How to Wake Up Early in the Morning

On today’s show I help you visualize your absolute perfect work day and then help you figure out how to make that happen—providing tips and tactics. I believe you need to visualize your perfect work day step by step so you can start to implement systems, processes, habits and goals to create that type of day.

Let’s daydream to start: How would you wake up on your perfect work day? What would you do before work? How would your actual work day begin? Would you exercise? Meditate? Relax a bit with coffee or tea?

My perfect morning routine would look like this:

Get up naturally or easily at 5:30 or 6 a.m. without using a snooze alarm.

Go for a walk in my neighborhood for 15 or 30 minutes, either listening to a podcast or brainstorming on a work problem.

Come home, shower and get ready while listening to an inspiring podcast.

Fix my healthy breakfast and indulge in my fancy hot tea.

Start my day.

My perfect work day would end around 3 p.m. To make this happen, I need to be more efficient. To do that, focus on your peak productivity time. Do you know when that is for you?

Maximize your time by focusing on deep work without distractions. Maybe try the Pomodoro method, which is when you work in 25-minute blocks, then take a 5-minute break before working for another 25-minute block of time.

Next, get rid of distractions. Email is my biggest distraction. I either tackle email first thing for a set period of time (set an alarm) or I skip it for a few hours and don’t check it till mid-morning.

Definitely turn off email notifications on both your computer and your smartphone. Those distractions are terrible for your productivity and focus.

Try a batch time or day: Combine like tasks into one set period of time and stick to that time period every week.

Figure out how to work on projects you love that pay you well. First, analyze your freelance business to determine the projects that you love to do the most—not just the projects you might be good at.

To start to make more money, analyze your rates and how you landed your best clients. Make a list of your highest-paying clients. Then circle the ones you love to work with. How did you get these clients? Focus on getting more of those clients from the same places.

Make another list of all your regular clients and services and how much you charged. Put them in order of the most money you earn to the least money you earn per client. Why do you have those rates? Did you set them? Or did the client offer them to you? Can you raise those rates?

Create a wrap-up-the-day routine. For me, this includes creating a short to-do list for the next day and shutting my laptop, leaving my computer and my smartphone in my office for the night.

Biz Bite: Set timers for appointments and phone calls.

Resources:

My favorite tea (hot Cincinnati spice black tea) from Churchill’s Fine Teas

My favorite podcasts:

Before Breakfast

Company of One

Crime Writers On…True Crime Review

Ear Hustle

Happier in Hollywood

Happier with Gretchen Rubin

High-Income Business Writing (with Ed Gandia)

Online Marketing Made Easy with Amy Porterfield

Unemployable: Advice for Freelancers and Entrepreneurs

What Should I Read Next?

Writer’s Bone

Boomerang plugin for Gmail

Episode #3 of Deliberate Freelancer: Host a Solo Business Retreat

Episode #18 of Deliberate Freelancer: How to Set Higher Rates