take excellent care of the front end of your day and the rest of the day will pretty much take care of itself on your morning elevate your life robin sharma for most of us waking up at 5 a.m sounds completely unappealing most of us would rather spend more time in bed in the mornings and not force ourselves to wake up earlier than we have to but what if i told you waking up at 5am was the key to success in robin sharma's book the 5am club he uses a story to illustrate his belief that rising
early is the key to productivity and success the story follows a billionaire who has decided to mentor a struggling artist and an entrepreneur the first thing that he decides to teach the artist is the importance of winning the morning how do you win the morning you ask the first concept is the victory hour waking up at 5am is no good if you waste time until 7 or 8 am not doing anything productive sharma presents a planned 20-20-20 structure for the time between 5 a.m and 6 a.m if you nail this hour everything in your day
afterwards has an easier time falling into place as you might have guessed the 20 20 20 breaks down the hour into three phases the first pocket from 5 to 5 20 is all about moving this can be a quick cardio workout yoga or some weight lifting the point is to get your heart rate up sweat and to get your body releasing cortisol immediately upon waking morning exercise gets us into the perfect cognitive state pocket 2 5 20 to 5 40 reflect write down what you need to accomplish in the day ahead or journal about anything
that is on your mind or troubling you practice meditation this 20 minute block is all about focusing and thinking clearly in the last pocket from 5 40 to 6 am the last 20 minutes of the victory hour focuses on learning read a book listen to a podcast or study a topic that currently interests you use this time to get your brain kicked up into high gear two things that we do want to avoid when we are starting the 20 20 20 though if waking up at 5 am means that you'll only be getting a few
hours of sleep you need to look at your evening routine as well to make sure that you're getting a good six to eight hours of sleep as the saying says you can't burn the candle at both ends also 20 20 20 is not a hard and fast rule it's just a starting point if you do better with half an hour of exercise and only 10 minutes of reflection do that instead if you need to read a book or do your reflection before you exercise do that customize this routine to your personality just try to get
each of the sections completed the next concept we look at is habit protocol the author uses the taj mahal as a perfect example for a habit creation and cultivation practice the taj mahal took 20 years to complete but with a little will power and a lot of consistency the building was finally finished your habits will be the same you will need a little will power to get them started and a lot of consistency to make them to the point where they're automatic when they are automatic this is the stage where it becomes part of your
routine and you no longer have to think about it we have done several videos on books that deal with habits so feel free to dive deeper into this subject with those great resources the author's next concept is the four focuses successful people tend to focus better than the average people not only that they tend to focus on key areas these four focus areas are as follows the first capitalization focus we each have certain gifts that we are born with that will come naturally to us if we allow them to this doesn't happen automatically though we
must search for them and cultivate these talents before they can really help us succeed focus 2 eliminating distractions in the world of social media it is easier than ever to be distracted unless you carefully set your smartphone it can buzz with notifications almost constantly throughout the day eliminating distractions and being able to focus on only a few important tasks is the second focus of the successful focus three personal mastery hate to break it to you but you will never be perfect you will always be a work in progress sharma recommends focusing on what he calls
the four interior empires the first mindset is your self-talk two your heart set is your emotions three health set is your physical fitness and four your soul set contemplation and meditation on who you are the fourth focus day stacking this focus is where the victory hour shows up focus on creating great days and making each day better than the last one habits and consistency will lead you to success not bursts of short-lived motivation the last concept focuses on 10 tactics for lifelong genius the first tactic is creating a tight bubble of focus find or create
a place to work that allows productivity and creativity one that is free of distractions or negative energy a place that makes focus easy two the 1991 rule for the next 90 days spend the first 90 minutes of your workday on the single most important project in your life nothing else is worked on or given thought to during this time 3 the 6010 method after your 90 minutes is spent on your number one project break the rest of your workday into chunks of 60 minutes of work followed by 10 minutes of relaxation number four the daily
five what are the five things that you can achieve each day write them down and then cross them off as they are completed number five the second wind workout when your work day is complete give yourself a 30 minute to an hour workout to catch a second wind this doesn't have to be strenuous something like a long walk is perfect number six two massages schedule two massages a week can't make that happen or don't like massages schedule two activities a week that you enjoy outside of your normal structure this could be coffee with a friend
or a nice lunch both are good examples number seven traffic university if you commute use this time for podcasts or audio books rather than normal radio advertisements and their idle chit chat number eight the dream team find build or create a team around you that can help you work on tasks that don't need your specific attention delegate away business work and focus on the important stuff that only you can do number nine weekly design system spend time on sunday giving your work week a general outline plan your 1991 and your 61 sessions as well as
things like your two massages your second wind workouts and chores errands or meetings and number 10 daily learning spend at least 60 minutes each day learning the best way to keep your brain young and sharp is to spend time each day challenging it to grow and learn something new remember take excellent care of the front end of your day and the rest of the day will pretty much take care of itself own your morning elevate your life just like other books on morning routines our key takeaway from the 5 am club is to set up
a well thought out morning routine to get yourself out of bed awake and into a mindset of to be productive the victory hour is a perfect place to start customizing your own plan like our summaries want to see your favorite book quote or article animated leave your ideas in the comments below and while you're down there hit that thumbs up button to like the video and make sure to subscribe so you can watch our future animations when they're published