Podcast: Your Morning Routine
Laura Vanderkam: So, the tasks that are best to do in the mornings are the ones that would be difficult to do in the rest of the day.
Francesca Levy: Laura Vanderkam is an expert on time management, and she’s researched the best way to spend your morning, using real data.
For one of her studies she asked successful people to keep time diaries, and she found that a lot of high achievers did things like exercise, meditation, and creative writing in the wee hours.
I asked her why I didn’t feel more efficient, or productive, or less frazled after making all this effort. Was I doing too much? Not enough?
Laura Vanderkam: It’s really more about saying, “Well, what would help me start my day on a positive note?” Um, and, “Is there something I would really like to be doing in my life that I am not fitting in to the rest of my schedule?”
Uh, so you know, no, you don’t have to wake up at 4 a.m., and run a half marathon, meditate for an hour, you know, cook a breakfast that features kale and quinoa … like, you don’t have to do that sort of thing.
Vocabulary:
time management – the process of organizing and planning how to divide your time between specific activities, “Better time management allowed her to finish her projects early and spend the evening with her family.”
successful people – individuals who have achieved their goals, especially in terms of wealth, status, or fame, “She interviewed several successful people to learn the secrets of their professional growth.”
time diaries – records where a person notes down exactly how they spend every minute of their day, “Keeping time diaries for a week revealed that I was spending three hours a day on social media.”
high achievers – people who are very successful in their work or studies because they are ambitious and well-organized, “Many high achievers credit their success to a strict morning routine.”
wee hours – the very early hours of the morning, usually between midnight and dawn, “The author preferred to write in the wee hours when the house was completely silent.”
efficient – achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense, “The new software made the accounting process much more efficient and saved the company money.”
productive – producing or able to produce large amounts of goods, crops, or other commodities, “I feel most productive after I have had my first cup of coffee in the morning.”
frazzled – feeling completely exhausted, stressed out, or overwhelmed, “After a long day of back-to-back meetings, the manager felt completely frazzled.”
making all this effort – putting a lot of physical or mental energy into achieving a specific goal, “Despite making all this effort to arrive on time, the flight was delayed by four hours.”
positive note – a pleasant or encouraging way to begin or end an experience, “The meeting ended on a positive note with everyone agreeing on the new proposal.”
fitting in – finding enough time or space for something in a busy schedule, “I’m struggling with fitting in a gym session between my classes and my part-time job.”
half marathon – a long-distance running race with a distance of 21.1 kilometers (13.1 miles), “Training for a half marathon requires several months of consistent running.”
features – to include something as an important or noticeable part, “The new cafe features locally grown coffee beans and handmade pastries.”
kale – a type of green leafy vegetable that is considered very healthy, “She added kale to her morning smoothie to increase her vitamin intake.”
quinoa – a protein-rich grain-like seed often used as a healthy alternative to rice, “For a healthy lunch, he prepared a bowl of quinoa topped with roasted vegetables.”
positive momentum – a feeling of progress that makes it easier to keep moving forward and succeeding, “Completing a small task early gives you the positive momentum to tackle bigger projects.”
accomplished – having completed something successfully, “He felt very accomplished after finishing the difficult marathon in under four hours.”
hamster wheel – a repetitive, boring, or exhausting routine that seems to lead nowhere, “She felt trapped in the hamster wheel of corporate life and dreamed of starting her own business.”