Start your day like a farmer

When it comes to having a successful day, there's no silver bullet and I certainly won’t reveal anything revolutionary, but as a farmer I have learned some things over the years that seem to contribute to the success of my day. It can be summed up in three easy steps:

   1. Prep yesterday
   2. Wake up early
   3. Accomplish important tasks by noon

Preparation! I believe any success can be attributed mostly to preparation. Plan as much as you can and set up as much as you can well before it’s time to execute. Some aspects are constant; my alarm will be set, the coffee will be ready to brew, my breakfast will be wrapped up and my clothes will be in a single stack in the closet, ready to go. The fewer the decisions that I have to make and the fewer tasks to get the job done, the better my morning is going to be. For example, if I’m making deliveries than you can bet that yesterday all of the orders were packed, the delivery tickets are in the truck, and the google map link with my pre planned route is in my text messages. If you really want to get serious about having an amazing morning, grab yourself a copy of Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod.

One tool that I should mention that is invaluable to me is Evernote. It can be used on a computer or mobile app and is awesome for planning out the week at the farm, making important lists, saving content that I want to come back to, or just getting ideas out of my head before I forget.

Wake Up Early! As I type this, it’s early in the morning, still dark outside and I’m on the couch watching our son Reed on the floor next to me learn to crawl. He hasn’t been feeling well for a couple of days so he was up a lot last night. Which brings me to a good point and that is that sometimes no matter how we prep for tomorrow, we’ve got a curveball thrown in there and we have to roll with it.

For me, the mornings carry the most possibilities for a productive day. When I get up early, around 4am, I immediately feel that I’m ahead of the crowd. I feel that I’ve made the second step to setting up for a great day. Plus, the majority of people aren’t awake at 4am so the phone isn’t ringing, texts aren’t dinging and there’s no new emails hitting my inbox.

Do it before Noon! When I’m planning my days, I always try to fit everything essential in before noon, especially meetings. This gives me the potential to have the afternoon to do anything I’d like to do or allows for me to catch up if something in the morning didn’t go as planned without rushing because I still have a lot of important items remaining on my list. Of course there are some things that have to wait until the afternoon or late evening logistically but if I plan to have most everything finished up by noon, I almost always have a more productive day. Plus, it gives me time to prep for tomorrow if needed.

Don’t be afraid that all this planning means that you won’t have any fun or freedom. I have found the opposite to be true. I enjoy what I do so planning for the next day can create excitement and anticipation. I’ve found that the more detailed I am in planning and prepping for the week ahead, the more time I have in my schedule.

Do you have morning rituals that you love? Let the GVF Tribe know about them so they can try too!