Insight
Scrap that overly complicated morning wellness routine and just get going.
Most people don’t realize this but the first 10-15 minutes upon waking are optimal times to harness a flow state. You don’t even need a morning routine to trigger that flow proneness that may be needed later on in the day. Upon waking, your cognitive load is low and your brain waves are still shifting from Delta to Theta — optimal for harnessing a small window of work before adopting your morning routine. You just need to prime mini-routine to rev up the momentum for your hardest task of the day.
If you can prime this, then you’ll get two highly productive flow blocks in the morning and be like the army (“we do more by 9am than most people do all day”). That’s because your current morning routine (whatever that may be if it’s consistent) already triggers you into a working state — harnessing this as well can then skyrocket your productivity before noon.
Inspiration
Pop quiz: do you remember your high school Physics class and the formula for momentum?
[image: p=mv]
In designing for more momentum in our day, the principles work the same – only applied to animate, living objects – us! This obviously complicates the simple equation a bit more, but consider it “stimulus” for a mini-design experiment that challenges the popular disparate recommendations of “have a morning routine to restore your energy” or “do your hardest task first”:
First, let’s jog your brain.
Momentum = Mass x Velocity.
Or essentially: the quantity of motion in a moving body being proportionate to the quantity of matter multiplied into the velocity.
If Momentum = me getting my butt going earlier each morning and riding some wave of endless energy that gets me through all the stuff I need to get done.
And Mass = the level of heaviness my mind and body feel on that day COMBINED with the level of magnitude and complexity of the “thing/task” I have to move.
While Velocity = the rate of speed I can apply to some kind of conceptual direction or goal.
(Note that speed relates to your level of skill on a task).
What creates Momentum lies in your capacity to harness your “speed” through skill in the moment, supported by a body and mind that feels light, and the perception that the task in front of you is connected to a meaningful target.
Building daily momentum is therefore a mind-body practice grounded in physics.
So in regards to the components:
- It’s important not to feel sluggish (aka. there are non-negotiables: sort out your sleep, hangovers are your demise, and maintain a healthy baseline)
- speed is critical (aka. don’t get distracted or distract yourself with complex morning routines)
Innovation
The Daily Catapult
Here’s what it might look like:
Wake Up.
Fast both mind and body to minimize “mass” or a sense of heaviness. (aka. Don’t get sluggish through YouTube distractions or simple carbs that send your attention and energy into disarray).
Focus on the tasks of the day that absolutely need to be completed.
Connect them to a larger, more meaningful target.
Then, instead of doing your hardest work first (often touted amongst performance gurus), do three menial (yet necessary) tasks that are super easy for you (accessible skill) to build up velocity in a short spurt towards that harder target.
You need to be able to complete them within 15 minutes. So things like:
- Order groceries online for the week.
- Text back those few people with urgent asks.
- Delegate chunks of project work.
Then, ride this sense of movement into your hardest task of the day. Could be a workout. Could be writing a deck. Voila: momentum.
It’s important that you don’t get caught up in the cycle of going down a menial “to-do” list, but only to tackle 3 simple tasks that need to get done that day anyways, swiftly, without exhausting any will power. Then, you’ve built up that speed (aka. competence) required for momentum to kick in.
Consider this a simple way to reframe your sequential To-Do list. I call this my ‘Daily Catapult’ because it designs a to-do list with Momentum in mind, while prioritizing the tasks that need to get done in a day.
Design your flow practice on a coaching sprint with us.
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