.  What a game changer!