Start Your Day With a Win

April 16, 2018

Wouldn't it be amazing if we could set a positive tone for the day from the minute we wake up?

Tim Ferriss believes that we can. Ferriss, one of Forbes's Names You Need to Know," Fortune's "40 Under 40," and the author of 4 New York Times bestsellers, is amazingly productive and, yet, finds more time for relaxation than probably all of us BetterFed readers combined.

He is famous for many things, but one of them is his 5-task morning ritual which he created to help him achieve a sense of accomplishment within the first minutes of every day -- you complete a task, and you get a certain feeling of pride. That pride gives you the confidence to tackle another task. And another. And so it goes throughout the day. And you don't need to complete the full routine every time to get that sense of achievement -- Ferriss himself freely admits that he rarely completes his entire morning ritual -- but finishing just 1 or 2 things is still a win.

Set a low bar for your win. My personal favorite task from Ferriss's list is making your bed in the morning. Two seemingly opposite types of people (a monk and a Navy SEAL) advised Ferriss to begin making his bed every day as a way of gaining control during a tumultuous time in his life. I started doing this myself after reading Ferriss's blog and it has made a huge difference in the way I face each day. You don't have to make the bed perfectly (I never tuck in my sheets, for example) -- just straighten your comforter and arrange your pillows so the bed looks neat. It takes 2 minutes and you're done -- and you've started your day with a win (added bonus: you won't be tempted to crawl back in)!

To read more about Tim Ferriss's morning ritual, click here. Choose something that resonates with YOU (yoga, meditation, journaling, prayer) and dedicate 2-3 minutes to it first thing in the morning. And let me know if it works for you!