Is How You Start Your Day Holding You Back?

TL;DR

• World-class athletes don’t skip their warmup before performing and nor should we
• I became intentional in carving out 90 minutes each morning to develop something I call The Daily Start Routine™
• When I do the activities in the routine has become more important than what I do
• This consistent routine, along with other activities that integrate work and life, has helped me to to close more than $30M in sales in 7 months without burning out

Here Is My Morning Routine That Has Helped Me Close Over $30M In Sales In Less Than Seven Months

Do you have a morning routine that helps you achieve what’s most important to you?

When the pandemic hit, like many people, my daily life changed. But it ended up giving me space to reflect and prioritize what was most important to me.

As a result, I created a process to help me integrate work more seamlessly with life – something that has helped me to improve my overall wellbeing and close millions of dollars in SaaS sales over the past seven months ($30M TCV / $14.1M ARR).

So what does my morning routine look like today?

My Daily Start Routine Breakdown

The morning routine I have today, which I call my Daily Start Routine™, has been fine-tuned over the last year as I observed which activities were most helpful for how my brain functions.

I really doubled down on improving my routine based on reading four game-changing books:

1. The Perfect Day Formula by Craig Ballantyne
2. Deep Work by Cal Newport
3. When by Daniel Pink
4. Atomic Habits by James Clear

One particular behavior change that skyrocketed my momentum into the workday was incorporating the idea of habit stacking, which is a strategy you can use to pair a new habit with a current habit. The formula for habit stacking is: After I [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].

This allowed me to tweak my routine in a way that appropriately stacks habits on top of one another in a very logical flow so that I prime my brain, focus, and motivation in a way that I can tackle my hardest task after completing the routine. Think of it as a consistent warmup routine that a world-class professional athlete would perform in order to get their body and mind ready for fierce competition.

While yours will differ, I hope mine can serve as a guide to help you craft the unique routine that works best for you.

My Daily Start Routine (90 minutes):

• Breathe (5 minutes): My current ritual is to get sun on my face first thing in the morning (if it’s not too early) and to spend just five minutes mindfully deep breathing.
• Read/Part 1 (Less than 5 minutes): Next, I want to focus my mind on a theme for the day, so I spend less than five minutes reading The Daily Stoic, which is short, specific to the day, and motivational.
• Read/Part 2 (15 minutes): I then get into the next flow and read a book for about 15 minutes. After this, my brain is activated and I’m craving more learning.
• Listen (10 minutes): Next, I’ll listen to Knowable for 10 minutes. Knowable is an app that provides easily digestible daily skills or courses. These help me to further get my mind in an inspired and curious state.
• Write (10 minutes): Then, I switch over to writing. I write out my 5 intentions for the day which are: Gratitude, mindfulness, wellness activity (like exercise), sharing a discovery, and most important. Starting with gratitude is such a critical piece to maintaining perspective in life. Next, I freely write my current thoughts (or fears or ideas). Then I write out my top three priorities for the day, which should match my highest priority tasks in Todoist, and how long they’ll take (I think of them in terms of Pomodoros vs time). This portion of the overall routine helps me keep focused on my priorities and hold myself accountable (I’ll share how I gamify the process in future articles). I have gravitated towards using the Morning Sidekick Journal for a guided writing experience, but always like experimenting with new journals and planners. In the future, I have plans to design an optimal planner as a component to the Be Focused. Live Great. system.
• Reflect (5 minutes): My next step is to track how I slept the previous night. I check the data from my WHOOP, complete the in-app journal, and enter my data into a personalized spreadsheet I call Thrive Space™, which will be turned into an app in the future. I add how much I’ve slept, my recovery score, and my sleep debt (which comes from another app called RISE). I try to keep my sleep debt under three hours or it will cause declines in my mood, communication, and overall productivity. By being aware of my sleep and recovery patterns, I can understand if I need to take it easy or if it’s a good day to push hard and put in some extra hours.
• Share (10 minutes): To keep on schedule with my personal branding, I then spend about ten minutes sharing my social media posts, which are already mapped out thanks to my personal social media team. These posts help me and my community by sharing my own personal discoveries throughout my career and life. The EVO planner helped me to recognize that based on my brain type (I’m an Alchemist), sharing my discoveries is important for me and how I personally operate – hey let’s use dopamine for good!
• Contribute (25 minutes): Next, I’m working on completing my first book, which is a long-term project and a personal goal of mine. Everyone has long-term aspirations but the hardest thing is taking consistent action to achieve them. The simplest solution I’ve found is to systemize it by building the action into what I do each day. I am paying my future self with this consistent activity. You’ll be amazed at what happens over time when you do something for 25 minutes every day.
• Organize (5 minutes max): Lastly, I put the final touches on organizing my tasks according to my energy levels. And because I’ve already planned out my day the night before, this is minimal effort. I’ve discovered I have an energy peak in the morning, a dip in the late afternoon, and a rebound in the evening. I ensure my more demanding tasks, like creating proposals, synchronize with my peak energy while less demanding tasks, like checking email or organizing my CRM, are scheduled during my dip.

Source: Rise app helps you to monitor sleep debt and align tasks to your natural circadian rhythm

And that’s it – now I’m ready to have a highly productive day where I can let my creativity unfold!

But how do I remember all this?

Sunsama is my home base. I schedule my Daily Start Routine™ in the app to repeat on all weekday mornings. When I’m ready to start, I can press play to start a timer for a task. Then, when I finish, I can check off the task. In total, this routine usually takes about 90 minutes (or three Pomodoro cycles, if you’re keeping track 😉).
[Source: Sunsama. Screenshot of my recurring Daily Start Routine]

Tips on Building Your Daily Start Routine

One of the most important things to remember when building your personal routine is that when you do your tasks is just as important as what you do. You should work on creating a flow that works best for you and your brain.

For example, I first started my routine with writing. However, I noticed that writing made my brain too active, too soon. When it was time to read, for instance, I wasn’t able to focus because my mind was already fixated on what I wrote about and wanted to accomplish for the day. I switched to a more logical flow for me which begins with breathing into reading and so on, and it works much better. It may take time to find what works best for you so it’s helpful to be open in order to learn and adjust.

Also, it’s important to maintain “flexipline” and not beat yourself up if you don’t complete the routine perfectly every day. Life can get in the way, but if you plan properly the night before, clear your schedule first thing in the morning, and give yourself 90 minutes before you give to others, soon you’ll begin to crave this routine and making it a habit will become effortless.

Benefits of My Daily Start Routine

Using this routine has helped me to think more clearly, be more strategic with my time, ramp up productivity, feel calmer, take control of my work days, and accomplish major things in my life one small step at a time. It’s also helped to put me in the driver’s seat to close millions of dollars in sales in a matter of months without burning out!

And it’s really not that much added work.

If anything, it’s easier than shooting blindly, opening your laptop and defaulting to responding to all the emails and messages in your inbox – which immediately puts you in a reactive mode where your time is completely dictated by others.

Creating your own unique Daily Start Routine™ can help you take the reins and steer towards your short-term and long-term goals. But it’s only half the story. Stay tuned for what I do at the end of my day – my Daily Review Routine™!

Learn How to Put This Into Practice for Free

If you want to take the Daily Start Routine™ a step further, I will be offering small group learning sessions and limited 1:1 mentoring in upcoming weeks. Text “MENTOR” to 917-810-2325 to get on the list and gain access to additional exclusive content.

Start building your own Daily Start Routine now. Here are my must-have tools:

• WHOOP
• Rise
• Todoist
• Sunsama
• Knowable
• Timeular
• A Daily Planner/Journal (many available – I personally use the Morning Sidekick Journal)
• A Pomodoro Timer (many available – I personally use Be Focused Pro)
• Thrive Space™
• GTD: Getting Things Done (as a personal productivity philosophy)

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When you’re ready, here are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Get the exact system I’ve used to go from earning $200K to over $1M a year in SaaS sales without burning out here. (1,700+ students)
2. Join a community of Purpose-Curious™ sellers in the Make More Hustle Less Club where we develop a personal operating system together here. (300+ members)
3. Book a 1:1 coaching session to up-level your performance here. (Limited spots available)