You may have noticed that I have not published anything in over 2 weeks, even though I was publishing pretty frequently before that. Well, what happened was my routine got thrown off, and I am a creature of habit. I rely on the habits I have ingrained into my life to make me productive.
This is particularly true in the morning and at night. I have highly structured process for the first 3 hours and the last hour of each day. These automatic routines allow me to accomplish a certain set of tasks everyday, but when they get thrown of by something I become a much less productive individual.
What happened to me was I got sick, the day I last published a post I was fine in the morning but by the time I got home from my day job I was feeling awful. The trouble with being sick is that you need to get lots of rest, at least I do. Consequently I end up going to bed later and sleeping in longer, which cuts off two of my most important routines.
Now it is important to take care of yourself, the real problem arrises out of the fact that good habits are so easy to break. Once you have a habit in maintenance mode you don't want to get out of it. But sometimes our legs get taken out from under us and then what do we do?
For me it depends largely on triggers. What triggers the habit to occur? See the difference for me, in terms of habits, with a vacation and being sick is that when I am sick I still have all my habit triggers around me. Whereas when I am on vacation I leave them behind and go into a different environment. So when I return from vacation my habits are still triggered correctly. When I get done being sick though, my body has trained itself to ignore the triggers.
At this point it takes work to get back into the habit. It is not going to be as hard as establishing the habit the first time, because the patterns have already been made in your brain, but it will be difficult. So what I am doing is slowly adding one thing back into my morning routine each day. Today it is blogging, so you got this post.
I hope you find these thoughts helpful, and that they help you to remember to live better.
Showing posts with label morning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label morning. Show all posts
Thursday, May 22, 2014
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
Why Productive People Make Their Beds
Do you make your bed everyday? You probably did when you were a kid and your mom constantly reminded you. Then you went to college and reveling in your new found freedom you decided you were going to leave your bed a mess... or you started waking up at 8:05 for your 8:00 class. That was probably the end of any kind of bed making routine for you.
Messy bed, messy life
When I talk to people who are going through difficult times and want to be achieving more balance in life I ask them if they make their beds everyday. They always say no. Now, it isn't that having a messy bed is the cause of a messy, out of control life. It is actually usually the opposite.
Consider our example above: the kid moves away from college, schedules a heavy class load, takes on a part time job, makes new friends who like to stay out late, joins the scifi club, and has a whole load of new responsibilities, including trying to decided what to do with the rest of his life. Soon he starts waking up late and the first thing to go is making his bed.
He's rushing out the door just to make it to part of his first class, there is no time to make his bed. It does not really matter thought, because well, it doesn't effect anyone else (except maybe his roommate), his mother will never know, and he is just going to mess it up again later.
Here are three reasons that you will be more productive if you choose not to be like that college student and make your bed everyday.
Keystone habit
Have you ever heard of a keystone habit? Sounds important doesn't it?
A keystone habit is a little habit that is easy to do, but by doing it it allows the person to develop many larger habits easier, often as natural outgrowth of the keystone habit. This is true for both good and bad habits.
Consider our college student friend for a moment. He stops making his bed because he is getting up late. This contributes not only to a poor sleeping schedule but also to a subconscious sense of disorganization and lack of control in his life. Conversely the dedication it would take to wake up a few minutes earlier so that his bed could be made each day would make a huge difference in his ability to make other positive habits.
Paves the way for a morning routine
As a keystone habit, making your bed can lead the way to a whole slew of good habits that can make up a morning routine. Or vice versa, choosing not to make your bed can lead to losing those habits and replacing them with negative ones. In the past I have talked about the importance of being a morning person, and how to become one.
Sometimes the negative examples are the easiest to see. Our college student friend has formed a number of bad habits as he has been off on his own. As he chooses not to make his bed he begins to get up later and later, soon this contributes to other bad habits. He no longer brushes his teeth, he doesn't eat breakfast, he stops biking to school and begins driving, he starts driving too fast and becomes very frustrated with other drivers.
In contrast however by simply working at forming the habit of making his bed the college student can begin the process of developing many other positive habits. Once he has made the decision he must naturally make small change that will allow that decision to take place: he will need to get up a little earlier, in order do that he will need to go to bed a little earlier, therefore he will need to not stay out as late, etc, etc.
Resolves a commitment first thing
Besides the natural outflow from wanting to make your bed such as small time adjustments, there are mental benefits as well to beginning the day be keeping a commitment. See your brain subconsciously keeps track of all the commitments you have made to do things, the more of those that you don't do the more it wears on you. At the same time, the more commitments that you keep the better you feel and the more likely that you are to keep other commitments.
Because most people have been trained to make their beds as a matter of proper behavior and an expectation of their mother, most have a subconscious commitment to doing it. That is one reason that it works so well as a keystone habit, it resolves a commitment almost immediately upon waking up. To start your day with the resolution of a commitment mentally prepares you for the rest of the day.
There may be many aspects of your life that are out of your direct control. That can give a very overwhelming feeling. But you can make your bed every day and resolve that commitment to yourself. Even if you have no bed you can straighten your sleeping area and feel a sense that you have control of at least the first thing that day.
I know you may not like this advice that I have given. But just because you do not like something does not mean that it is not true. In fact it probably means it is true because if it weren't you would just ignore it, but instead it makes you a little upset and you feel a little anger inside. Well, I challenge you to try this for a week and see if what I have said is not true. Accept the challenge in the comments below or by tweeting at me and then report back in seven days (click here to tweet).
I believe you can change, have more control in your life, and be more productive. Just remember, live better.
Messy bed, messy life
When I talk to people who are going through difficult times and want to be achieving more balance in life I ask them if they make their beds everyday. They always say no. Now, it isn't that having a messy bed is the cause of a messy, out of control life. It is actually usually the opposite.
Consider our example above: the kid moves away from college, schedules a heavy class load, takes on a part time job, makes new friends who like to stay out late, joins the scifi club, and has a whole load of new responsibilities, including trying to decided what to do with the rest of his life. Soon he starts waking up late and the first thing to go is making his bed.
He's rushing out the door just to make it to part of his first class, there is no time to make his bed. It does not really matter thought, because well, it doesn't effect anyone else (except maybe his roommate), his mother will never know, and he is just going to mess it up again later.
Here are three reasons that you will be more productive if you choose not to be like that college student and make your bed everyday.
Keystone habit
Have you ever heard of a keystone habit? Sounds important doesn't it?
A keystone habit is a little habit that is easy to do, but by doing it it allows the person to develop many larger habits easier, often as natural outgrowth of the keystone habit. This is true for both good and bad habits.
Consider our college student friend for a moment. He stops making his bed because he is getting up late. This contributes not only to a poor sleeping schedule but also to a subconscious sense of disorganization and lack of control in his life. Conversely the dedication it would take to wake up a few minutes earlier so that his bed could be made each day would make a huge difference in his ability to make other positive habits.
Paves the way for a morning routine
As a keystone habit, making your bed can lead the way to a whole slew of good habits that can make up a morning routine. Or vice versa, choosing not to make your bed can lead to losing those habits and replacing them with negative ones. In the past I have talked about the importance of being a morning person, and how to become one.
Sometimes the negative examples are the easiest to see. Our college student friend has formed a number of bad habits as he has been off on his own. As he chooses not to make his bed he begins to get up later and later, soon this contributes to other bad habits. He no longer brushes his teeth, he doesn't eat breakfast, he stops biking to school and begins driving, he starts driving too fast and becomes very frustrated with other drivers.
In contrast however by simply working at forming the habit of making his bed the college student can begin the process of developing many other positive habits. Once he has made the decision he must naturally make small change that will allow that decision to take place: he will need to get up a little earlier, in order do that he will need to go to bed a little earlier, therefore he will need to not stay out as late, etc, etc.
Resolves a commitment first thing
Besides the natural outflow from wanting to make your bed such as small time adjustments, there are mental benefits as well to beginning the day be keeping a commitment. See your brain subconsciously keeps track of all the commitments you have made to do things, the more of those that you don't do the more it wears on you. At the same time, the more commitments that you keep the better you feel and the more likely that you are to keep other commitments.
Because most people have been trained to make their beds as a matter of proper behavior and an expectation of their mother, most have a subconscious commitment to doing it. That is one reason that it works so well as a keystone habit, it resolves a commitment almost immediately upon waking up. To start your day with the resolution of a commitment mentally prepares you for the rest of the day.
There may be many aspects of your life that are out of your direct control. That can give a very overwhelming feeling. But you can make your bed every day and resolve that commitment to yourself. Even if you have no bed you can straighten your sleeping area and feel a sense that you have control of at least the first thing that day.
I know you may not like this advice that I have given. But just because you do not like something does not mean that it is not true. In fact it probably means it is true because if it weren't you would just ignore it, but instead it makes you a little upset and you feel a little anger inside. Well, I challenge you to try this for a week and see if what I have said is not true. Accept the challenge in the comments below or by tweeting at me and then report back in seven days (click here to tweet).
I believe you can change, have more control in your life, and be more productive. Just remember, live better.
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
How you can become a morning person, Part 3(of3): System for success
Now that we have gone over Part 1 and Part 2 of getting up early we will look at Part 3 which involves the actual act of waking up early.
Third, System for Success
Third, System for Success
Once you have your belief and your cause it is all a matter of setting yourself up for success. You need to make it easy for yourself to wake up each morning. This means developing a routine that will help you do two things:
- Get out of bed
- Get your brain working
Even with a cause worth completing, getting out of bed is often the hardest mountain you have to climb each morning. Getting out of bed litterally goes against the laws of the universe, at least so far as Issac Newton understood them. Consequently, it often requires being acted upon by an outside source, namely the alarm clock.
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| You are going to defy this guy! |
Thursday, November 21, 2013
How you can become a morning person, Part 2(of 3): Cause worth completing
This is the second in a three part series on how you can become a morning person. For review purposes here are the three parts:
1. Belief in the principle
2. Cause worth completing
3. System for success
Today we will talk about number two, Cause worth Completing
For me, my cause worth completing right now is blogging. I know that when I wake up I will be able to spend my time blogging, accomplishing something that will not get done if I do not wake up. That motivates me.
You have to have a cause, or you will not get out of bed, especially not at first. It will be a fight every moment. Even if you have part one down and you truly believe that being a morning person will be better for you, you still will not do it in the moment unless you have a cause that you care about.
How do you get a cause worth completing? It's something hanging out at the back of your mind or on your someday list that you would really like to get done if only you had the time. It may be something you want to DO, or LEARN, or DEVELOP.
So, right now, this very moment, write down 5 things that you wish you were doing, learning, or developing in life that you are not right now. Now choose one or two of those that you can really commit to. Decide to begin doing that in the morning. Write your answer in the comments below so we can all be inspired by what you are about to do.
Don't forget to check out Part 1 if you haven't yet. Part 3 will be coming soon. I hope you enjoyed this post, and remember, live better.
1. Belief in the principle
2. Cause worth completing
3. System for success
Today we will talk about number two, Cause worth Completing
"Two wolves struggle inside me...
Which one wins?
The one I feed"
Native American Folk Tale
Everyday when my alarm goes off I face an internal struggle between my good self and my bad self. The only way to have my good self win is to have something to "feed" it. I need to have a great reason that it can get up and start doing something.
For me, my cause worth completing right now is blogging. I know that when I wake up I will be able to spend my time blogging, accomplishing something that will not get done if I do not wake up. That motivates me.
You have to have a cause, or you will not get out of bed, especially not at first. It will be a fight every moment. Even if you have part one down and you truly believe that being a morning person will be better for you, you still will not do it in the moment unless you have a cause that you care about.
How do you get a cause worth completing? It's something hanging out at the back of your mind or on your someday list that you would really like to get done if only you had the time. It may be something you want to DO, or LEARN, or DEVELOP.
So, right now, this very moment, write down 5 things that you wish you were doing, learning, or developing in life that you are not right now. Now choose one or two of those that you can really commit to. Decide to begin doing that in the morning. Write your answer in the comments below so we can all be inspired by what you are about to do.
Don't forget to check out Part 1 if you haven't yet. Part 3 will be coming soon. I hope you enjoyed this post, and remember, live better.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
How you can become a morning person, Part 1(of 3): Belief in the principle
Well since I took the liberty to tell you that you can and should be a morning person, then I told you how I did, I thought it was only right if I told you how you can do it too. I'm going to warn you right now though that it is not fun or comfortable, but the results are worth the effort.
That is really so true of why so many people fail to do the things they really want, because they will not force themselves into uncomfortable positions, such as waking up earlier."Can you make yourself do something you don't want to doin order to get a result you really want?" Andy Andrews (paraphrased)
Here are the three things that will make all the difference:
1. Belief in the principle
2. Cause worth completing
3. System for success
We are going to consider all of them because they are all essential for success in this endeavor you are about to begin. In this post we will consider the first.
First, Belief in the principle
In the film version of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Reepicheep says:
"We have nothing, if not belief"
This is a very true statement, if you do not believe in something that you surely will not make yourself uncomfortable to achieve it. You must believe, in order to achieve, or at least want to believe enough to experiment.
Do you believe that waking up early will help you be more productive?
Probably not, that's why you are not doing it. First you need to believe, I suggest looking to you faith or philosophical tradition if you have one, most contain this principle of early rising. For me this belief is born out of the scripture Doctrine and Covenants 88:124,
"...cease to sleep longer than is needful; retire to thy bed early, that ye may not be weary; arise early, that your bodies and your minds may be invigorated"
You can likely find similar sentiments in your own tradition.
Belief in a principle we have not yet lived an be aided by seeing its effect in the lives of others. If you begin to study people you admire who achieve great things you will likely find that they wake up early, it is an uncommon trait among the common, but a common trait among the uncommon(click to tweet).
Alright that is it for part 1, the next 2 parts will be up soon. Please tweet me your thoughts or leave them in the comments below. I hope you enjoyed this post, and remember, live better.
Monday, October 28, 2013
How I became a morning person
So I promised you a post about this way back in August when I wrote this post, the death of the avian myth. The question always comes up, well if I am not actually a night owl then how do I become an early bird?
I am a simple man so I like the simple formula to answer this question:
You decide = You succeed
You can give me all kinds of excuses about that, about how you tried but it just didn't work. And I will say "Oh that is very sad, but the truth is as long as you have an excuse it means you did not really decide." And that is just the brutal honest truth that someone has to tell you if you are ever to change and live better.
But enough about you, this post is suppose to be about me. As I have said before I have had some struggle throughout my life with being a morning person. And there have been various times in my life when I have had to get up earlier. Of course a lot of this depends on what you consider early. Here's a timeline:
I was essentially just surviving from day to day, in something of a cloudy haze of alternately self-depreciation and feeling sorry for myself. In essence I was doing what most people spend their whole lives doing because, in part because they wake up with just enough time to get to work.
Well eventually two things happened that probably saved my life, or least made it more than a drawn out pity party.
Of course, it is hard for us to give up something we think is part of us, as I discuss I this post. I have not been perfect at this change, and getting up early is not the same as being a morning person, but it is a place to start. I have made tremendous progress at changing something that I thought for many years was just the way I was.
Now I know this post has been all about me, and pretty long. But I hope you enjoyed, and hopefully soon I will do a post all about how YOU can become a morning person. If you have any questions or thoughts please shoot me a tweet @halduauthor, or leave me a comment below.
I am a simple man so I like the simple formula to answer this question:
You decide = You succeed
You can give me all kinds of excuses about that, about how you tried but it just didn't work. And I will say "Oh that is very sad, but the truth is as long as you have an excuse it means you did not really decide." And that is just the brutal honest truth that someone has to tell you if you are ever to change and live better.
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| Only morning people see the sunrise |
But enough about you, this post is suppose to be about me. As I have said before I have had some struggle throughout my life with being a morning person. And there have been various times in my life when I have had to get up earlier. Of course a lot of this depends on what you consider early. Here's a timeline:
- Home: Every person in my house was required to get up by 6:45 each morning to come to family scripture study. Some of us were more awake during that time that others, but we were all out if bed. That was basically my waking up time until I started seminary.
- Seminary: In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) we have a weekday religion class for high school students, you can read more about it here. Most of these classes happen sometime between 5-7 in the morning. Because I grew up in a small town in the middle of nowhere there was no local class I could attend mornings so, I had a home-study program I could theoretically do whenever I wanted. However, my mother preferred that I do it at 6:00 in the morning.
- College: When I went to college my first year my whole perspective of morning and night changed. 8:00 was suddenly very early to be starting anything let alone class, and it became the most natural thing in the world to see the backside of midnight and beyond (needless to say New Year's Eve quickly lost its charm).
- Mission: After my first year of college, however, I went on my mission. I've said before that Mormon missionaries adhere to a very strict schedule. Part of this schedule is waking up at 6:30 every morning, so for the next to years I was a morning person. I think this is probably when I first began to think that maybe it was all a decision whether you were a morning person or a night person. I saw many missionaries from different backgrounds and walks of life all conform to the same schedule, because of something they believed in.
- College again: returning to college I thought maybe the habits from my mission would just carry over. Of course I was wrong, bad habits are hard to break, but good habits are not. Within no time I was waking up just in time to rush out the door to catch the bus for my earliest class. And I was back to being a night owl staying up late, blearily staring at a computer trying to do homework without conscious thought.
- Home again: that following summer I returned home to work as an agricultural research assistant, which is essentially farm work involving a lot of meticulous data gathering. We normally started at about 7:30 in the morning, so you can imagine that my habits from college were no longer going to cut. But that did not mean that I was a morning person.
I was essentially just surviving from day to day, in something of a cloudy haze of alternately self-depreciation and feeling sorry for myself. In essence I was doing what most people spend their whole lives doing because, in part because they wake up with just enough time to get to work.
Well eventually two things happened that probably saved my life, or least made it more than a drawn out pity party.
- I had a friend: it is incredible what having a friend will do for you. I don't want to go into the power of friendship too much here because of space and time, but if you can be a friend to someone going through a hard time please do so.
- I went to a lecture: In the church I belong to we periodically have special lectures called firesides. I went to one that summer that served as a catalyst to change my life forever. The speaker at this particular fireside gave the "formula" that would allow us to become men and women that were successful that Christ would be able to use to help others. The first point in the formula was, "get up early, magic hours rule the world." He explained that the most productive and successful people got up early, well before most of the world.
Of course, it is hard for us to give up something we think is part of us, as I discuss I this post. I have not been perfect at this change, and getting up early is not the same as being a morning person, but it is a place to start. I have made tremendous progress at changing something that I thought for many years was just the way I was.
Now I know this post has been all about me, and pretty long. But I hope you enjoyed, and hopefully soon I will do a post all about how YOU can become a morning person. If you have any questions or thoughts please shoot me a tweet @halduauthor, or leave me a comment below.
As always, if you found this post helpful or interesting you can 
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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Early Bird vs. Night Owl: the Death of the Avian Myth
You've heard it, probably thought it, maybe even said it,
It is for everybody.
You will find out why, but only if you try.
"I wish I could get up early and be productive, but, YAWN, I am such a night owl,
I just can't. You early birds are so lucky."
Well I'm here to tell you that is a myth, and its dead. I killed it, countless others have killed it, and you can kill it too.
It is for everybody.
You will find out why, but only if you try.
The myth of "I'm more productive at night"
Sorry, but you're not, you may really, really, really, and I mean REALLY want to believe that, but it is not true. Why do I know this? Because I did it for years.
Both before and after my LDS mission, I was known to say, "I'm a night person, I work best at night." During my mission, however, I was on a schedule that forced me into being a morning person, and after a few months back home and trying my old scheme of being a night owl I figure out I would be more productive back on the early bird routine.
The problem with the prowl
If you are a self defined "night owl" then you know what I am talking about. Just like real owls they prowl. They think they are being productive but in fact they wanderer from task to task doing a few things here and a few things there; none of them well. At night you are always looking for an excuse to do something different than what you are suppose to be doing. You eat something, you call a friend, you just play a "couple minutes" of a video game.
Get the worm
The early bird really does get the worm. Maybe you think you'd rather have a mouse. That's fine, but just acknowledge that in the morning worms are sitting at the top of the soil and at night mice are hiding. Hunting mice will never be as productive as scratching for worms.
People who wake up early get things done, in the morning the things that need to be done are sitting on the surface, at night they are buried under the day.
The myth of "I'm born that way"
Maybe you are, but guess what, nobody cares. The "fair" fairy isn't going to come along, wave her wand and make it so everything is even and square, you've got to do that yourself.
And besides, you weren't actually born that way. Humans, by nature, are not nocturnal. They had no reason to be so until the industrial revolution and the invention of the night shift. You actually can and should wake up early and be productive. That is actually the way nature has wired you.
The power of changing today
You could wait till tomorrow, but you won't get the worm today. Why miss out on that? You can choose to change today and live better now.
How can you change today when the morning is already gone? A good morning begins the night before. I'll be talking more about this in a later post when I explain how I changed and am changing.
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Thanks for reading, and remember, live better.
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