Rock your Mornings with Your Inner Nerd and Rule Your Day

You feeling like A Greek Olympian after Rocking the Morning

Every year it becomes more apparent that life is less about the big moments (though those are great), but mostly comprised of the accumulation of small daily moments. The more you can take control of those small moments - and harness wasted minutes - the more of a big difference you can make with the overall direction of your life. But the hard part is convincing yourself of this in the moment. It's much easier to believe that those five minutes you just blew watching cat videos really didn't matter. But it does. You can never get that back. Ever. So how do you make the most of every moment of the day?

For me it always starts with the morning. And be warned - this post is about to get really nerdy. I fully confess this. But don't get caught up in how nerdy I am - because I know you can be too. Instead, think about how this applies to you and your inner nerdiness to become a more productive and focused person that wins the day right from the start. I write out a ton here because I've been thinking on this for a while now - in fact I wrote the first draft of this post almost two years ago.

Here's the premise that I'm operating from: As the morning goes, so goes the day. If I can get a jump on it and start the day right - my day almost always goes better. Early morning discipline feeds the fire and makes me hungry to make the most of the day. Now - here's how this SPECIFICALLY looks for me. Here's what works for me the way I'm wired. And it is super nerdy - so hang on.

Mornings and Greek Study

One of my goals after seminary was to keep up with the biblical languages, especially since languages were one of the main reasons I attended seminary (One well known theologian encouraged me in this direction when he said, "Those that know the languages are making the decisions.") Too many Seminary graduates lament that their language skills have slid to the wayside, dead as the language itself.

Initially I did pretty well at this, alternating between reading Greek one morning and Hebrew the next. But then some major projects hit and all the seemingly marginal things like language study began to get squeezed out of life. But now over the last few years I've tried to be more intentional to bring this habit back. Why this particular habit? This incredibly NERDY habit? Seemingly-disconnected-from-any-practical-realities-of-most-of-the-modern-world kind of habit?

Because this is a "Trigger" habit for me. James clear, when he teaches on how to develop new habits, talks about the importance of a "trigger" that gets you going. The habit that really gets my whole day going is studying Greek in the morning. And one thing I know to be true of myself - as the morning goes, so the day goes. So much of my life flows out of the study and reading time I build into the day. It's always easy to let this slide because the immediate impact is not always noticeable. I can't always draw a straight line from studying Greek in the morning and the work I do the rest of the day. But it's the daily habit and discipline that makes the man. Plus I just love it. It's extremely interesting to me.

I've come to realize that this really is THE creative spark in my life. When I do this one thing - other ideas just start spinning off from my mind unlike anything else I do. So it's not just the study of Greek - I honestly hardly ever repurpose a specific insight from that study session to the rest of the day (though the best insights almost always show up somewhere later). But it's what spins off from that time, the resulting creativity, energy, and self-confidence that comes from that time that makes it so valuable. It's really like my daily mental workout - and I'm trying to build up stamina over time.

It's also a domino activity. If I don't read greek, more than likely I won't read theology or philosophy in the morning. Starting out by skipping this one activity means I'll likely let discipline fall in many other areas as well. Sometimes I can recover and reset the day later on, but it's rare.

So once I realized how important the study of Greek was to me and how central it was to so many other things in my life, I wanted a plan to get back into it again. The following two critical insights  helped me get this going again. Disclaimer: a number of ideas in this article come from a variety of articles I've read over the years from Tim Ferriss and James Clear. I do reference some of the articles - but not enough. Dig into their stuff for more background info.

1. The importance of removing barriers to new habits: If you want to build a new habit, or restore an old one, start it by making the barrier to entry so small that you can't not do it. (See step two in this article). So for instance, if you want to do pushups, start your goal with just doing one pushup per day. Just one. You can't not do that. It's too easy to not do it.

For me, once I got honest with myself and acknowledged that I had let the habit of studying ancient languages die, I had to do some analysis and come up with a plan to get going again. I already knew I liked to read Greek, and I already knew I liked the habit, but I had to decide between Greek and Hebrew for now to lower the barrier of entry. I'd like to keep them both up, but one is better than none. I was trying to do both and doing neither, so for now I'm focusing on Greek.

The other piece was the entry level. What amount of time should I shoot for that would ensure I did it? Was it something really short like 1 minute? No - I had been studying for 45 minutes to an hour. I could do more than 1 minute. After some thought it seemed that 20 minutes was a good starting point. My bigger goal for the mornings is 1 hour of total study (including reading in theology and philosophy), but if I get going with 20 minutes of Greek study, I'll likely keep rolling for the full hour. But if I don't go a full hour - as long as I get that 20 minutes of Greek study, I get probably 80% of the benefits of what a full hour would bring.

2. The other was understanding the costs of decisions. The theory goes that every decision you make over the course of a day has a cost. It takes something from your ability to make decisions. So the less decisions you make earlier in the day, and the more you can automate your morning, the more likely you are to dive right into a routine and not let other things distract you. Some disagree with this theory - saying the more better decisions you make the more energy you get. I can see both sides to this. Especially if you are making good decisions that have a positive payoff. That will definitely give you energy! But it seems to me the more decisions you have to struggle through, the more energy it costs you. Those are the kind of decisions you want to avoid in the mornings.

Here are two ways I try to avoid having to make any decisions in the morning that might inhibit getting started:

In a best case scenario I lay out all of my study material on my desk in the fashion that I need the night before. There are quite a few materials I use: notebook for writing out translations and study notes, NASB Bible or Synopsis of Four Gospels when studying gospels, Greek Bible, Sake Kubo Lexicon, 3 sharpened pencils, flashcards. Setting them out the night before seems to set my mind on the importance of completing the task the following morning. The last step is always sharpening the pencils and this seems to have become a bit of a ritual - the last thing to do before turning out the lights. The rest of my desk has to be clean and orderly as well so as to avoid any distractions.

Thanks Mom for the "Here We Stand" mug.

The important part of this nightly routine is that it builds anticipation for the morning. When everything is laid out, it feels like it's waiting on me to show up, anticipating my arrival. And I go to bed thinking about it - excited to get up in the morning.

The other way is with a "morning ritual" notebook I keep where I've outlined exactly how I'll study in the morning. It lists out each book I'll read and for how long and in what order, thus taking away the element of needing to make that decision each morning. It sounds like a little thing, and maybe a little nerdy? (of course it is - that's the point of this post) but I've found that if I sit down at my desk in the morning first thing without a plan, I'm more likely to waste time trying to figure that out. By this practice I've made this decision in advance and don't have to think about "now what book do I want to read next?" - which - at my house can be an overwhelming decision!

What's Your Thing?

So this post isn't about the importance of studying Greek. But it's about doing that one thing you need to do to get your day going. What is it for you? What is that thing that gets you so pumped up to get up in the morning and get going? The thing that when you do it it makes ALL the difference in your day - and no matter what other people say or do, you know this about yourself that you are wired this way? Is it running? Lifting weights? Reading? Painting or drawing? Prayer? Coffee? You likely know what it is already - but you've probably found that it can easily be squeezed out of your morning by much less important things. You likely already know yourself. Peter Drucker says this about effective adults and their strengths:

By the time one has reached adulthood, one has a pretty good idea as to whether one works better in the morning or at night. One usually knows whether one writes best by making a great many drafts fast, or by working meticulously on every sentence until it is right. One knows whether one speaks well in public from a prepared text, from notes, without any prop, or not at all. One knows whether one works well as a member of the committee or better alone – or whether one is all together unproductive as a committee member. Some people work best if they have a detailed outline in front of them; that is, if they have thought through the job before they started. Others work best with nothing more than a few rough notes. Some work best under pressure. Others were better if they have a good deal of time and can finish the job long before the deadline. Some are "readers," others "listeners." All this one knows, about oneself – just as one knows whether one is right-handed or left-handed.

He does not pretend to be someone else. He looks at his own performance and his own results and tries to discern a pattern. "What are the things," he asks, "that I seem to be able to do with relative ease, while they come rather hard to other people?" One man, for instance finds it easy to write up the final report while many others find it a frightening chore. At the same time, However, he finds it rather difficult and unrewarding to think through the report and face up to the hard decisions. He is, in other words, more effective as a staff thinker who organizes and lays out the problems that has the decision-maker who takes command responsibility.

These are not the things most people have in mind when they talk about the strengths or weaknesses of a man. They usually mean knowledge of a discipline or talent in an art. But temperament is also a factor in accomplishment and a big one. An adult usually knows quite a bit about his own temperament. To be effective he builds on what he knows he can do and does it the way he has found out he works best. (Effective Executive, p. 96-99)

Night Nite

Want to have a great morning? Back it up a step further and think about the night before. If you want to get up early - you have to go to bed early. But there are so many distractions that keep one awake artificially. Our family does a couple of things to help end the evening well and set us up to win in the morning.

We've started turning off wifi and internet at night, which helps everyone go to sleep faster and reduces the temptation to hop on youtube in the morning. Sure we could use data to watch videos, but we're both too cheap to eat up cell phone data that way - so it's enough of a barrier to keep us off of phones. Have a set time to do this and try to stick to it. Also make your bedroom as dark as possible. So avoid screens once you get in your bedroom. Take the TV out of your bedroom! Get a really good sleep mask too. Quality sleep is as important as quantity. Don't have caffeine of any kind after 2 or 3pm. Even if you think "it doesn't affect me" - it does. You've just become so hyper juiced on caffeine that you're not aware of how it affects you anymore. Try to go a couple of days without caffeine and see how you feel. You will think an elephant is stomping on your head. Every bit of caffeine in your system affects your sleep. Even if you can go to sleep quickly, you won't sleep as well or as deeply.

Speaking of coffee...

A Cup of Coffee Made Many Novels

Anthony Trollope produced 47 novels and 16 other books over the course of his 33 years as a civil servant at the general post office. He said he was able to accomplish all of this by writing for three hours in the morning in a very disciplined fashion. But he said the key component to him being able to write in the morning was this one very simple thing.

It was my practice to be at my table every morning at 5:30 AM; and it was also my practice to allow myself no mercy. An old groom, whose business it was to call me, and to whom I paid 5 pounds a year extra for the duty, allowed himself no mercy. During all those years… He never was once late with the coffee which it was his duty to bring me. I do not know that I ought not to feel that I owe more to him then to anyone else for the success I have had. By beginning at that hour I could complete my literary work before I dressed for breakfast. (from Daily Rituals, p24).

A.T. looking like he's not yet had said cup of morning coffee

Trollope's one simple trick, the seemingly little thing that kept him motivated to write at a feverish pace (forcing himself to produce 250 words every 15 minutes), was paying a guy to deliver him coffee at the exact same time every day.

I heard another lady, a New York Magazine Exec, say the key to her working out everyday was to pay a cab driver to show up at the same time everyday and wait on her. The way she was wired - she knew the guilt of keeping someone waiting was just enough to force her to get out of bed and get going.

What's Your Trick? 

What's that one thing that makes all the difference in your day? What's the thing that gets you doing the one thing you need to do? Or, what's the reason why you don't always do the thing you want to do? Is there something that inhibits you? Write it down and figure out how to eliminate that obstacle. I'm surprised by how small the thing can be at times that sets the whole day behind. And conversely, how sometimes one little thing can get the whole day moving the right direction. For me the trigger habit behind the morning habit is organizing my desk the night before. It's that one step. I know if I do that - everything else will follow.

Why is all of this important? I rarely hear someone say, "Hey - there's nothing that gets my day going like email and social media. That just really jazzes me up and sets me up to win." No in fact it's almost always quite the opposite. Yet how many people default to this right out of the gate?

You can't merely have your morning desire in mind. You also have to have a plan. Take charge of your day and start it right and no longer allow yourself to be a slave to your bad habits.