My daily ritual...

Here's my personal daily ritual that I am CONVINCED has catapulted me to the position in life that I now enjoy...

Every morning, I turn off the alarm clock, jump out of bed, go IMMEDIATELY to the mirror, look myself in the eyes, CLAP my hands together, and tell myself crisply and firmly -- with CONVICTION --
"LET THE PROCRASTINATION BEGIN!"

-- TW

TW,

Thanks for sharing part of your daily ritual.

If you've read, "How I Raised Myself From Failure To Success In Selling" by Frank Bettger, you'll have noticed one of the things he attributes to his success is the Time of day he got out of bed - 6am from memory (and if you want success, not later than 6am, from memory).

If you've read, "The One Minute Millionaire" you might recall in the Story side when the main character is awoken by one of her Mentors to go for a run and she complains that it is Early in the morning. The response being that her Enemy has probably chewed a few new ones by this time of the day.

There's a comedian in Oz who once had as part of his skit... I live with this unemployed guy. And one day when I came home at 6pm he was just getting up. I said, "Geeze mate, you're up early" And he said, "Yeah, I couldn't sleep, been trying to come up with a get rich quick scheme, do you know any?" "Nah mate" "Well that blows that then, I'm going back to bed".

And while it was just a comedy routine it's pretty common knowledge. The idle unemployed do sleep in until the later hours of the day. While productive people are up early, even if they don't immediately start being productive - they are up and moving and at the least getting ready.

With that, my initial daily routine is...

Get up - usually around 4am, sometimes (rarely) I'll sleep in until 5am. There is no moping around with this getting up. No second laydown for an extra 10 minutes. It's awake, up and out of bed.

Head into the kitchen and put the kettle on to make a Red Tea (Rooibos and Rosehip-&-Hibiscus. While the water is boiling I cut a lemon and juice it. Depending on the size of the lemon I'll do half or a full one to a glass. Then fill the glass with water - so at the most I am drinking 50% lemon juice. Down it, followed by another half glass of water.

I then prepare my food for the day. Then head into the bathroom (shave and stuff, you know). And once I am out of the bathroom I am done and ready to take on the day outside of the home.

There is no dilly dally while this goes on. No radio. No standing in front of the TV to watch some mindless jibble that caught my eye.

I'll also check the weather radar to see if I will drive the car or ride the motorcycle. Even if it's overcast and has threat of rain or forecast of rain, if I can see enough break in the cloud to get where I am going without getting wet, I'll ride. Coming home I don't care if I get wet - it's exhilarating, plus I can change once home.

The above maybe takes half an hour to do - usually less. Cause like in the army, I move with a purpose.

Weekends, if I'm not working I may sleep in until 6am before I'm up and do the same routine as weekdays. But usually my eyes open around 4am - alarm clock or not.

Oh, there is no rushing out the door once I am done. Once I've done my get-ready-tasks, that's when I'll check the weather radar, do email, read things I have an interest in (no newspapers). Sometimes I'll have another tea - sometimes another Red tea, sometimes a Green tea instead.

When I leave home I do so at such a time I will arrive at my destination at Least 15 minutes before I need to without needing to Rush.

And, when I awake I do so the same time regardless of when I went to bed. If I hit the sack at 11pm I'll still get up at 4am, as I would if I hit the sack at 9pm or 10pm or whatever-pm. Discipline.

The difference this makes...

If someone gets up at 7am, I have three hours head start on them. I can be productive for three hours more in the day. Come week's end I have 15 hours up my productive sleeve - that's almost two work days. Two days a week. By the end of the month I have an entire week's of productiveness up my sleeve.

THAT is why an early riser can get so much done.

Michael
www.michaelrossonline.com

Tw --- thanks for the joke. Personally, I subscribe the the Woody Allen technique when it comes to exercise. It works like this: Every time I get the urge to exercise, I lay down until it goes away! : )

Not.

Anyway, currently I have a crew of three full time guys in my sheet metal business. They are all very productive workers. But prior to this crew, I had just two guys, one who out-produced the other by a long shot. I analyzed why, and here's what I discovered: It's very simple. The more productive guy was always working when he is at a job site, except when taking a break for lunch. When he arrived, he would set up, look over what needed to be done and begin doing it. The less productive guy would arrive at the job site, look things over . . . then look them over some more . . . then set up .. . . and look it over again, then start working. By now, the more productive guy has been producing for anywhere from 15 minutes to a half hour. Being a smoker, after a while the less productive guy would light up and, while pretending to be still working ("helping" the more productive guy), watch the more productive guy as HE was working. End result: the non-productive guy no longer has a job, and the productive guy is making 50% more than he was while working with the non-productive guy.

Procrastinate, procrastinate, procastinate = non-production/lost production.

Look at this: If you waste 15 minutes out of your production time, over a year's time (figuring an 8 hour work day, 5 day work week, 50 weeks a year), you have wasted 65.5 hours. That's a little over a week and a half of production time wasted!

Let's ramp it up. Suppose you fritter away an hour of production time a day. Under the same parameters (40 hour work week, 50 weeks worked per year), you wind up wasting 250 hours over the year. That's the equivalent of NOT WORKING 40 hours a week 6.25 weeks! In other words, your 1 hour of wasted production time per day cost you about a month and a half of production in a year's time!

Back to the productive/non-productive guys comparison. I figured that my productive guy was doing two to three MONTHS more work per year than my less-productive guy. As an employer, who do you think I would rather reward with higher wages? Who would I rather fire? No brainer!

Take a look at it: How much productive time do you waste a day? Two hours? That's like sitting on your *ss, 40 hours a week, week after week, for about three months! Could you confront the idea of sitting around doing nothing for 40 hours a week for three months, while claiming that you are working, and taking a paycheck for that "work"? Well, if you waste 2 hours of production time a day, that's the same thing!

Anyone thinking "government workers"?

Not claiming to be a saint here. I'm not. I waste way too much time. I'm just trying to put things into perspective. Perhaps someone may wonder why their income is not up in the range they want. Check your production. How much production time do you figure you waste in a day? How many WEEKS or MONTHS of production are you throwing away every year?

Food for thought!

---- Hugh