Let's Do Some Work Before Work

It’s a Monday morning and the weekend was either a little longer or you over enjoyed yourself! The alarm clock goes off, and you just can’t bring yourself to get out of bed. You are tired, and just not ready to face the day. So what do you do, well, you do what many other Americans do, and that is you grab your cellphone and “hit your snooze button! And back to sleep for a whopping 10 minutes because that 10 minutes will save your rear.

But do yourself a favor and rethink two things there. One, stop hitting your snooze button, and two, don’t keep your cellphone by your bed. As proved by research, we sleep in 90-110 minute sleep cycles and as we hit that snooze button, it resets that sleep cycle and starts the 90-110 minute patter again. Only worse, is that when you get up, you are still in the sleep cycle, called sleep inertia mentally, even though physically you are awake. Which produces that “I’m tired” feeling. And even worse, research proves that sleep inertia mode not only lasts the remainder of the 90-110 minutes, but it will also last up to 3-4 hours. Which creates a dull, lackluster morning of lethargy, and even lowered desire to execute the day.

So stop hitting your snooze button, and #2, don't keep your cellphone by your bed! Your cellphone is dinging, beeping, buzzing all sorts of notifications to you all night long from text messages, to emails, to amazon deals, to the latest news, or some facebook notification. More and more people are picking up their phone in the night to check this crap, that has no point of significance in your life, outside of waking you up and keeping you from getting valuable minutes even hours of sleep. Your phone by your bed is robbing you of life and productivity for the upcoming day. No email is that important, texts can wait, and your friend can talk to you at 5 am when you get up after they called at midnight and should have been in bed! ;-) Putting your phone in your closet or the kitchen will reduce the buzzing, dinging, and beeping going off in the middle of the night being a vampire of your much-needed rest.

Another key win for you personally by not keeping your phone by your bed is the next need to not check your phone as soon as you wake up. Two very important things you need to start every day is to one, fill your mind with what will truly benefit you, and will set yourself up for success for the day. The junk on your phone will rob you of your 3-4 most productive hours of your day, every day, if you allow it. Don't check your email until you plan your day. What's on sale on Amazon won't help your day. Warren Buffet isn't checking his email or his facebook when he wakes up and neither is Ellen. They are doing the little things to plan for success that day.

Take 30 minutes before 7 a.m. and ask yourself the top 3-4 things you need to accomplish that day. Ask yourself why you want to do what you want to do. Study a personal growth book, magazine, or podcast to grow you. Invest in you. Doing this before 7 a.m. is a must before the chaos of the morning to accomplish anything of substance for the day. You can't do any of these things once you get to work, or after you check your email, or before your kids get up because once those things occur, you won't find these things important to do given the distractions, duties, and obligations past those points in time. This 30 minutes, for you, are very important for your success on what you are focusing on to grow in, but when "life begins" each day, you won't get those 30 minutes back! Get up, and do some "work before work"!! It will change your life!! And if you do it for 10 years, it will change your family tree!! Guaranteed!! Amazon, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, and email will not!! They will keep you addicted to mind-numbing meaningless scrolling through your precious and meaningful life robbing you of your true inner greatness. And I know you have "more in your tank".