Do you find that the beginning of your day has a major impact on your whole work day? Have you ever had a real bad start that didn’t want to stop until you finally dropped into bed?
The preparation for a great workday begins in the evening before. The more prep you can do before going to bed, the more stress free your morning become. Now, this doesn’t sound as the most unique tip ever, right? But how many of us do this?
Go to bed early or at least earlier than usual. It is easy to think that you can cut back on sleep. In fact when we have too much on our plates, this might be the first solution we try: let’s burn some midnight oil and get that last pieces of stuff done before we fall in bed. Now this can function for some time, even for weeks. But inevitable the day comes when your body will send you warning signals. Maybe you will find it difficult to fall asleep even if you feel very tired. Or you cannot wake up and sleep in. Or your stress levels explode. Don’t wait until this happens. Respect your sleep and never cut it short except for emergencies.
Get up a few minutes early. If you had enough sleep to replenish your energy, it will be fairly easy to hop out of bed. Did you know that we sleep in 90 minute cycles? If you can time your wake-up at the end of a 90-min cycle, it will be a breeze to wake up the next day. This is how you can easily calculate when you should jump in bed: if you want to wake up at 6am, go to bed at 10:30 pm for getting a good night’s sleep (7,5 hours).
Arrive a few minutes early at the office. Just imagine arriving 5 minutes early instead of 2 minutes late? Do you feel your stress level going down? You ca use the extra 5 minutes to arrive calmly and breathe out when you get to your desk. Maybe making a short action list for the day? Or looking through your projects and making a priority list? Or have a short chat with a co-worker?
Mindful beginnings. Now that you have a few extra minutes in the morning, you can take just 1 minute to be mindful. Take a deep breath, exhale slowly. Then another deep breath. Focus on your body. Breathe in to welcome the day, then breathe out to let all stress flow out of your body. Try this mindful breathing sequence and see the results it bring to your life!
You can repeat the same mindful breathing at lunch break, too. This way you prepare yourself for a stress-less afternoon.
Does your company offer corporate yoga classes at the office? Definitely take advantage of those! And if you don’t have a corporate wellness running at your workplace yet, please talk to the HR staff. Please refer them to this site to learn about the benefits corporate yoga programs offer to all participants!