I’ve noticed a large number of articles circling the internet these past few weeks discussing morning routines and the benefits of waking up early. As someone who is NOT a morning person, I find these interesting.
So I decided to look at the morning routines of successful entrepreneurs and business owners.
Here are some of my favourite…
Barbara Corcoran, founder of The Corcoran Group and shark on Shark Tank says she has her to-do list done the night before. She prioritizes and does the important tasks first.
Tim Draper, founding partner of legendary VC firm DFJ gets up early to play basketball. Then clears his email inbox to “remove any bottlenecks for [his] team” and be aware of any challenges that he might be facing.
Ian Clark, founder, and CEO of Activation Products drinks a cleansing mineral in one ounce of water and then drinks one quart of structured purified water to flush out his system.
Elle Russ, best-selling author The Paleo Thyroid Solution, coach, and host of the top-ranked Primal Blueprint Podcast starts her morning expressing gratitude and then sets an intention for the day.
Jon Braddock, founder, and CEO of My Life & Wishes gets up 5:30 am, drinks 20 ounces of water and writes a quick gratitude list.
Chris Plough, entrepreneur advisor, and serial entrepreneur meditates, exercises and drinks a protein shake.
Damien Patton, founder, and CEO of Banjo starts the day by talking to his different teams, seeing how things are going, discussing metrics, etc. that way when he starts his meetings for the day, he has a full live view of where the day starts.
Jeff Chapin, co-founder, and chief product officer for Casper says that he starts his day by running with his dog around 6:30 am or 7 am and tries not to check his phone or email until after he’s done that and had breakfast.
My Morning Routine
A few months ago I started thinking about morning routines and noticed that without intending to, I had created my own morning routine – but I saw a few areas that NEEDED some improvement, so I’ve adapted my routine a bit.
I work until 10 pm to 12 am depending on the day so my day usually starts around 8 am – sometimes earlier if I have a meeting. Thursdays start at 6:30 am (*shudder*) because I meet with 20 local entrepreneurs and business owners at a weekly referral group meeting for 8:30 am.
My morning starts by me checking my personal social media accounts from bed. I love taking a minute to go through my “on this day” second of Facebook to see what I was doing a year ago. It’s always fun to see how much my life has changed over the years.
I have a hard rule that I don’t check my email from bed anymore. It almost always results in me jumping out of bed and sitting down in front of the computer without doing my morning routine.
I wash my face and drink 30 ounces of water to wake myself up. Next, I head to the kitchen, make a coffee and my protein shake for breakfast.
As I drink my shake, I do the engagement on both my personal and AIM Social’s Instagram and craft the post for the day.
Next, I head to my desk, glance at my emails to confirm there are no “fires” to put out for the day. Provided there’s nothing time-sensitive, I check on the rest of the social media platforms for both AIM Social and our clients – responding to any messages or comments that happened since the night before.
LinkedIn is next! I respond to any new messages, check the notifications and do a bit of prospecting.
Lastly, I empty my email inbox and deal with anything that needs to be done. Then I can start my to-do list for the day!