Seize The Day ☕️

Let me preface this email with a big *if this is feasible for you*.

If you are trying to catch 20 winks whenever your child is asleep because you’ve both been awake all night, or if you’ve been working shifts so your sleeping pattern is all over the place, or if you don’t have the time for a morning routine - that’s ok.

This is to make people think about how they control their mornings.

Are you reactive or proactive in your day?

Do you wake up and know what’s going on inside your favourite influencers head before you’ve listened to your own thoughts?

Are you listening to the radio, with all the terrible things that are going on in the world, without acknowledging all the things around you to be grateful for?

Are you doing anything each day to feel like you are making progress in some area of your life?

Are you learning?

Do you do any exercises for your mind or body?

Is the first bit of work you do something you want to do or achieve or are you starting by answering emails (giving your time away)?

They say that discipline equals freedom, and that’s something I’ve taken on board. By having a structured morning routine, it has given me purpose, health, space to think, and discipline.

My first bit of advice is to read Atomic Habits by James Clear.

If you don’t read, that could be the first part of your new morning routine. Promise yourself 5 pages a day.

Anything that you want to add into your routine, should be small and not feel like a huge effort each day.

How many times have you said you’ll read a chapter a day but you can’t concentrate for more than 10 minutes?

When I added in yoga, I thought I hated it. Turns out I hated the long classes because I wasn’t ‘good’ at it. By reducing my goal to 5-10 minutes a day, I was able to keep it up, then felt the benefits, and then actually wanted to increase the time I spent on the mat.

As much as I love reading, it still takes discipline to read for 30 minutes a day now. I read two books for 15 minutes each. I put my phone on DND and use a timer on my watch.

‘Habit stacking’ is also a tool that really helped me develop my morning routine.

I used to have a schedule with ‘Reading at 7am’ each day.

But I didn’t have a typical start time each day, so instead of doing things at a certain time, I would stack habits on top of each other.

Now, as soon as I finish my reading, I roll out the yoga mat. No faffing around, no checking the phone.

You can also use some small rewards for implementing a habit. Journalling and reading is important to me, for the benefits, but I never really actually want to do it.

So I have my coffee while journalling and reading (best part of my day!).

I also want to do one proactive thing for my business each day, and that could be creating some content or writing these emails (it’s usually the emails - I’ve been terrible for content lately!)

And then, I will either train or go for a walk and catch up on my whatsapps/messages, and I’ll post my morning coffee thoughts (often up to two hours after my coffee!).

This routine has given me a strong mind, body and business.

It also means I have a lot more freedom in the rest of the day to do whatever work I want, or whatever takes my fancy that day.

I’ve always been an early riser, so it’s never been an issue for me to get up in the mornings, but I do still try to go to bed by 10pm at the latest.

Starting your day in a sleep deficit will not help the discipline needed for these new habits.

And even knowing that, helps me have more discipline in the evenings.

As I said, this might only be helpful if you have the ability to control your mornings. Or you might get up five minutes earlier to implement one small habit.

You might be surprised at how these tiny behaviours change your life!

Thanks for reading,

Siobhan “No wonder I’m single” O’Hagan