I'm rehabilitating my daily routine to introduce some efficient discipline into how I get things done. Consequently, I've been paying more attention to tips and tricks from the denizens of the blogosphere who have achieved success in this area.
- Leo Babauta of ZenHabits gives us his 17 Unbeatable Ways to Create a Peaceful, Relaxed Workday. Leo has become my favorite web writer of late, and he again delivers quality stuff with this post. I intuitively know I should be doing most of the things he mentions (like Create a morning routine or Create a clutter-free environment,) but his recommendations come across as gentle reminders that everyone can do better.
- Scott Young (via LifeHacker) shares his tips for waking up alert and ready for the day without caffeine. Aside from the obvious (commit to a sleep schedule,) Scott recommends simple adjustments like turning on all the lights in your room right after waking and committing to staying awake for the first 10 minutes after you get out of bed. Young says that staying out of bed after that should be easier.
- Even though this link is a bit older, I just found it this weekend so I'm including it in the list. Kavit Haria posted his 10 Morning Rituals for the Healthy Entrepreneur on Lifehack.org sometime last week. Some of his tips overlap with Leo's, but I love the ideas of drinking a pint of water first thing in the morning and cuddling your kids. I think I'm often dehydrated when first waking. The pint of water would go a long way toward helping me wake up and lessening my caffeine dependence. I love cuddling my kids any time, but its much harder to do in the morning when my cranky 4-year-old won't put on his pants or my 6-year-old doesn't like what I've made for breakfast. More cuddling and less frustration would be a nice change to the morning routine.
- My fitness routine needs as much of an overhaul as my work routine. The 11 Hot Tips to Get Your Furnace Burning from Laurensfitness.com has some great ideas for ramping up your metabolism. My favorites include Eating Breakfast and Avoiding Alcohol. I've made a concentrated effort in the last two weeks to eat a full breakfast every morning that includes some kind of carbohydrate, a protein, and a fruit smoothie. I can really tell a difference in my energy levels as a result. Contrasting that, I know that the 1-2 beers or other drinks that I have every couple of nights goes a long way in negating any metabolism gains I've made during the day. I've been considering an alcohol fast until I get myself back on track, but haven't taken the plunge yet.
- Bringing things full circle, I just found this older post from Leo called Lazy Productivity: 10 Simple Ways to Do Only Three Things Today. He recommends picking out three tasks the night before you want to work on them based on their impact, not urgency. The next day you should immediately start working those tasks. Leo doesn't even check his e-mail until the first is completed, and he rewards himself with breaks between tasks and a nap when all three are complete. I like this system. If I finished three big tasks a day, I could probably have my to-do list cleaned up in a couple of weeks. To hope, to dream.
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