Psychologically, by doing all the things that go along with showering like combing your hair, brushing your teeth, getting dressed, etc., you’re communicating to your brain in no uncertain terms that it’s time to go and get started with the day.

Don't rely on willpower. The smarter way to tackle the morning is to build routines and rituals that pull us out of bed and toward our goals.

• Routines drastically reduce the amount of logistical and psychological friction in between us and our goals.
• Good routines are also powerful motivation generators. In addition to cutting down on morning friction, good routines can become sustainable sources of motivatio...

• Get a monthly calendar.
• At the top of the calendar note the task or action you’re tracking. 
• Each morning after you’ve completed the task, put a big X or some kind of mark through that day.
• Try to go as many days as possible without “breaking the streak.”
• If y...

For example, every day when you get to your desk and sit down to work, play the same song before I start any work.

Good sleep makes everything better. It’s extremely hard to do cognitively-demanding and creative work when we’re sleep-deprived. 

Reduce the number of decisions and tasks you have to do each morning in between waking up and doing your work:

In addition to hurting the quality of your sleep, snoozing is detrimental psychologically: it leads to an erosion of self-confidence and the ability to follow through on our own best intentions and goals.

The magnitude of the reward isn’t very important; it’s the ritual of the reward that matters. So it’s enough to do something small as long as it signifies that you’ve completed your​ task.

Working for extended periods with full concentration and no distractions, on a single task requires: