What Successful Women Do During Their Morning Routine
Get a head start on the day
What you do before you open your email and sit down at your desk can pretty much determine the course of your entire day. Successful people don't hit the snooze alarm seven times before finally dragging themselves out of bed, nor do they waste time drinking coffee and playing Candy Crush instead of getting ready.
We all have good mornings and bad mornings. Some days it's easy to get up and find the perfect stylish outfit and get to the office early. On other days, it's a struggle to even get out of bed.
Use these tips from successful women to organize your own mornings and find out what you should be doing differently.
Nicole Cogan, founder and CEO of NOBREAD, shared her tips on what she does each morning:
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Making sure to get good sleep while making sure to wake up at a reasonable time in order to make my day productive.
Eating a full breakfast in order to have enough energy to fuel my body and carry out the many tasks I have each day.
Working out to not only maintain good health but also as an important and much needed break from a day full of work and occasional stress.
Trying not to schedule anything as the first activity of the day as a means of preventing work overload.
Reaching out to at least two people to have coffee or lunch with in order to maintain my close relationships with old friends or colleagues as well as build new ones.
Make a 'to do' list
Meanwhile, Heather Piper, co-owner of Thrill of the Hunt shared her morning routine. “I start my morning by 5 a.m. or earlier. Before looking through emails or addressing text messages or voicemail or any type of inquiry, I head to my Crossfit gym. I’m usually done within an hour, by 6:30 a.m. By 7 a.m. I’m on the computer, now starting to sift through the workload and respond to all inquires. I take care of the easy requests first, cleaning up my already long task list. Typically, the day prior, before calling it a night, I try and outline the deliverables and tasks for the following day, to keep me focused and on track. After working a couple hours, I stop to take a shower and now get into my 'working mode,'” Piper said.
“I only work in short time frames, never longer than two or three hours without a break,” she added.
And Ariela Balk, CEO and president of Ariela and Associates, an intimate apparel manufacturer, shared her routine. “Before I started my own company, every boss I had was an early morning person, it was a challenge to beat them to the office. Early to bed, early to rise makes you healthy, wealthy and wise ... so true. Get enough sleep, get up and start your day extra early. My best days are: 5 a.m. wake up, coffee/workout, leave for work by 6:20 a.m. with emails in the car because I am not driving, first meeting at 7 a.m. Try it, by 9 a.m. you've already done so much.”
Balk said, “Make a 'to do' list. Start with the most important and least enjoyable items. Then, when the unpredictable hits, those things are at least done, and you'll be sure make time for the other fun and easy things.”
Nancy Fagan, owner of The Divorce Help Clinic, said, “I am the owner of the largest divorce mediation firm in San Diego, Calif. I was able to start the business seven years ago and get to this ranking in a short amount to time (in a saturated market) because I follow a specific routine each morning.”
Here is Fagan's routine:
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Wake at 4 a.m. to drink coffee and review what my immediate goals are for the day. This usually includes setting one or two goals for my team as well to keep everyone focused and move us forward.
Stay on top of upcoming trends by reading Internet sites for 30 minutes each day about SEOs, Internet marketing … everything related to internet marketing.
Nurture LinkedIn connections. LinkedIn sends daily notifications about my contacts birthdays, job anniversaries, job changes, etc. I send a “congratulations” form letter out to every person with a notification. This serves as a reminder that I am their go-to person for divorce as well as develops a feeling of connection to foster a strong relationship.
Post update/article/tip to main social media sites each day to keep my name, expertise and business branding in front of my connections.
Re-evaluate plans for next 12 months. I launched a new side business—Fairy Good Heart. It’s easy to get ahead of myself so each day I plan for what I need to do, not want to do in order to make it successful. With this business, I apply the four steps above to this as well.
As you can see from these successful women, getting up early is a key component to being more successful. Try it, you might just find yourself getting a big promotion at work, or finding the drive to start your own company.
