The Power of Rituals to Rev Up Your Creativity & Productivity

Productivity and time management are topics that I have great interest in.  Of course, time management is a bit of a misnomer since managing time is really more about managing ourselves than it is about managing time.

Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day.  We can’t create more time, we can only become more efficient and focused on how our time is spent.  

Mindfulness is an integral part of this process.  So much energy and time is taken up by habitual thoughts and patterns that have been with us for years and years.  It’s only by changing and examining these habits that we can bring about change in our lives.

I found this quote by Stephen Covey that sums it up pretty well:

“You can’t talk your way out of what you’ve behaved yourself into.”

This points to the power of habitual patterns and behaviors in our life.  I’ve noticed how behaviors have affected my productivity.

As an example, when I get home after a long day of work I often find myself automatically sitting down on the couch and turning on the TV.  Even though I know this isn’t the best use of my time, I still find myself being pulled to do this because it’s a habit that’s been formed over years.

I’m working on re-wiring this habit by doing different activities when I get home from work.  They include any variation of:  writing, reading, researching, talking with my wife, listening to music and cooking.

Creating new rituals in your life is a powerful step you can take to literally change the way you live your life on a day by day basis.  Tony Schwartz, someone who I really admire and I believe is a pioneer in changing the way we think about how we work, talks about rituals in this Harvard Business Review article.

Taking this even further, I recently developed a set of morning rituals that I do every morning.  I learned about this from a couple of people, including a mentor of mine, Aaron Ross.

A lot of people aren’t morning people, and I understand that, but I want to explain why I think developing a set of morning rituals is important.

What happens in the morning sets the tone for the entire day.  If I wake up late, or haven’t gotten enough sleep and I’m in a frantic rush to get ready to go to work, I’m typically a bit frazzled for the entire day, or at least a few hours.

This wrecks my productivity, mainly because my mind is going 100 mph thinking about what I need to get done, or caught up in various stories, thoughts and emotions.  In short, if you feel physically frazzled, you’ll typically feel mentally frazzled.

By following my morning rituals, I set the mental tone for the rest of the day.  I feel more relaxed and ready to do whatever it is I need to do.

Here are a couple of tips when forming your own morning ritual:

Experiment, but make your morning ritual your own.  I’m all about experimenting and seeing what works and doesn’t work.  Having said that, I really tried to make my ritual my own.  I took advice from here and there, but then I mapped out my own ritual, which is unique to me.

Once you do make it your own, really try to stick with the same ritual every day.  Habits typically take 30 days to form.

What you’ll find is that there is usually a burst of energy at the beginning and then a few days to a week in you might notice thoughts such as “I’m tired, I don’t feel like doing this,” or “Is this really doing anything?”

This is completely normal and it’s good to be mindful of these thoughts, but continue doing the practice anyway.  As soon as you become habituated to the habit, it will be a normal process for you.  Instead of thinking about having to do it, you’ll just automatically do it.

Don’t be too hard on yourself.  I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.  We’re our own worst critics.  If you do miss a day, don’t sweat it.  Just pick it up the next day.

If you’re doing this routine 8 to 9 times out of ten days, that’s wonderful. The main point is to stick with it until it becomes habituated and a normal way of doing things.

Here’s my current morning ritual:

1.  Wake up at 5:30am.  I go to bed by 10pm, so I’m get a good nights sleep.  This is crucial for me.
2.  Drink a half liter of water.  I was a bit skeptical about the benefits of doing this at first, but it actually really helps and I’ve certainly noticed the difference between doing this and not doing it.
3.  Rinse nostrils with a neti pot.  Yes, it’s a little “weird,” but I swear by this.  I get allergies in the spring and fall, and this really helps.
3.  Sit down and write 750 words, or three pages of whatever is on my mind.  This is the Morning Pages exercise developed and promoted by Julia Cameron, in her book, “The Artist’s Way.”  I’ve heard about this for quite some time and it is one of those activities that I always thought would be good to do, but I never did it.  I’ll probably write a separate post just on this.  This is one of those things that I am a little skeptical about, but I’m doing it just to see what happens.  This is part of the fun and experimentation that goes along with developing your own routine.
4.  Meditate for 20 minutes
5.  Do yoga for 15 minutes.  This involves doing 10-15 repetitions of the sun salutation.
6.  Shower and get dressed.
7.  Make a healthy breakfast.  I’ll either have greek yogurt with honey, berries and granola, or an omelet that I put a ton of vegetables into.

That’s pretty much it for now.  How about yourself?  Do you have a morning ritual?  Share in the comments – I’d love to hear from you.