How to Build a Strong Morning Routine: The Essential Guide

It's all about the wins you get right from the start when you accomplish things soon after waking up. insufficient levels of dopamine can lead to a wide range of serious symptoms, including:

• Depression;
• Inability to focus;
• Loss of motor control;
• Reduced sex drive;
• Cravings or addictions;
• Lack of motivation;
• Compulsions;
• Loss of pleasure or satisfaction.

Imagine the amount of pleasure and satisfaction you get right at the beginning. A strong and consistent routine breeds wins. Wins = dopamine production. Consistent wins then turn into habits.

This is a brain dump. writ down everything that comes to mind, however meaningless it may seem to you. you'll later find a use for it in steps 2 and 3.

this is a good exercise to get clarity on where you sned your time during the day.

It's important to realize what you think is more important for you. By knowing what's more important, it's easier to decide where to put each task on your calendar.

Spend a good amount of time figuring this out.

For each task you listed in step one, place it in the right quadrant in the Eisenhower Matrix. You want as many of them to be in the quadrant 2.

This will give you clarity on what needs to be done and what’s important and what’s not.

This is important. you need to be aware of how long a task is going to take you. be realistic and precise.

You can also use specific amounts of time you think activities within each project will take. Again, the more precise the better.

Now that you know what's important and how long tasks take you, place it in you daily calendar.

No one has the mental capacity to remember everything right away. so it's important you use a calendar

look image above for example.

This is crucial! try not to miss a day. every missed day "doubles" the effor needed to get started.

Have you noticed how after vacation, going back to executing your routine is so much harder? That’s why.

Build the habits required to execute consistently and things will be that much easier.

When you write down the things you have to do for the next day slightly for before going to bed, it puts your mind at ease, letting you subconcious work overnight.

The two main benefits are:

• You stop thinking about it, letting you fall asleep easier
• When you wake up, you get clarity on what you wrote down.

When you built your routine with the tips from above, you evaluated activities that yield the most results. but sometimes these activities are not necessairily easy to acomplish and you may lack the motivation to do them.

If that’s the case, schedule easier activities to start with.

Schedule your hardest task for when you know you mind is the sharpest. so many times we try solve difficult problems when we're tired, wasting precious time on something you won't figure out at that moment.

Recognize when that happens, take a break, and jump back on the problem after. Take note of what time during the day you can’t function properly and, as much as possible, don’t schedule hard tasks during that time.