8 Actions You Can Take Every Morning to Build Your Side Business Faster When you're working full time while building your business, every minute from the moment you open your eyes has to be used productively.
By Ahmed Safwan Edited by Dan Bova
Our biggest sale — Get unlimited access to Entrepreneur.com at an unbeatable price. Use code SAVE50 at checkout.*
Claim Offer*Offer only available to new subscribers
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Every successful entrepreneur has a morning routine that gets them ahead every day. Here are eight things your morning routine needs to have to help you turn your business idea into reality, especially if you work full-time and have very few hours to spare. As a bonus, I've created a simple cheat sheet to help you get the most out of your morning routine every day.
1. Ignore email and social media.
I know it's obvious, and you've heard it 100 times before, but this is really important. Not only will you waste precious time without even realizing it, but your brain will get used to distraction instead of focus. Don't fill your brain with useless clutter that will distract you for the rest of the day.
Related: Should You Ignore Your Emails or Get Them to Zero?
2. Meditate
Many entrepreneurs say meditation has been a life-changing habit for them. The reason I like to do meditation first thing in the morning is that it helps me increase the focus on what I do afterwards, so you get double the benefits. Also, it will make you aware of yourself throughout the day. You'll start putting your time and energy into making your business idea a reality.
Related: Russell Simmons: 3 Simple Ways Meditation Will Make You a Better Entrepreneur
3. Exercise, even if it's just for a few minutes.
I kept doing exercise for over a year after reading The Miracle Morning. I didn't notice the huge benefit till I stopped doing it for a month. The thing I noticed is that when I do exercise, my blood circulates faster and I'm awake throughout the day.
So don't use time as an excuse to not do exercise. If you have seven minutes, do the seven-minute workout. If you just have one minute, do jumping squats for that minute and that will be enough.
Related: This One Exercise Has Helped Me Build 2 Multimillion-Dollar Companies in Less Than 24 months
4. Use the power of affirmations.
Affirmations are a great tool to help you reprogram your subconscious mind to get it do what you want to do over time without you even noticing. Spend a few minutes in the morning reading affirmations of what you want to be and what you want to achieve. It is great to prepare them beforehand and start reading them in the morning. Here is a list of affirmations you can read in the morning to help you build your business on the side.
Related: Why Affirmations Have Failed You and 4 Steps to Change That
5. Visualize your success.
Before you achieve anything in reality, you need to achieve it in your mind first.
Close your eyes for a few minutes and visualize what your life will be like in a few months when your business is successful and you have enough money to do what you want. Imagine every detail from when you wake up to when you fall asleep, who you hang out with, what you do, how you feel then, and so on.
Visualization is a great way to motivate yourself to help you get through the hardships you face throughout your day and give you extra energy to get more work done.
Related: The Extraordinary Power of Visualizing Success
6. Read a few pages from a book.
If you want to build a business on the side, you will need to learn a lot of skills. Skills related to business management and skills related to time management, productivity, and self-improvement. All it takes is one idea to change your life. So you can spend a few minutes reading a chapter or a few pages of a book to get an idea that could change your business.
Related: How Reading Books Reduces Stress and Makes You Smarter at the Same Time
7. Journal your plan for the day.
After you're done with all the habits above, you can start journaling about how you feel, what you learned from the previous day, or what you learned from what you just read. Write the top five actions you want to take today and make a simple schedule of your day and how you plan to finish these five actions. Journaling is a great way to connect with yourself and hold yourself accountable at the same time. When you write something, you are more likely to achieve it.
Related: Keeping a Daily Journal Can Give You Tremendous Power
8. Work for 90 minutes on 'the frog.'
Your plan is finished and you know what you want to do for the day to move forward. The next step is to spend the next 90 minutes (or hour depending on the time left before you go to work) on the most important task you want to accomplish.
You should still be full of energy at this point full and even more motivated to get to work after you did the visualization exercise. So don't waste it on the mundane. Instead get to work and use your energy and motivation to finish the most important, difficult task of your day -- AKA "the frog" -- to help you achieve your goal.
Your morning is an important part of your day and you can use it to help you reach your goals faster, so don't waste it on meaningless stuff. Every morning is a golden opportunity, so start mining that gold!
