The Secret to Being Present & Productive Starts in The Morning

The Secret to Being Present & Productive Starts in The Morning

The first 90 minutes of your day is your best time of day to take on and complete difficult tasks. You’re more focused, calm, and clear-minded than any other time of day. Take full advantage of this time and dedicate it to solving your most complicated challenges. 

What Is the 10/10/10 Morning Routine? 

Simply, this morning routine consists of 10 minutes of meditation, 10 minutes of reading, and 10 minutes of journaling. While morning minutes devoted to one or more of these can be beneficial, just 10 minutes is enough to get real value and set up the rest of your day for success. 

Here’s why the 10/10/10 morning routine works so well:  

The Benefits of Meditation

Starting your day with meditation encourages 

  • A greater sense of self-awareness

  • Reduction of stress and anxiety

  • Increase in mental clarity and focus

  • Improved emotional intelligence

  • Your brain’s relaxation response

For beginners, look into applications like Calm and Breathe. For those wanting to dive deeper into transcendental meditation, I recommend checking out a workshop with a professional coach.

The Benefits of Reading in The Morning

After you’ve meditated, pick up a book, newspaper, or tablet and read something that interests you. Here are just some of the benefits of reading early in the morning:

  • Helps you retain information better (beyond what your reading)

  • Reduces stress

  • Lowers risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia

  • Alleviate anxiety and depression

What to read? Anything! This could be a new novel, a work of non-fiction, or a piece of news. Anything that stimulates your brain can be beneficial.

Benefits of Journaling

Finally, after you’ve both meditated and read, journal in something like the OAK Journal. Journaling has many positive effects including:

  • Starts your day in a self-reflective way

  • Encourages alignment with your intentions

  • Improves focus and productivity

  • Stimulates creative thought

  • Doubles the probability of accomplishing any goals you write down

Try to journal positive, as if your kids and grandkids will read your thoughts one day.

After the 10/10/10 Morning Routine

You can easily add a fourth 10-minute session if you have additional routines, for example, yoga or a coffee ritual.

Also—You don’t have to follow this timing exactly, this is just a minimum. For example, I typically do 20/20/10. That works with my schedule and optimizes my mornings.

A Final Thought

Maintaining a morning routine is one of the best things businessmen and women can do to improve their productivity, focus, and optimism day in and day out. We challenge anyone to test the 10/10/10 morning routine for 30 days and see if it changes your mindset and mood.

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