4 Productivity Increasing Habits That You Should Start Every Day

4 Productivity Increasing Habits That You Should Start Every Day With

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle

The first hour of your day helps set the pace for all that follows. If you wake up, shower, and head straight to work you're not taking the proper care for your body that it requires to be truly productive.

After trying dozens of different routines, from shocking myself with an electric wristband to wake myself up to just getting some Vitamin D, here are the 4 routines that I find have most consistently helped me succeed.

#1. Exercise

Working up a sweat in the morning is the most surefire way to increase your productivity throughout the day.

There's a few reasons for this. First, it prevents you from putting it off. If you have a bad day at work, you're much less likely to go and workout right after. If it's in the morning, you set the tone for the whole day.

Moderate to heavy exercise also releases endorphins, and wakes up the brain. It also gives you an early "win" for the day once you're done, and sets your brain up for more wins throughout the day.

#2. Meditation

You don't have to cross your legs and hum to see the benefits of meditation. In fact, meditating that way probably won't do you much good at all. Instead, focus on just taking some time to be mindful of your surroundings and yourself and working on your focus.

By working on your focus and becoming more mindful of your surroundings, you're going to become more aware of when distraction sets in during your day and are prepared to bring your mind back to the task at hand.

#3. Journal

I started this again rather recently, and it's had quite an impact on my productivity and creativity throughout the day.

Every morning, I do the following.

Write 3 things I'm grateful for today

Write down my goals for the day, and reaffirm my long term goals

Write 10 unique ideas for a particular topic (things like "10 Ways to Make A Better Car", or something really random like that)

By writing down what I'm grateful for, I become more aware of my motivations and keep from getting too down on myself when things don't go well during the day. Writing down my goals is just a daily reminder of the purpose of my day. The unique ideas get me thinking in new ways on how to approach problems, and have made me immensely more creative.

#4. Reading

I'm pretty big into reading nonfiction, and by taking 15 minutes to read a quick chapter in the morning I make sure I get at least some reading done during the day. A lot of times, I'll be so tired from work I go straight to work and realize after a hard week that I never took any time to read and grow myself.

By doing it first thing in the morning, I guarantee that time and make sure it can't be put off.

What habits have you adopted that have increased your productivity? Leave a comment below, I'd love to try it out and write a followup article on it.