The first thing we do when we wake up sets the tone for how the rest of the day will unfold. Are you scrolling through your social media in bed or waking up and going for a jog in the early morning?
If we spend the first hour of the day on social media we will be constantly wanting to check for something new. We keep our phone close and whenever there is a notification we jump up, grab the phone and see what it’s new. Instead of wanting to look at the new notifications learn to either not look at them or to remove the sound they make. If you don’t know there is a notification it’s harder to pay attention to them. If this is something difficult for you to do because you think the notifications may be something important set up a plan. For example tell friends and family how they can reach out to you even if you are not looking at your phone. Tell them to call you instead of sending a message. Or that you are only checking your phone a couple hours after waking up or even only in the afternoon. When you get used to this habit you will notice that the world isn’t ending if you haven’t watched your phone for a couple of hours. You could even opt for a social media cleanse and turn of your connection to the internet for a week.
Authenticity is everything! You have to wake up every day and look in the mirror, and you want to be proud of the person who’s looking back at you. And you can only do that if you’re being honest with yourself and being a person of high character. You have an opportunity every single day to write that story of your life. – Aaron Rodgers
If you have nothing to do all day it may feel like you got plenty of time to do what you planned before. However when you want to improve in multiple areas you have to make sure to start your morning productive so you are able to finish everything you thought you were going to do. Preparation is the best guideline for succes, the day before plan your day and on what goals you want to work tomorrow. When the day arrives start strong on those goals so that, if possible, you can implement even more activities than you first planned. For example you plan to finish your homework, work out and read a couple of pages of a book. You wake up and choose to start a morning workout, afterwards you go to eat, followed up by some homework. Because you know that reading the book is pleasant for you there lies a possibility to for example also study a bit for school for a coming exam. While it wasn’t planned you expendad on the opportunity that came up.
Creating extra space in your day by being highly motivated and by being productive also has other benefits. For example in the example above you may have added 30 mins of learning for the upcoming exam. But you weren’t planning on reading the entire book… So instead you can add a spontaneous walk with friends or family. This will improve your health and strengthen your relationship. When you are young it’s easy to fill up your day with a lot of activities. At a young age it’s more common to add a lot of pleasure like gaming. There is nothing wrong with this everyone needs to relax. But it’s the best habit to also think what you are spending your time on. Instead of playing a game 4h consecutively every day you can add in a break for 30 mins for a walk and next day some time to do a workout. The more you get used to add in these positive habits the easier it will become to improve yourself. Rise and shine to become the future you that you dreamed of.