I have a productivity ritual and set of habits I follow most mornings to get my ready to be productive and I wanted to share them. I live in the Eastern Time Zone while most of my coworkers work from the Central Time Zone. Because we work remotely, I have a set of rituals that I follow that I believe replace my commute and office arrival with more productive activities. In the before days (before COVID), I would drive about 20 minutes, sometimes grabbing a breakfast sandwich on the way. When I got to the office, I would get the lights turned on, set up my workspace, and make some coffee. This was a very natural set of events that I followed 4-5 days a week without much deviation.

Now that I am working from home, I have a new set of rituals and habits to get my workday started. I’m up, bathed, and ready to work by 8AM. I walk down to my office and get my computer booted up and then I go get my caffeine and make see the kids off to the bus stop by 8:45. Some mornings I make some fresh orange juice or other goodies and try to get the day off on the right foot. Then the kids leave for the bus.

Now, I get down to business. First thing in the morning, before I check my Kanban, I like to go through a set of productivity “stretches” that I will share here. First, I like to get started with a few online typing exercises. I usually use Typing Practice, but I change it up here and there. I feel like this helps me get acclimated to my keyboard and ready to write code, message coworkers, and write emails with a minimum of errors. Our coaches always made us stretch first, right? Next, I check Project Euler, Code Wars, and Code Golf for an interesting brain teaser. Some days I complete the challenge, some days I don’t. I don’t put much pressure on myself at this stage, I just want to stretch my coding, math, and analysis muscles to get ready for the morning. Finally, I check StackOverflow to see if I can test myself by answering or commenting helpfully on another user’s question(s). I don’t necessarily do all of these thinsg every morning. I don’t put any pressure on myself. I just want to start my day positively and give myself an edge for the day.

Now, I am ready to check my Kanban and emails by 9:15. Is this the right start for everyone’s morning? Maybe… Probably not. It works for me. It makes me feel productive and ready to work first thing in the morning and gives me a chance to drink my caffeine and get the early morning brain fuzz worked out.

I do believe that everyone should have some amount of routine, ritual, or habit in their workday to get your day started. The thing about a ritual is that it doesn’t have to take long. I enjoy the beginning of my day. I don’t usually feel very productive first thing and I feel like this gets the day off on the right foot. After my morning ritual, I am ready to tackle my work and I feel more productive overall. I encourage you to find a way to get your day off on the right foot.

What’s going on right now/

What I’m building right now:

🚧 Using Go to solve problems at Project Euler to learn mathematics and data using Go instead of Python

What I’m drinking right now:

🍺 Sierra Nevada Pale Ale

What I’m reading right now:

📚 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

What I’m watching right now:

📺 It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia

What I’m playing right now:

🎮 Marvel Snap 🎮 Pokemon Unite

What I’m Learning right now:

🎓 The electric guitar 🎸 movable chords and power chords.
🎓 nvim
🎓 GoLang
🎓 AWS Certified Solution Architect Certification