Notes:
- Start off the day with water
- 1 liter
- Chill the night before
- 5 minutes of silence
- Pray, meditate, or just breath
- Insight Timer
- Calm
- Journal
- 5 Minute Journal
- 5 Minute Journal Questions
- Morning
- I am grateful for…
- What would make today great?
- Daily affirmation. I am…
- Evening
- 3 Amazing things that happened today…
- How could I have made today even better?
- Leave it on your nightstand
- Leave the pen inside
- 5 Minute Journal
- Read
- Just a few pages
- Kindle is great
- Leave it on top of your journal
- Do not consume
- No email
- No news
- No social media
- Plan
- Take time to plan your day
- Productivity Planner
- Most Important Task of the day
- Important Tasks of the Week
- Keep the pen inside
- Keep it next to the journal
- I prefer pen/paper, less distraction
Sponsors:
- Drip – Get a free demo of Drip using this coupon code!
- Spark Shipping – eCommerce Automation
Transcript :
Charles (00:00):
In this episode of the Business of eCommerce, I talk about 6 tips for entrepreneurs to supercharge their morning. This is a business of eCommerce episode 128.
Charles (00:16):
Welcome to the Business of eCommerce the show that helps eCommerce retailers start launch and grow the eCommerce business. I mean, it was Charles Palleschi and I’ve had today had talked about six tips to help entrepreneurs supercharge their morning. So I’m a big fan of frameworks and routine and having a certain way of kind of going about your day, where you kind of know this works for me, here’s a pattern and his kind of a way of doing something to know to start the day on the right foot. So I’ve kind of lined up six steps and this is stuff that I personally do. And I think it’s super helpful for entrepreneurs in general, but also anyone that just wants to start off the morning in the right direction. And this kind of just built up a time. So let’s get into us. So tip one, always start your day, drinking water.
Charles (01:07):
I know this sounds ridiculous, but I always start my day by drinking a liter of water. Very first thing, some things to make this easier is a night before I have a very specific water bottles. I put them in the fridge, chill, the water they’re actually I use the soda stream. So my whole family knows these are my water bottles. It’s two of them kind of my thing. And that makes it, so I know in the morning they’re in the refrigerator. I like cold water. They’re ready for me. So there’s no thinking involved. And that’s kind of one of the big things with this. There’s no kind of decision making. I know I’m going to wake up. Very first thing I do is go grab one of these bottles, put it in the soda stream. I like the bubbles of carbonation or just have regular cold water, but just do the same thing I found before most folks.
Charles (01:57):
And I was doing this for a long time. Starting my day off with coffee. You’re already dehydrated from sleeping the night before. And when you have coffee, you kind of further your dehydration. So you starting your day off this very dehydrated state going deeper into dehydration. The coffee gives you a quick little boost, but very quickly you start to crash because you’re dehydrated and then you usually compensate by coffee. So by the time you start working at this point, you’re starting your day off this at this extreme, low, this kind of dehydrated. And you’re trying to dig out of this like dehydrated whole how else to explain it, but you’re already like in, in a very bad place. And then you’re trying to play catch up the whole day. And a lot of times what happens is just so tired and you work at, you know, eight, 9:00 AM that you drink more coffee and it just starts this downward spiral.
Charles (02:48):
So I’ve kind of found by starting your day off. Very first thing, basically just chucking a liter of water. All of a sudden you have all that water back that you’ve kind of lost overnight and you start your day off this much better place. And when you do drink coffee, you’ll find that you don’t drink as much because a stomach full of water. And then B I think a lot of times you’re consuming coffee in the morning because you’re thirsty. So it’s very hard to tell the difference of you like the taste. You like the feeling, but also you might just be thirsty and kind of all altogether, it puts you in this more high dehydrated state. So don’t do that. Start your day, no matter what, one liter of water, cold, whatever you want to do, but just make sure you have it ready.
Charles (03:33):
So however you consume it, put it in that place, get the bottle fall, do everything the night before so that you know, and some people put it on that nightstand the night before it’s there. You know, when you wake up the very first thing, you know where to find it, it’s ready for you. You don’t have to go and get your a birder or your water filter out. It’s ready. It’s in a bottle. So have a bottle specific for you for this purpose tip of Joe, five minutes of silence. And by silence, some people pray, some people meditate, some people just sit in silence, find whatever works for you and just give yourself five minutes. And this is the very first thing you do in the morning of just nothing wake up and just breathe, pray, meditate, whatever that is. But that five minutes will all of a sudden get everything a lot more calm and your day just kind of waking up.
Charles (04:28):
So, you know, it’s big. All of a sudden you open your eyes to sun, drink your water, and you just want to get to a place of clear your head. Maybe you had thoughts from the night before, and this will just kind of slow everything down, a couple apps. I’m a big fan of insight timer. They have different guided meditations. They have just audio kind of just calm audio kind of listened to so you can pop in headphones or just sit as islands either way. I know the app is calm and a lot of people use that. Just something again, timed, you know, it’s going to be five minutes, so it’s not something also you have to dedicate, you know, Hey, I have to meditate. I have to spend an hour doing this every morning. I have to do this big ritual five minutes.
Charles (05:13):
And I think in a lot of cases, if you’re kind of running short on time two to three minutes, just do something, just give yourself this time and just block this off every morning. So, you know, when you wake up, this is the second thing you’re going to do go there and it just calms you down. So tip number three, journal. This is something I’ve resisted for a super, super long time. I thought it was big process. I thought you know, just don’t have time. You wake up, you’re busy. You want to do all these things first thing in the morning, but some of these things are to slow you down to kind of, you know, not just wake up and go, go, go, go, wake up and get calm journal and by journals. So something I found, there’s a bunch of these out there.
Charles (06:02):
The five minute journal has been very helpful. It’s a predefined journal page for every day and this is a physical paper journal. They also have a digital version. I particularly like the paper version just because I know if I’m on my iPad and I’m doing this, you know, I can always flip over and play some game or check email. I know it’s always kind of hidden behind and lurking in the iPad, but with the paper copy, there’s really nothing that can distract you. Right? Five minute journal I’ll link to in the show notes, but it has three questions a morning, two questions in the evening, highly recommended the morning questions are, what are you grateful for? What would you, what would make today grace and a daily affirmation? I think that’s super powerful to do each morning and it doesn’t take much time.
Charles (06:52):
Literally it’s a five minute journal. Most times, once you do it a few times, it’ll probably take you a lot less than that, but it just gives you that moment of just slowing down in the morning and just kind of thinking a little and I found it super helpful. The other thing to do about this is also same deal with the water, leave it in the exact same place every day. There’s no thinking involved and you’ll kind of find that pattern. Yeah. Put it on your nightstand, put it on your coffee table, wherever it is, you know, no one’s going to touch it and it’s going to be there when you wake up. I even leave a pen inside the journal so that I know I’m not even going to look for a pen. I’m gonna wake up. There’s a pen in the journal. It’s on my nightstand.
Charles (07:31):
I can just grab it. It never moves. That’s just where it lives. And I go, I make sure it’s always there the night before. So there’s no thinking involved in this process. You wake up meditate, grab your journal. Three questions, very straightforward. It’s something that I resisted. I kind of thought you had told me, like wake up and journaling. And you know, you have this, the other thing you always have this journal with just a bunch of blank lines and you start and you could just keep going, right? And then all of a sudden it’s 30 minutes, whatever. And at some point it’s kinda like starting off the gym and saying, Hey, I’m going to go to the gym very first time for three hours, very quickly in a burnout, it’s better off stats on a smaller desk, very achievable. Anyone can do it.
Charles (08:17):
So I’ll look down on the show notes, five minute journal. There’s some other versions, but I kind of found this one that works for me. Next thing, read, read something. I usually am probably reading business books. They kind of help charge me in the morning, get some ideas flowing. It’s up to you. I think kind of fiction is a little more relaxing and this is kind of when I start ramping up at this point, I always use the Kendall same Dale. It actually lives right on top of the journal. So I know in the morning I wake up, pick them up. They’re always together and wanting, saying, read very long, usually a chapter, usually about five, 10 minutes sort of thing. And it’s just a good way of a starting your brain in the morning and be guaranteeing that you’re going to read each day.
Charles (09:04):
Cause you know, if it’s one of the very first things you do, you’re going to do it each day. And if it’s part of those morning ritual, then it’s there. It’s waiting for you. It’s ready. So I say, if you have a book, get it ready the night before. If, if a Kindle have it set up. So when you turn it on, it’s on that page, you don’t have to do anything. You start, then you read five, 10 minutes, just take this time for yourself. And over a course of a year, you will be shocked at how many books you kind of go through. A lot of times, people don’t read, they don’t have time. They’re too busy. This just gets it guaranteed. You’re going to do a little each day. And some of your best thoughts now that your mind is clear, you haven’t started taking any outside stimulus.
Charles (09:44):
And yet you can really kind of absorb some of these lessons. And if you’re reading business books next up, and this is kind of the, the anti habits tip number six, do not consume anything. No media, no email, no news, no social media just do not do it for a Sunday morning. For years. I was one of those people. Very first thing, I’d wake up open your email, start going through I’ve since turned off all notifications on my phone. So when you wake up, I think it’s just a phone. You have, you have to make the decision to go into email. I’ve turned off Facebook, Twitter, all those notifications. So that it’s a lot easier at that point, not just wake up and say, Oh, who’s, you know, like my post or what emails have I got in or whatever it is, don’t consume anything in the morning.
Charles (10:34):
I think it’s very helpful to give yourself some time in the morning to think and to produce and not to go the other direction of consuming. As soon as you open your email, you’re going to see angry customer email. You’re going to see a return. You’re going to see a complaint. You’re gonna see something even you’re gonna see. Even sometimes you see something good. You’re gonna see, Hey, we got to shoot sale. We got, you know, some wants a partner, some wants to do that. You see all this stuff and all of a sudden, your mind touch zipping in that direction. So it could be positive or negative, but either way, it’s not your agenda. So all of a sudden, now you’re working on someone else’s agenda. Even the news, you start thinking about what’s going on in the world. All these different things. There’s a lot of fare in the news, that sort of thing.
Charles (11:19):
So your mind just zips in this direction in the morning, that’s not your direction. It’s someone else’s agenda. Don’t let someone else control your morning. This is your time. Don’t consume anything for a Sunday morning. There’ll be time for that later. So just don’t consume first in the morning, tip number six. And I think this is the tip that kind of brings it all together. His plan at this point, now your mind is Claire. You’ve had to water. Maybe you make your first coffee, stop planning your date. Now I think a lot of folks let day to day kind of control, but their emailed phone, everything kind of controlled them. This is your one moment to take control of the day. And it’s easiest time because so far you’ve not consumed anything. You’ve not read anything. You can decide, what should I be working on today?
Charles (12:12):
What’s my highest impact opportunities. What should I be doing with my time? And this is that short little wonder that you get. No one else has told you anything. Yes. And it’s yours. So same company that makes the five minute journal. They also make a productivity planner. It’s similar little book paper. I think it’s great. I’ll link to it in the show notes. It kind of goes through what your most important task of today, secondary tasks. And then there’s also a weekly wrap up. What are the most important tasks of the week? What do you get done? You can read about it on the side. I’ll link to it. But I think the F the format itself is super helpful. It also does some helps you during the day with some Pomodoro, if that’s what you, until I think just if you’re using it, even as a planner alone, go for it.
Charles (12:58):
It’s great to just start thinking at the very beginning of day, what is my most important task? What am I gonna get done first? And that’s usually tasks that it’s something that you know is going to help the business. And it’s not what everyone else is telling you to do. So it’s not the most important urgent customer email, the most urgent, you know, what’s on fire that day. There’s something you say, what will kind of push us forward? What is something that’s not this like super high everything’s on fire task, but what is this larger picture task? It’s not going to give you that dopamine rush of, Hey, there was an angry customer and it helped solved that problem because that makes you feel good, right? Everyone wants to kind of get in there and get their hands dirty. At least I do.
Charles (13:44):
And that gives you this momentary kind of hi, but make these tasks, especially the very first one, something that’s bigger, picture, something that, you know, isn’t going to help today necessarily, but in the long run, it’s going to push the business forward. And this is your time to start to plan that. So take your time in the morning. I also so same deal with the journal. I like pen and paper on us, and there are online versions. Obviously there’s a million of them pen and paper helps. Same reason. There’s no distraction. You know, there’s nothing taking away from that’s going to take your attention away. It’s not an iPad, but you know, you can kind of just double click switch to a different app and start playing a game or again, checking your email. So I prefer pen and paper also. Same thing. Keep the pen inside the journal.
Charles (14:35):
There’s no looking for a pen, actually use a particular type of fan Tyler. Gito very a super fine. Then I have a particular pen. I like, I keep it on the same place. One in the journal, one in the planner, and also keep this on a little sandwich, Kindle journal planner. So it all sits the nightstand. So again, there’s no thinking you kind of just wake up and just grab this little bundle of paper and Kindles and go down to wherever you’re going to do this each day. I know coach, I sit at the same place each day and it, and I know it. As long as I get up, I saw I have a family, young kids, and that’s the other thing that makes us tough. You need to plan to just get up a little early little early, never else so that you have this 20 minutes as half an hour of your time in the morning.
Charles (15:23):
And it doesn’t take very long, but as long as you kind of just plan your alarm set a little early, you’ll have this time for yourself. No one will be up yet. The house will be quiet. And I know if you have young kids, this is stuff, but blocking off your time really helps with us. And I think it’s just a habit you have to get into. At first, it’s not easy and it kind of feels unnatural. The journal takes a lot longer. So at first, the very first day, it doesn’t take five minutes. It actually takes you 30 minutes and it’s tough. And you sit there, but you start developing a routine, a habit, and it gets a lot easier. I promise. So I think having these tips in this framework, it’s something that, you know, this is how I’m going to start my day.
Charles (16:05):
Super helpful. Some of these run through it real quick. Again, step one. Start your day off with water. Drink water first. And I’m awning tiptoe. Five minute, moment of silence, whatever it is, pray, meditate, silence. Just give yourself five minutes to calm down, get centered. First thing in the morning to three journal, right? Get your ideas on paper. Super helpful. Very first thing in the morning, tip number four, read five to 10 minutes, pick a book, something hopefully actionable something that kind of gets your mind going, going in the right direction over time. You’ll definitely appreciate that you did this number five, do not consume any media news. Anything else? This is your time to get your thoughts out onto paper, not getting other people’s thoughts and coming at you. So do not have to get any external stimulus for a Sunday morning and tip six plan plan, your highest level activities, how to grow your business.
Charles (17:08):
What’s most important for you to move your business forward. This is your time to plan, and this is going to start your day off, right? You’re going to now have your agenda for the day. You’re going to start your day before all these distractions before anyone’s telling you what they need, putting time on your schedule, you’re going to, you’re going to take control. So I highly up in these six steps. I’ll put them all in the show notes. Also linked to the productivity plan, a five minute journal. Some of those apps super helpful. I think if you start your day off like this, or if you have a different routine, leave a comment in the show notes. I’d love to hear what everyone else is doing. So thanks fall on this episode. Have a good one.
Charles (17:49):
Yeah.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS
