Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of the day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life. Robin Sharma For most of us, waking up at 5am sounds completely unappealing. Most of us would rather spend more time in bed in the mornings, and not force ourselves to wake up earlier than we have to.
But what if I told you waking up at 5am was the key to success? In Robin Sharma's book, The 5 AM Club, he uses a story to illustrate his belief that rising early is the key to productivity and success. The story follows a billionaire who has decided to mentor a struggling artist and an entrepreneur. entrepreneur.
The first thing that he decides to teach the artist is the importance of winning the morning. How do you win the morning, you ask? The first concept is the victory hour. Waking up at 5 a.m. is no good if you waste time until 7 or 8 a.m.
not doing anything productive. Sharma presents a planned 20-20-20 structure for the time between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. If you nail this hour, everything in your day afterwards has an easier time.
falling into place. As you may have guessed, the 20-20-20 breaks down the hour into three phases. The first pocket, from 5 to 5-20, is all about moving. This can be a quick cardio workout, yoga, or some weight lifting. The point is to get your heart rate up, sweat, and to get your body releasing cortisol immediately upon waking.
Morning exercise gets us into the perfect cognitive state. Pocket two, 5-20 to 5-40. Reflect.
Write down what you need to accomplish in the day ahead, or journal about anything that is on your mind or troubling you. Practice meditation. This 20-minute block is all about focusing and thinking clearly. And the last pocket. from 540 to 6 a.m., the last 20 minutes of the victory hour focuses on learning.
Read a book, listen to a podcast, or study a topic that currently interests you. Use this time to get your brain kicked up into high gear. Two things that we do want to avoid when we are starting the 2020 though. If waking up at 5am means that you'll only be getting a few hours of sleep, you need to look at your evening routine as well to make sure that you're getting a good six to eight hours of sleep. As the saying says, you can't burn the candle at both ends.
Also, 20-20-20 is not a hard and fast rule. It's just a starting point. If you do better with half an hour of exercise and only 10 minutes of reflection, do that instead.
If you need to read a book or do your reflection before you exercise, do that. Customize this routine to your personality. Just try to get each of the sections completed.
The next concept we look at is habit protocol. The author uses the Taj Mahal as a perfect example for a habit creation and cultivation practice. The Taj Mahal took 20 years to complete, but with a little willpower and a lot of consistency, the building was finally finished.
Your habits will be the same. You will need a little willpower to get them started and a lot of consistency to make them to the point where they are automatic. When they are automatic, this is the stage where it becomes part of your routine and you no longer have to think about it. We have done several videos on books that deal with habits, so feel free to dive deeper into this subject with those great resources. The author's next concept is the four focuses.
Normal people tend to focus better than the average people. Not only that, they tend to focus on key areas. These four focus areas are as follows. The first, capitalization focus.
We each have certain gifts that we are born with that will come naturally to us if we allow them to. This doesn't happen automatically though. We must search for them and cultivate these talents before they can really help us succeed.
Focus two, eliminating distractions. In the world of social media, it is easier than ever to be distracted. distracted.
Unless you carefully set your smartphone, it can buzz with notifications almost constantly throughout the day. Eliminating distractions and being able to focus on only a few important tasks is the second focus of the successful. Focus three, personal mastery. Hate to break it to you, but you will never be perfect.
You will always be a work in progress. Sharma recommends focusing on what he calls the four interior empires. The first, mindset, mindset. is your self-talk.
Two, your heart set, is your emotions. Three, health set, is your physical fitness. And four, your soul set, contemplation and meditation on who you are.
The fourth focus, day stacking. This focus is where the victory hour shows up. Focus on creating great days and making each day better than the last one. Habits and consistency will lead you to success, not bursts of short-lived motivation. The last concept focuses on 10 tactics for lifelong genius.
The first tactic is creating a tight bubble of focus. Find or create a place to work that allows productivity and creativity, one that is free of distractions or negative energy, a place that makes focus easy. 2. The 90-90-1 rule. For the next 90 days, Spend the first 90 minutes of your workday on the single most important project in your life.
Nothing else is worked on or given thought to during this time. 3. The 60-10 Method After your 90 minutes is spent on your number one project, break the rest of your workday into chunks of 60 minutes of work followed by 10 minutes of relaxation. 4. The Daily Five What are the five things that you can achieve each day? Write them down and then cross them off as they are completed.
completed. 5. The Second Wind Workout When your workday is complete, give yourself a 30 minute to an hour workout to catch a second wind. This doesn't have to be strenuous.
Something like a long walk is perfect. 6. Two Massages Schedule two massages a week. Can't make that happen or don't like massages?
Schedule two activities a week that you enjoy outside of your normal structure. This could be coffee with a friend or a nice lunch. Both are good examples. examples. 7. Traffic University If you commute, use this time for podcasts or audio books, rather than normal radio advertisements and their idle chit chat.
The Dream Team Find, build, or create a team around you that can help you work on tasks that don't need your specific attention. Delegate away busy work and focus on the important stuff that only you can do. 9. Weekly Design System Spend time on Sunday giving your work week a general outline. Plan your 90-91 and your 61 sessions, as well as things like your two massages, your second wind workouts, and chores, errands, or meetings.
Daily Learning Spend at least 60 minutes each day learning. The best way to keep your brain young and sharp is to spend time each day challenging it to grow and learn something new. Remember, take excellent care of the family.
front end of your day, and the rest of the day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life.
Just like other books on morning routines, our key takeaway from the 5 a.m. club is to set up a well-thought-out morning routine to get yourself out of bed, awake, and into a mindset to be productive. The victory hour is a perfect place to start customizing your own plan. Like our summaries?
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