--- title: The Morning Routine Experts Recommend For Peak Productivity description: Decide 3 things that matter today canonical: https://time.com/3729977/morning-routine-for-peak-productivity/ author: Eric Barker article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-03-04T05:01:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:03:20.136Z article:section: Ideas og:title: The Morning Routine Experts Recommend For Peak Productivity og:description: Decide 3 things that matter today og:url: https://time.com/3729977/morning-routine-for-peak-productivity/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd71325e7d09507aa/698781cf0b72e38cb86ddf47/511942605-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2048 og:image:height: 1152 og:image:alt: blank-page-journal og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Morning Routine Experts Recommend For Peak Productivity twitter:description: Decide 3 things that matter today twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd71325e7d09507aa/698781cf0b72e38cb86ddf47/511942605-copy.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Morning Routine Experts Recommend for Peak Productivity > Sponsored content. 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It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: The Nantucket Project: How Storytelling is Getting in The Way of Your Success [Watch (HLS stream): The Nantucket Project: How Storytelling is Getting in The Way of Your Success](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/HSYDj99Q.m3u8) (17:44)  _Published 2015-02-17. The Nantucket Project: How Storytelling is Getting in The Way of Your Success_ by [Eric Barker](https://time.com/author/eric-barker/) ## Eric Barker Mar 4, 2015 5:01 AM UTC  Bulb drawn on diary by pencil on table Bulb drawn on diary by pencil on table Getty Images by [Eric Barker](https://time.com/author/eric-barker/) ## Eric Barker Mar 4, 2015 5:01 AM UTC What’s the best way to start your day so that you really get things done? [Laura Vanderkam](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/09/manage-their-time/) studied the schedules of high-achievers. What did she find? Almost all have a morning routine. I’ve interviewed a ton of top experts about their productivity secrets: [Tim Ferriss](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/06/most-productive-people/), [Cal Newport](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/08/how-to-stop-being-lazy/), [Dan Ariely](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/10/how-to-be-efficient/), [Charles Duhigg](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2015/01/how-to-stop-procrastinating/), and others. But you’re busy. You don’t have time to read all that stuff. You need a plan. So many readers have written to me saying what my friend Jason always does: “I don’t have time. Eric, now that you’ve talked to all these people, what do _you_do?” Okay, time to round up what the experts have said and build a roadmap. ## 1) Stop Reacting Get up before the insanity starts. Don’t check your email or anything else that is going to dictate your behavior. When I spoke to productivity guru Tim Ferriss, bestselling author of [The 4-Hour Workweek](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002WE46UW/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B002WE46UW&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20&linkId=EBJJXUY3B2QTGEVD), what did he say? Here’s Tim: --- > “” --- Most of us get up and it seems like things are already in motion. Gotta race to something. Emails coming in. We’re already behind. So _of course_ you aren’t achieving your goals. You immediately started with what the world threw at you and then just reacted, reacted, reacted as new things came in until the day ended or you were too exhausted to do what was important. You need to wake up before the insanity starts. Before demands are made on you. Before your goals for the day have competition. (For more from Tim Ferriss on what the most productive people do every day, click [here](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/06/most-productive-people/).) Okay, you’re ahead of the maelstrom. What do you need to do before things get thrown at you? ## 2) Decide The 3 Things That Matter Today [Cal Newport](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/08/how-to-stop-being-lazy/) is so productive it makes me cry. He’s a professor at Georgetown, cranks out academic papers, has written [4 books](http://www.amazon.com/Cal-Newport/e/B001IGNR0U/?%5Fencoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&linkCode=ur2&qid=1407672725&sr=1-2-ent&tag=spacforrent-20), and is a dad and a husband. And he’s done by 5:30PM every day. What did Cal have to say? All tasks are not created equal. Most of us deal with two fundamentally different types of work, Shallow and Deep: --- > “” --- Shallow work stops you from getting fired — but deep work is what gets you promoted. Deep work must get priority. In his book [The ONE Thing](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00C1BHQXK/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B00C1BHQXK&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20), Gary Keller applies the “Pareto principle” to the workday: Most of us get 80% of results from 20% of the work we do. So focus on that 20%. What really creates progress vs treading water? What gives disproportionate results? Do _those_ things. And don’t be vague. Specify what you need to get done. Research shows having concrete goals is correlated with huge increases in confidence and feelings of control. Via [The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful People](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FC10GG/?tag=spacforrent-20): --- > “” --- (For more from Cal on how to stop being lazy and get more done, click [here](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/08/how-to-stop-being-lazy/).) Okay, you know _what_ is important. Now you need to think about _when_. ## 3) Use Your “Magic Hours” For Your 3 Goals Just like all tasks aren’t created equal, all hours aren’t created equal either. [Dan Ariely](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/10/how-to-be-efficient/) is a behavioral economist at Duke University and the New York Times bestselling author of [Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061353248/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0061353248&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20). Dan says you have 2-2.5 hours of peak productivity every day. You may actually be 30% more effective at that time. Here’s [Dan](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/10/how-to-be-efficient/): --- > “” --- And Dan’s findings line up with other research. I’ve posted before that [2.5 to 4 hours after waking is when your brain is sharpest](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004H1UEP4/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004H1UEP4&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20&linkId=O3E3KE3MUVL5LAVW). You want to waste that on a conference call or a staff meeting? --- > “” --- But does this really work? In [studies of geniuses](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/05/genius-work-habits/), most did their best work early in the day. Those are the hours when you should be working on your 3 goals. Designate that part of your day as “[protected time](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/01/success-and-happiness/).” Maybe you know that you’re a night owl. Fine, then protect _those_ hours. The important thing is to do your key tasks during your key hours. (For more on the schedule the most successful people use every day, click [here](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/06/schedule/).) You know what’s important today and you know when your best hours are. But maybe you’re not motivated or you feel like procrastinating. How can you get going? ## 4) Have A Starting Ritual [Charles Duhigg](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2015/01/how-to-stop-procrastinating/) is a reporter for the New York Times and author of the bestseller [The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0055PGUYU/ref=as%5Fli%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B0055PGUYU&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20&linkId=ROGPYKPDOY5C7URA). What did he say about fighting procrastination and getting things done? Finishing things isn’t as much of a problem as just getting started in the first place. Here’s Charles: --- > “” --- Maybe getting that cup of coffee is the signal that you’re getting down to business. Or do you have a spot where you’re usually productive? Go there. Wendy Wood, a professor at USC explains how your environment activates habits — without your conscious mind even noticing. Via [Habit: The 95% of Behavior Marketers Ignore](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004LB5J14/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B004LB5J14&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20): --- > “” --- (For more on the fun way to be more successful, click [here](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/09/be-more-successful/).) Some days it just isn’t going to happen. You can’t get going on that #1 task. What should you do when all else fails? ## 5) Use “Positive Procrastination” Yes, procrastination can be a good thing — but it has to be [the right kind of procrastination](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/07/chronic-procrastination/). When do you usually get 1000 things done? _When you’re avoiding that one thing that absolutely terrifies you._ If you know you can’t do that scary thing right now, do not turn to Facebook or video games. Tell yourself it’s okay to avoid it — as long as you’re doing the #2 thing on your to-do list. Dr. John Perry, author of [The Art of Procrastination](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0761171673/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0761171673&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20), explains a good method for using this to trick yourself into massive productivity: --- > “” --- A similar tip is described by Piers Steel, author of [The Procrastination Equation](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005CDTQ1O/ref=as%5Fli%5Fss%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=B005CDTQ1O&linkCode=as2&tag=spacforrent-20): --- > “” --- Dr. Steel says it’s based on sound principles of behavioral psychology: --- > “” --- (To learn a Navy SEAL’s secrets to grit and resilience when things get hard, click [here](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2015/01/grit/).) I know what some of you are saying: _Where are the bullet points? I need bullet points to follow!_ No problem. Here you go: ## Sum Up Here’s what we can put together from listening to all the experts: 1. **Stop reacting.** Get up before the world starts making demands so you can figure out what’s important to _you_. 2. **Decide what matters today.** You won’t get everything done, so what will move the needle? What will let you end the day feeling like you accomplished something? No more than 3 goals. 3. **Use your “magic hours” for those three things.** Your peak productivity time is probably an hour or two after you wake up. If you know your best hours are at another time, fine. Protect your “magic hours.” 4. **Have a starting ritual.** Go to the place where you get stuff done. Get your coffee. Anything that tells your brain it’s time to rock. 5. **When things go sideways, use “positive procrastination.”** If you can’t tackle the _super_ scary thing, do the _pretty_ scary thing. Designating a _super_ scary thing in advance as a decoy can make that _pretty_ scary thing much easier. We’re all trying to achieve [work-life balance](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/03/work-life-balance/). You’re not going to get everything done. But start the day right and you can definitely accomplish what matters. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: --- > “” --- **_This piece originally appeared on_** [**_Barking Up the Wrong Tree_**](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2015/03/morning-routine/)**_._** **Join over 161,000 readers. Get a free weekly update via email** [**here**](http://eepurl.com/o6uAD)**.** Related posts: [6 Hostage Negotiation Techniques That Will Get You What You Want](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2013/06/hostage-negotiation/) [How To Get People To Like You: 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior Expert](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/10/how-to-get-people-to-like-you/) [How To Stop Being Lazy And Get More Done – 5 Expert Tips](http://www.bakadesuyo.com/2014/08/how-to-stop-being-lazy/) _Read next:_ [_Here’s What Needs to Go on Your ‘Stop Doing’ List Immediately_](http://time.com/3636756/stop-doing-list/?xid=time%5Freadnext) [_Listen to the most important stories of the day._](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/?sl%5Fautoplay=true&xid=spl-fullbrief-article) ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] The Nantucket Project. Every year, The Nantucket Project invites leaders from business, sports, academia, government and the arts to give The Talk of Their Lives. Before the weekend ends, our audience singles out one talk from the dozens they're heard as the highest impact. I'm a total junkie for story. I read and write and live by them and every couple of years, I write some down and then I go city to city and read from my books. And over all these years trafficking in story, I've noticed a little problem which is the standard pieces of good story, at least judging by what we teach and also by what we reward most handsomely, can get in the way of reaching of what I consider to be the Mount Everest of human emotions which is to say the very hardest place to get to. But also where the views are sort of life- changing, choose acceptance. And by accept, I mean, when we acknowledge the nature of the beast, and the beast's nature. So, another way to get at it is to look at the antonyms for accept, which are reject, spurn, deny. Another way to get at it is to talk about Temple Grandin, the famous gifted artistic woman who knew early on as did everyone whoever met her that her mind work differently and rather than deny or reject that or try to fix it, she said this is how my mind works and I'm going to work with what I have got. And, as you probably know, she totally revolutionized the way we treat cattle in this country. So I posted, to get sort of real world on this, I posted on my Facebook page what have you had to accept over your lifetime and what happened after you accepted it. And then about ten minutes I got a master's degree in higher order processing. My friends have had to accept multiple sclerosis, brain damage, stage IV ovarian cancer, four types of addiction, losing a father to murder, a mother to suicide. Everything to a fire, a son who has Rett syndrome, a daughter with diabetes, a son who wants to become a daughter. And all manner of ****. [ LAUGH ] Boss, stepfather, ex. Here's a short list of things that we are all invited to accept, over a lifetime. Our childhoods, which include the flaws of our mothers and fathers. And the cruelties of the neighborhood kid, and the prom date. And the coach we thought had our back. Our children and their mysterious insecurities and tattoos and scars and lost potential. And choice in mates. Our spouses and the many thing they do different from us. Ourselves. The deadly sins, all seven of them. The weather, inconvenient or ruthless. And the irreversible trajectory of all human bodies. So clearly acceptance, arduous though it is, is going to be required of us. Thankfully acceptance gives back. In every single response on Facebook the person said that once they actually crossed over. They set loose an internal freedom what they've never known and that created a possibility for a qualitatively different kind of happiness and productivity. I got going on this whole acceptance thing about four or five years ago when I started working on this book, Glitter and Glue, which I thought was going to be about being a nanny but it turned out to be about my mother. Who like to say your father's the glitter but I'm the glue. [ LAUGH ] [ LAUGH ] My mother and I have virtually nothing in common. I am a dance on the table until midnight extrovert. effusive, affectionate, second- guessing, self- doubting woman who like nothing better than a long hug and a good cry. And my mother, do you watch Downtown Abbey? [ LAUGH ] My mother's Maggie Smith. She is an old school opinionated woman who like nothing better than what she calls a party for one. [ INAUDIBLE ] [ LAUGH ] Which sounds a lot more interesting than it is, I assure you. [ LAUGH ] It's when you pour a nice glad of chardonnay over ice. And you take off your bra, and you grab your library book, and go somewhere no one can find. Now, I have a lot of stories about my mom, and I've been telling them my whole life. Like, for instance, she's a chronic regifter. And by regifting, she takes it to a whole new level. Which is to say, if you were to give her anything, like the bag of goodies I got upon arrival, she would open them very gingerly. And then she would write in pencil on the bottom what it was. And then she would take it home and put it in her closet, her gift closet. And then right before Christmas, she sets up what she calls the store. [ LAUGH ] Which is in the upstairs bedroom that's empty. She lays out all the things she's been given over the course of the year. The lotions and the candles and the strange scarves. And, then puts a little price tag on them and she sells them to her children. [ LAUGH ]. [ LAUGH ] So that we can give them to our aunts and uncles and godparents who we've forgotten to buy a gift for. [ LAUGH ] And I asked her if she minded me telling you that and she said, Betty Moran told me re- gifting is green. [ LAUGH ]. But strangely, in the process of thinking her through it takes years to write a book. There's so many rewrites and conversations. I finally stopped trying to change her. To make her more liberal or spendy or outgoing or even to just to get her switch from Folger's coffee crystals to brewed coffee. [ LAUGH ] I understood for the first time that her way of being in the world is the right way for her. And sometimes, when I'm accepting her, it spills over into my ability to embrace the reality of my own children. And even occassionally, my husband. Though not when he packs the dishwasher because in that case, he does it wrong. [ LAUGH ] Life Mount Everest, acceptance is a really hard place to stay. The air is thin. And I find that I keep falling back into the fight for things to conform to how they should and should not be. And I think those expectations are established. by the conscious and subconscious and sometimes totally unconscious pull to narrative. It's glorious arcs and it's promising, reassuring internal logics that, like it or not, life refuses to replicate. So if you think about it, we learn in elementary school and then again in middle school and again in high school, to look for the five part dramatic structure that's underneath all the stories we're consuming. Exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, best of all, denouement, which is a French word that means untie. But my daughter's teacher defined it as the catharsis following, a return to normality. Doesn't that sound fabulous? [ LAUGH ] Then we graduate into the world and we consume and, and produce all kinds of content, literary and cinematic and lyrical. And the world says, you want a winning story. Give me a character I can root for, take him on a journey, and give me a resolution. This goes way back, of course, to Homer and Shakespeare, where certain appetites were created, or maybe just reinforced. For instance, the heroes we love to love are the reluctant nominees like Odysseus. The villains we love to hate are the unseemly power grabbers like Lady Macbeth, which is fine for fiction. The problem is when we start wanting and even expecting real regular people to behave like the archetypal characters we know from our favorite stories. So for a tiny example of narratives influence, in politics the reluctant hero thing goes, if you really want me to run, I will. Nobody ever says I've wanted to be president since I was in kindergarten. In my world, the world of writing, it goes, I didn't hunt down an agent or corner the editor at the party. I was discovered. [ LAUGH ] We lean towards stories of destiny. An organic rise confers authenticity. And that is established or reinforced, or some unholy cycle of the two ,. By story and that might be making it harder to set partners and candidates and colleagues who are staying in this tiny case, a complex mix of ambition and good luck. Speaking of spurning complect, complexity, I was watching cable news in the airport and there were stories about Hillary Clinton and their doctor who performed Joan Rivers' last procedure. And, of course, Roger Goodell. Depending on what channel you watch, they're idiots or prodigies, schemers or innocents. Nobody, it seems, can resist the pull to narrative and that's making for a whole lot of anger and intolerance this isn't much different of course, than the leaders of startups who continually edit their narrative until it seems like one predestined step after another. It's all totally understandable. But these sorts of legendary rises can be fatally dangerous to fledgling inventors and entrepreneurs, who were planning to get to the Holy Land by surface streets instead of rocket ships. Speaking of fatally discouraging, every high school kid I know has bought into this powerful myth. Hero works hard. Hero goes to Yale. Hero has great life, which leaves the community college kids and the kids who worked very hard but got rejected anyway agonizing over the unthinkable fate that awaits them. And God help the heroes who went to Yale and are not having a great life. Most dangerously, though, spontaneous narrative structuring happens, and it happens all the time, between friends. Journalists talk about this thing. It's a tension between truth- telling and something they refer broadly, refer to broadly as civic uplift. Which is sort of shaping the story to give the public what the public needs, especially during times of crisis. I think we might all be participating in casual civic uplifting. It's hyper apparent now, as we all become micro medio, media outlets on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Presenting thin- sliced versions of our lives, mastering the art of the interpersonal headline. It's harmless, or maybe this is why teen depression and anxiety are at record levels. Because their lives are publicly and quantitatively less populated and eventful than @ jennygogo's. And Ryan and his 764 Instagram friends who follow him everywhere. Where long form nuanced interaction is concerned. We're so out of practice, we almost don't know how. I was recently in a room of adults. And a kid was behind us on the floor, making this crazy collage that made no sense. And while some of us are sorta awkwardly struggling to get a conversation going with her, her basketball playing brother came home and everyone spun around and said, did you win? What was the score? The team lost it turns out, because the refs were blind. And voila, we had a villain. Here was a plot we all knew how to discuss. All the while, the already kid noodled on the floor behind us with her amorphous project that nobody knew how to talk about. Speaking of things people don't know how to talk about, I had cancer in my 30s, and it was kind of stunning how many conversations that year included. Was it in your family? You're so brave and what a wake up call. I totally appreciate that it is unbearable for bad things to just happen unbidden. I feel the same way all the time. But the truth is, that after every one of those conversations I felt a little heavy hearted. Like I couldn't give them the civic uplift they were asking for. I don't have the genetic predisposition which would have been a nice first chapter of my story. There's not one heroic thing about me, and though it would have been nice to claim that cancer reprioritized my life, I didn't need a wake up call. I already knew that I was lucky. We do this for a lot of reasons besides the biggie which is our kind of old as time caveman craving for order and reason. One reason is to establish consistency. So we want to feel integrated across the stages and compartments of our lives. I call it the interview effect or the first date effect, which is when you're. Job as Class Secretary in tenth grade led to your Organizational Development Degree at Stanford which led to consulting for the Fortune 500 which led to the creation of your firm. And then you know, look at the pain that's caused by perceived inconsistencies, like gay christians or libertarian artists or philanthropic dopers. Another reason we do it is to suspend reality. I mean who really wants to face an impending financial reckoning? Or deal with a souring marriage? Who wants to say their candidate blew it? Or that some problems cannot be straightened out just by cleaning house? And sometimes we artificially flavor as a means to invention, so we articulate this vision using all the heartening beats of narrative. And it's an essential step in creating something new. We tell our investors and our job candidates and our early adopters the story of how our essential whatever. Emerged organically from a latent need only we could see. But the simplified narratives that we're creating and projecting and consuming, tempt us into forgetting that family, more than the milestone birthdays, is a dicey damn business. And marriage has hardly a thing to do with anniversary dinners. Products often fail and policies usually come up short one way or another. All the Photoshopping, literally and metaphorically, is leaving us feeling ripped off when our heroes have colossal blind spots. When our most important relationships go in circles. And when catharsis, followed by a return to normalcy, is nowhere to be found. I do know a few people who seem to live with a kind of radical honesty, who rarely negate or reject that which makes them uncomfortable. One is my cousin Kathy who lost her 19 year old, the great, but not perfect Aaron Zentgraf in a car accident. She told me once that for many years she asked herself why did this happen and she finally figured it out. It happened because it can. Cars can flip, glass can break, metal can pierce. Seeing that clearly, accepting the unadulterated reality, set her free. So here's a few things that we can do. Check in daily with complex content. Long- form journalist, journalism. I still love The New Yorker but I'm also reading everyday on medium. com. Literary fiction. HBO. Have you seen The Leftovers? [ APPLAUSE ] Yeah! My one person. But that's really com, that is really complex storytelling. To be on guard for the cognitive moment. When people become characters, when a series of events becomes a plot, when endings become tidy. I know that I'm tacking on a [ UNKNOWN ] when I hear myself invoke destiny with lines like, I could have told you from day one, and absolutisms like always, only, everyone. Catharsis is created, not found. Which means, all resolutions, and this is such great news, is of our making. And maybe our best defense against narrative creep, and the unnecessary, and sometimes, even crippling dissatisfaction it can generate. Is to keep at least one confidant on all matters. A real friend, with whom we trade the unadorned truth of our lives. Non- conforming, inconsistent, notably deficient in many areas. That's the shared reality we're being asked to accept and that's the mountain I hope to summit before it's all over. Maybe I'll see you there. 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