Is a 3AM Wake-Up the Secret to Great Leadership?

[00:00:03] Welcome to the Quick Take Podcast, the show where you get targeted advice and coaching for executives by executives. I'm Susie Tomenchok. And I'm James Capps. Give us 15 minutes and we'll give you three secrets to address the complex topic of issues that are challenging executives like you today. Hey, welcome to Quick Take. I'm one of your hosts, Susie, along with my co-host, James. Hey, James, how are you? Me? Oh, me?

[00:00:31] Whatever. Whatever. Cue talent. That's talent. You know, my agent said I didn't have to do another one. All right. We're going to talk about morning rituals and that was your idea. And I have no, I'm going to just let you run and we'll see where it goes. Over the years, I've constantly seen articles and books and interviews about, you know, what this particular executive does every morning.

[00:00:57] And I, and I think that by and large over the years, they have kind of become a, a trope that the executive gets up at 3 a.m. in the morning and she works out for 14 hours and then makes a loaf of bread and then puts her kids on the bus and then comes back in and reads two books and then goes to her first meeting at eight. Yeah. And then that kind of like baloney. But I do think that there's some really interesting science around having some things that you do in the morning.

[00:01:25] And over the years, I have done a handful of things, but I've just been reevaluating that lately and trying to reestablish some more rigor in my morning because I think it gives me a little more balance. And I thought it'd be an interesting conversation. All right. I think that sounds good. Last week, my phone sits right by my bed and I was getting up and I always grab my glasses and I look at my phone and I, what came to mind was, are you one of those people that looks right at your phone? Like that's not good.

[00:01:52] And so instead of grabbing my phone, I started thinking about what, what do I need to think about, about what I'm facing today that I need to be thoughtful around. So I went to like a presentation of working and I worked through just like laying there.

[00:02:06] I mean, not to be TMI, but I actually worked through a couple of my transitions and I'm thoughtful and I was like, wow, this is super interesting that I didn't just get pulled into my Wordle and then my calendar and all of these things that aren't helpful to me. Shout out to Wordle. They are a sponsor here, so I don't want to give shade. I wish they were. If you know anybody at Wordle, tell them. You know, it's New York Times. James is five.

[00:02:37] James, you could be. That's right. We'll do an entire episode on your starter words. What do your Wordle starter words say about you? All right, we have to do that. But I think you're onto it, which is it's so easy to just jump into our email. And I think email is a reasonable approximation or a proxy for just the grind. Yeah. And what I find is there are a couple of things that I think about doing that I try to do.

[00:03:02] And I've just been lately trying to coalesce them into like a structure so I can be very consistent in that. To your point, one of the things that I've done for a long time is I've not kept my phone next to my bed. I keep it far away. I can, it'll obviously, you know, give me up if emergency happens. But, you know, I am, especially at a hotel that doesn't have an alarm clock, which most don't, the phone is next to my bed. And I do, I find myself in bed doing email. And I'm like, this is not healthy.

[00:03:31] And so, you know, I guess part of my ritual is to keep me from falling down that rabbit hole as I keep my device out of arm's reach. I like that idea. I have to do that in hotels because that forces me to remember where I am. To get up. Forces me to get up. Oh. Because a lot of times I'm on a different time zone and I'm tired and it's easy for me to go back to sleep and it worries me. Sure. Whatever works for you. But yeah.

[00:03:57] It's super interesting to think about just a little shift can make you a lot more mindful and intentional because you're right. I think when we get really busy and we have too many priorities, we do what we feel like makes us feel like we're getting, we're making progress. Progress immediately. And looking at your emails makes you feel like you're, okay, I understand. You're on top of it. I'm going to get this through.

[00:04:20] And sometimes I always tell people when I'm talking about pressure and priorities is I'll be just working on a presentation. All of a sudden I'm shopping on my phone. Like, how did that happen? And it's because your brain needs to have this progress. And that can start really early in the morning and then think about how that sets you up for the rest of the day. Right. Right.

[00:04:43] And I find that when I follow, you know, these, these other couple of things that I do, I actually feel like I got more done because I didn't jump in. I was able to level set. I was able to, you know, in my mind, it's I'm doing something good for me versus responding to that inane email, which could have been addressed 15, 20 minutes later. And so, you know, one of the other things I like to do is I, although I kind of made fun of it earlier is I do like to read something that is kind of just different.

[00:05:13] That gets my brain thinking differently. Oh, I like that. And lately I've been reading, what I do is I read a chapter out of this book, which. Of Titans. Yeah. Tim Ferriss is not a sponsor. No, that James is holding a book. A book, that whole book. Called Tools of Titans. And this book is, you know, Tim's number one or number top five podcasts in the world. And so hardly a humble brag there. But the book is really interesting.

[00:05:38] And I think what's interesting about this book is it's a series of, gosh, 500 interviews with 500 different people. And there's a two pager on each one. And it's about what they do. And I love reading what, you know, the lead singer of Linkin Park does every morning. Mike Shinoda versus what Bill Gates does. Or not every morning, but just what their thoughts are. And it helps me think about just something different. And what I find is so fun is that I just randomly pick a page.

[00:06:06] I mark the pages I've read, the sections I've read. It's just almost like the universe says, here's the thing you need to hear today. Yeah. And it's not like I need to read 50 pages. I don't need to read the Wall Street Journal. But you know what? My brain is open. I'm open to the moment. And I get something out of it every single day. And that, I think, is a big deal because it does allow me to think differently and grow and change the way that I look at things. And so just that one five-minute vignette there makes a difference for me.

[00:06:35] I like the idea that it's not something that feels overwhelming. Yes. That's a huge part of it. That's a huge change. You're saying, explore something that is interesting to you. Don't necessarily go buy the book, the Titans book. Yeah. Find something that is interesting to you and give yourself five minutes. Right. Yeah. That's it. Well, I'm going to read for an hour every day. That's daunting. And I respect that. And if you do that, then that's great.

[00:07:04] You know, baby steps, frankly. I also work out and I try to do that every day because I do, I think it gets my brain to do something else. Whether it's, you know, yoga is my go-to if I can, because that's the most brain shutty offy thing I can think of. But it is about making sure that I do have, again, a gap between what needs to get done for the day and what needs to get done for me. So I'm going to go back to what you said about how entrepreneurs think that you get up at three and you do this and you do that.

[00:07:34] What we're saying is just look at your morning routine and what makes sense to you. And like I work out too. And what I realized is when I don't have, like if I don't have my first meeting till nine, I will back time my workout. And that doesn't always work for me because I'm more motivated the earlier I get on my workout. Yeah, yeah. So I've stopped allowing myself to back time that.

[00:08:01] I do my whatever, the quick rituals and then I get to my workout. Right. Because I'm more likely to be engaged there. Sure. So for me, I'm just saying that I looked at what is motivating, what doesn't motivate me. And I shifted the timing of that so that I would have a better flow. And then I'm not racing to the meeting because I'm not like trying to get. It takes me a lot longer to get ready than you.

[00:08:28] And so that back time is really important. And then it allows me to flow into it. Like look at the tension that you create in your own schedule because for me, it's back timing. What am I doing? Right. And I'm making myself rush into my day. No, I think that's huge. And it's about having those things work together in harmony, have them be part of your ritual of your day and not squeezing them in.

[00:08:55] Because I think if you, I think that's why it's so good for me to do those in the morning. You know, I think my brain is better if I get a workout in. And I feel like I feel better. If I get my heart rate above 130, I'm a very much a different person after that. It's just an interesting element. I think there's some, there is also a huge school of thought around journaling. And I think that, you know, I've dabbled with that.

[00:09:18] I've done that off and on over the years where I think that that also gives you a moment of clarity, gives you a separation from what you have going on. And I think that's what it comes down to is giving you a gap between your sleep and your full speed. And I think easing into it, I guess, is the takeaway adds a lot of value to your day. I think the other aspect of this is pay attention to when you have your best brain work. Oh, yeah. That's a really great point.

[00:09:48] Because I have a friend who would work out in the morning and she realized that that was when she got a lot more done in terms of her creativity. And she enjoyed that. And then she shifted her workout to the afternoon when she was, didn't have a lot of energy. That doesn't work for me, but that works really well for her. And so I think also being aware of your ups and downs, like sometimes I can be tired and I realize I'm not being productive.

[00:10:17] So either I will sometimes go take a 15 minute nap or I'll go take a walk because if not, I'm just keeping myself busy to feel productive, but I'm not really, I'm wasting time. Well, you know, it comes to mind. I know a lot of our listeners are athletes and it's like, it's doing the workout, but not having good form. Right? Yeah. You can do it. Right? I can do the run.

[00:10:42] But if I'm not running, if I've got an injury and it's not good or if I'm lifting weights and I don't have good form in the motion or anything else, it's just not a real workout. So, you know, take a step away. Break that cycle. Don't work out for the sake of working out. Don't work for the sake of working. Take a step away. And I think that's a, that's a huge, huge win.

[00:11:05] You know, what I keep in mind for me is when I used to go to the workout club and people would be on the stair stepper, but they'd have their arms straight. So they'd be holding their body weight up. So they weren't. So, and you wanted to go up to them and go, why are you not doing your time? You're not even like, and so don't make sure you're not just checking a box. Make sure that you're really thoughtful about your schedule, what works for you. And take a moment to investigate that.

[00:11:33] Maybe some of these ideas are something that you want to try, but just be aware of what works for you and just do that. Make shifts. Experiments. Yeah, exactly right. Take a look. Try a morning ritual. See what works for you and let us know. We'd love to hear if implementing a morning ritual makes a difference. This is good. I'm going to think about this and I will report back if I move my phone. Okay. I'm going to ask you. Okay.

[00:12:00] Thanks for listening to this week's episode of Quick Take, where we talk about the questions that are on the minds of executives everywhere. Connect with us and share what's on your mind. You can find us on LinkedIn, YouTube, or whatever nerdy place on the internet you find your podcasts. All the links you really need are in the show notes. Thank you.