If you are not a morning person, you’d agree that there is no better time for you to murder someone than in the morning when they force you to wake up. That feeling when you are roughly ripped from your unconsciousness, either by screaming alarm, violent shake, or glaring sunlight is painful and disorienting. You never get used to it even after a whole lifetime of practice. It turns you into a cranky and dissatisfied individual – not a very attractive nor appealing individual, by the way.

Sadly, no matter how much you’d rather put your middle finger to the world, duty still calls. Works need to be done, dreams need to be chased, bills need to be paid. Thankfully, there are some hacks to make you feel better, happier, and more productive in the morning. Here are some morning mood boosters to make your morning less miserable.

1. Get Enough Sleep

Do you know that inside our body, there is a built in clock called Circadian Rythm – or better known as biological clock? It means our body can understand the best daily schedule for itself. It knows when to eat, when to rest, and most importantly, when to wake. Our body has needs and biological clocks ensure that it gets what it needs on time. In the morning, our body is scheduled to already have enough rest and it needs to wake up to get breakfast. But, if our body somehow didn’t get enough rest for the night, the biological clock will start to mess up. We won’t be able to wake up naturally in the morning.

Everybody has sleep quota, but the number vary from each person. Normally, people need 6-9 hours of night sleep. Track your own sleeping quota, make notes at what number of hours of sleep you feel the most energized during the day. Then, make commitment to fulfill that quota every night. Following regular schedule for sleeping can be hard for modern lifestyle with shift work and frequent business travel to different time zone. For that, aim to increase your productivity during work hour instead of working for longer hour. Get quality sleep so you can get the most benefit of sleeping in the shortest time.

2. Wake Up Slowly

I used to set my alarm ALAP, or as late as possible. I thought the extra minutes of sleep will make me feel more satisfied. I was wrong. Big time.

Is there any worse way to wake up than have an alarm blasted right near your ears? Yes, there is. It is when I look at said alarm and notice that I have just enough time to brush my teeth, dress up, and chew my breakfast. That makes me jump from my bed, right away! For me, it feels as if I’m ‘warping’ from one dimension (my dream) to another (my reality), and ‘warping’ takes energy. So, I just wake up for several seconds and I feel tired and offended already. Not a good way to start a day.

The best way to wake up is to do it slowly. After you realize you’re awake, don’t move suddenly. Let your consciousness slowly build up and give time for your body to start their ‘waking mode’. Then, sit on your bed before you rise and start the morning routine. Take around 3-5 minutes for the whole process. This will makes you feel less disoriented, less tired, and more content.

3. Avoid Looking at Your Phone

Many people automatically reach their phone the moment they wake up. Partly because most of them use their phone as their alarm. I personally prefer a separate alarm, because once I lay my hand on my phone to dismiss my alarm, I automatically tempted to do more. For example, checking messages and email and group chat. Before I know it, I’ve spend 20 minutes trying to connect myself to the world mere seconds after I wake up.
I think, before I try to connect with outside world, it’s important to connect to myself first. That’s why I prefer to put my phone away from my arm reach in bed.

4. Five Minutes Meditation

When you sleep, you part with your consciousness for a while. Now, after you wake up, you will need to reconnect with your own self. Take five more minutes after you wake up to stay still. Focus your thought to remember who you are, where you are, and what your life purposes are. For example, if you are Frodo of The Lord of The Rings, you can think like this: “I am Frodo, I’m in the middle of my journey to Mordor, and I have to destroy this evil ring, whatever it takes, to save the world”. This easy practice will make you focused, motivated, and determined in the morning.

5. Greet the Morning

Now, it’s time to move out of the bed. What awaits you? A fresh, cool, and crisp morning air that is good for your health and your alertness. Stand up in front of the window and open it, let the morning air caress your face. Observe the morning with all your senses. Look at the color of the sky. Listen to the birds chirping.

As you start using your senses, you’ll be gently pulled from your unconsciousness into full awareness. Not only your mind has completely awake, but your senses are too.

6. Ten Minutes Exercise

Now, when you’re already focused, motivated, and determined, getting those limbs to move is easier. Do simple warming up exercise like nodding your head rythmically, lifting your shoulder up and down, twisting your waist left and right, and walking in place. This will stretch your muscle after a whole night of lying down. Believe me, the muscle burn you’ll feel is satisfying and makes you feel accomplished.

7. Cold Shower

Now, after you exercise, take a cold shower. Now, the thought of dumping cold water to your entire body seems horrifying. In fact, it makes you more averse to waking up than the thought of hot shower. But, believe me, it is not that bad. If it makes you feel better, James Bond takes this kind of shower everyday.

It is actually refreshing and brings you into full alertness. When the water comes into contact with our skin, the shock prompts our body to seek warmth. It will take a deep breath and pump a rush of blood to our entire body – giving it a natural boost of energy. That energy is perfect for amunition for the rest of the day. A moist and healthy skin and hair is just side benefit.

8. Mood Boosting Music

As you exit the shower and make way to your room to dress up, turn on your music player. Make a ‘morning mood’ playlist beforehand, contains songs with uplifting melody and lyric you find motivating. It doesn’t have to be an obvious motivation song, like Mariah Carey’s Hero or Bruno Mars’ Today My Life Begin. Every song you personally found motivating should be included to the list.

9. Apply Essential Oil

After dressing up and putting up some make up, don’t worry to apply a sheer magic of mood booster: aromatherapy. There are various type of aromatherapy, each with their own effect. For your purpose, I’d recommed aromatherapy with mood boosting and energizing effect. Those are the scents of orange, lemon, mint, and bergamot.
Pick an organic essential oil for this to minimize skin irritation. You can apply them in certain part of your body like a perfume – on your wrist, your neck, or behind your ear.

10. Hug Your Loved One

Now, smelling nice and looking impeccable, show up on the living room to meet your loved one for breakfast. They can be your parents if you’re still living with them, your spouse, your kids, or even your housemate if you’re still single. Hugging people you love has this grounding effect. It reminds you that you have to do your best today for the sake of your loved one. You will do awesome thing today at work and at night you’ll come back accomplished to your loved one.

If you live alone, simply send a ‘Good morning, I love you’ to your girlfriend or boyfriend or parents. It can serves as a morning mood buster as well as a hug.

11. Light, Tasty, Nutritious Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, period. When you sleep, you’re essentially fasting because there is no nutrition intake. This makes your blood sugar especially low. Meanwhile, blood sugar gives you energy to do your activity later in the day – whether muscle work or brain work. Not replenishing this needs will make you tired and feeling dull in the morning.

Your breakfast should be light, so you can easily chew it and your body can easily digest it. Tasty, so you will feel ‘worth it’ to make time for breakfast. Nutritious, because it’s the point of having breakfast – to get the nutrition. Ideally, your breakfast should contain protein, calcium, a little fat, a little fiber, and a little sugar. It means variety of choices, like eggs, fish, fruit or vegetables, whole wheat cereal, yogurt, and many other tasty choices.

See Also: 5 New Ways To Eat Breakfast And Skip Mid-Morning Slump

12. Hot Chocolate

Are you thinking of snatching a cup of Starbucks later on your way to work? While coffee is definitely the most popular morning beverage for office workers, cocoa is maybe the best. Coffee will help you focus during your work, but cocoa with its flavonoid can do the same while improving your mood in the process.

So, after a well balanced meal, make sure to sip a nice cup of hot chocolate. The sugar in it is also enough to keep you going through the day.

13. Smile

Smile is really an effortless yet powerful act. Smile comes naturally when you’re happy, but it goes backward too. Meaning, even if you only fake a smile, your brain will think that you’re happy. Neat, isn’t it? And when you feel happy, then your mood will skyrocket and you’re ready for the world.

Make sure to put your best smile before you open the door to go to work. To make sure you won’t forget this, put a reminder to smile in your door.

14. Sunlight

Now, it’s time to get out of the house. But, it doesn’t mean that the mood boosting ritual is complete. It needs a finishing touch, which is available outside your house. It is a poweful light that can warm you and make you feel better about the world. It improves your mood and makes you healthy. It is completely free and abundant, It’s not futuristic at all, it’s completely basic and natural: sunlight.

Our biological clock also runs based on the availability of sunlight. When the sunlight goes out, it knows that it’s time for your body to rest and sleep, so you become sleepy. When it feels the sunlight, it knows that it’s time for your body to work, so you’ll find yourself alert and energized.
Spend several minutes to stand under the morning sun before you go into your car, into your bus, or into your subway station. Recharge yourself by going out and basking in the warm morning sunlight.

15. Do One Kindness Act

Now, you are outside. Complete your day by performing one kindness act during your way to work. Human is naturally kind, and being able to act according to their nature will give you happiness. As you feel happy and accomplished, your mood will be at its peak.

Get creative with the kindness act. Find easy way to perform kindness while you’re commuting. For example, giving away your subway seat to an elderly or smiling at strangers. You can also drop a dollar or two on the street – who knows someone who desperately need it will be lucky enough to pick it.

16. Do Something that Makes You Happy

Now, your day is officially start! You’ve gone through the most positive morning routine ever. For that, feel free to reward yourself. Allow yourself to do something that makes you happy today. Is it a quick visit to nearest cafe for its smoothie? Is it a quick read of a chapter of your favorite novel before work? Your pick.

See Also: 10 Secrets To A Happy and Fulfilled Life

Doing this will make you feel accomplished. It boost your mood and confidence. What a perfect way to start the rest of your day.

The list above is totally customizable. You can pick which one is most suitable and effective for you. But, I found out that doing all nine makes the best morning mood boosters combo – they’re easy anyway. So, are you ready to conquer the day?

The post 16 Easy and Effective Morning Mood Boosters for Non-Morning Person appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

http://ift.tt/2clwa8V

As a freelancer, you’re in charge of planning your day. You get to decide which tasks you want to work on first and when to take your breaks.

Unfortunately, this freedom can either make or break your career. If you’re not careful, hours can tick away without you finishing a single project.  Worse, you can even end up with a messy desk and an almost untouched to-do list.

Wondering how to get the most out of your time? Follow these 10 productivity tips for freelancers to get more out of your workday.

Bonus: you’ll get more out of your free time, as well!

1. Prioritize Your Tasks

It seems like a no-brainer. You get the most important things done first and you can finish the rest of your tasks quickly.

Unfortunately, not everything turns out the way we plan the all the time.  As your creativity and energy can vary throughout the day, it’s best if you can assess yourself first before getting straight to work. You might even be surprised at what you’ll find.

Some people who identify as “morning people” have major breakthroughs at night. There are night owls who discover more creativity in the morning. If the nature of your business is creative, be mindful of when you get your best work done. It may be the opposite of what you think.

As you prioritize your task, make sure to structure your to-do list to match your energy. Once you finish work for the day, make a list of any leftover tasks and engagements approaching deadlines. (Evernote is a favorite for lists). Doing this will enable you to begin the next day with a fresh energy and gameplan.

See Also: 6 Tools to Increase Your Self-Employed Productivity

2. Make a Schedule- And Stick To It

 

Armed with the list you created at the end of your last work day (#1), plug in your schedule for the day. Most freelancers balk at this suggestion, as avoiding the 9-5 workday is often why we get into freelancing in the first place.

Making a schedule doesn’t mean giving up your flexibility. It means setting times when you’ll be ultra-efficient so that you can have the freedom to enjoy your time outside of your workstation.

See Also: 14 Problems Freelancers Usually Face

3. Set A Specific Time for E-mail

How many times have you thought “I’ll just answer this one quick e-mail…” and then realized an hour has gone by? Or noticed that “New Message” notification, only to get tied up responding to a series of questions?

As a freelancer, you want your clients to know that you are attentive and available. But you also have a million other things to get done.

The solution?

Set a specific time to check and respond to e-mails. Studies suggest that good email etiquette means responding within 24 hours. Optimally, you can check your inbox once in the morning and once in the afternoon. While you’re away, you can set an auto-response to explain when you’ll be actively responding.

4. Realize Repeat Tasks and Assign a Process

Do you remember what life was like before we had applications for everything? Rolodexes, paper charts, and battery-powered Dictaphones were standard in most medical offices.

We can learn a lot from modern technology in this aspect: if there’s a way to simplify, do it. Noticed that you get a lot of calls at 9:00am? Make that your window of availability over the phone. Tired of typing out the same e-mail over and over? Use a canned response system (MailChimp has some great ones).

Try to recognize when you’re doing something more than once and create a process for it. It will save you time, and sanity!

5. Get Organized. Really.

Albert Einstein once quoted: “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, what, then, is an empty desk a sign of?”

Getting organized is one of the best ways to boost your productivity and control your madness.

Do you waste time trying to locate documents on your computer? Throw them in a “Common Documents” folder in Google Drive. Spending too long scrolling through your clients in your smartphone? Use a spreadsheet or CRM of your choice to organize your contacts.

You’ll be amazed how much better you can feel once you have everything in one place. You’ll also save precious time off of your workday.

6. Complete the Small Stuff

Have you noticed that tasks seem to multiply when you’re in a hurry? The presentation you were sure was complete is missing a crucial point. As you add it, you realize the image you attached is the wrong size. Just before you submit the final draft to your client, you realize that you have two e-mail addresses for her, and aren’t sure which one to use. Now you’re right up against your deadline.

How did this happen?

Often, we brush simple tasks aside,thinking that we can quickly complete them at a later time. This leaves us rushing to complete a stack of projects that often are more complex than we first realized.

Here’s a great solution:

Get the small stuff out of the way. Not only can this help lessen your workload, but it can also give you a sense of accomplishment which is essential particularly when you’re dealing with multiple projects.

7. Do The Worst Task First

Dreading that phone call with an unhappy executive? Tempted to wait until later to dial the number?

Don’t. Just do it now.

By addressing the least desirable task first, you’re avoiding the dangerous lure of procrastination. You’ll also be able to move forward without it hanging over your head the rest of the day. And once you’ve tackled the tough stuff, everything else suddenly becomes more simple.

8. Compete Against Yourself

One of the most common complaints of freelancers is that they no longer have the healthy peer pressure to over-perform. It takes a great deal of integrity to be productive all day.

Without a cubicle partner to compete against, how do you push yourself to get more done?

By challenging the best competition out there—yourself. Start by setting a timer for 30 minutes, and work on one task. This means no e-mail, phone, social media, snack breaks or conversations with the roommate. Try to finish the work or just make any tangible progress.

When the timer goes off, move on to another task, and set the timer again. By working in dedicated increments, you are committing yourself to resist all distraction. You also get to approach each new 30-minute interval with renewed energy.

9. Take (Timed) Breaks

You’ve drafted a schedule, with your least favorite task first. You’re finishing small tasks as they come. You have specific times for processes that reflect your creative energy. Now, there’s one more thing missing in the equation- planned breaks.

More and more studies are revealing the importance of taking regular breaks during the workday. More energy, better health, and a boost in motivation are only some of the benefits you can get from giving yourself a few minutes to breathe freely during the day.

And it’s not just about the number of minutes, the quality of your breaks is important, as well. Try to get a little exercise, drink a glass of water, and detach yourself from your computer screen for at least five minutes every hour.

If you’re competing against the clock (#8), you can schedule this hourly. Don’t forget to schedule longer mealtime breaks as well, so you can prepare something that will give you sustained energy.

10. Set Goals and Reward Yourself for Your Progress

Are you missing the incentive programs and bonuses you got to enjoy with traditional employment?

You don’t have to miss out on any of those things just because you work on your own. Now that you’re organized (#5), it shouldn’t be that difficult to throw together a list of goals. Try to create  weekly, yearly, and long-term goals for yourself. Keep yourself accountable by scheduling 5 minutes to review and assign new goals each week.

As you complete each milestone, don’t forget to reward yourself. Sure, you may not have the monetary incentive, but as your productivity soars, so will your income. Reward yourself with that trip you’ve been putting off for some months already.  Get the new pair of shoes you’re dying to have or just take an enjoyable dinner at the new restaurant downtown.

You work hard to make it as a freelancer. Matching your passion for work with your hobbies can make your job a lot more enjoyable- and productive.

What are your productivity musts? Have you successfully put any of these into practice?

The post 10 Productivity Musts for Freelancers appeared first on Dumb Little Man.

http://ift.tt/2c2PZxB