Productivity is arguably one of the most sought after skills of the 21st century. Ground-shaking entrepreneurs like Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Larry Page have all been accorded with this amazing quality. There are many studies about their lifestyles and how they stay productive consistently. All the tips that will be mentioned here will mirror the lifestyle and daily routines of all these amazing entrepreneurs.

It is often said that what happens in the first few hours determines how the rest of the day goes. Many articles have been written about morning routines while few to none about the afternoon or evening routine. If you can take control of your morning, you can be certain of a productive day.

Emphasis on the morning routine can never be overemphasized because "Achievements lead to more achievements." We all get fired up when we get things done. The struggle often is to get the first thing on the list done and once that is achieved, it's a spiral of productivity.

This article is targeted to help anyone of any class achieve productivity in all aspects of life, be it academics, sports, business, and so on. Five tips to consider, and following some or all will ensure a good kick-start to your day.

Visualize And Plan

A productive day starts the night before. Many people are robbed of a productive lifestyle because of how they sleep. Some bad sleeping habits include nodding off while pressing phones or watching movies. Another is sleeping in the wrong place which is a result of working or doing something unnecessary.

When you're in your bed, ready to sleep, you should turn off all devices and focus on how to fall asleep real quick. This is where visualization comes in. Visualization is filling your mind with the joy of accomplishing all your goals for the next day. A study has shown how very effective this is. Because you'll wake up with such great motivation.

Definitely, before you go to bed, you should plan how every hour should go. This prevents you from all forms of mental stress. Many are unproductive because they don't know what to do when they wake up. Once you have it planned and visualized, you're set on the road to productivity.

Good Sleep-time

Some people have the notion that highly productive people sleep for very little hours at night, and stay awake almost throughout the day. That couldn't be farther from the truth. I read Elon Musks' documentary some time ago. It was written by Ashlee Vance. In his book, He explained how Musk sleeps for 8 hours every day, often between 11 pm and 7 am.

I'm certain that many readers of this article have once put an alarm off due to very short nights. Waking up tired slows productivity. A few people only can overcome that tiredness and still get things done.

As said earlier, your morning routine really matters to your productivity and once the first hour is misused or not accounted for, you tend to lose all the zeal to put yourself together and get things done. If you want to wake up early, then you should sleep early. Never try to cut corners, else, you risk having a non-productive day. Sleeping 8 hours a day is highly recommended.

Early Morning Hygiene And Exercise

Health is supposed to be both a long term and short term goal but the focus of this article will be on its short term goal as it relates to productivity. When you wake up in the morning, the first thing to do is to drink water. As simple as this is, many people forget to drink water, and this not just harming their health, but also affecting their productivity.

Drinking water is important because you've probably had 8 hours or longer period of dehydration and this feeling often makes one sluggish at the start of the day, therefore, one should drink water. Drinking water immediately after you wake up kick starts your metabolism and gets you ready for the day.

Exercise, on the other hand, is a popular option but even as popular as it is, many don't do it. Exercise gives you the energy and boost to get your day going. With just 25 minutes, one can experience a great boost from exercise. Among many, one major thing exercise does is that it gives you an early sense of achievement which influences the rest of your day.

Coffee

Well, the American work ethic has relied on the power of coffee for decades and it has never disappointed. Coffee has been roped in a lot of bad raps but the truth remains the truth. Coffee is associated with more good than harm and its benefit to society at large is phenomenal.

Research has shown that people feel very alert when they drink coffee and this is a great advantage especially for those that don't like mornings. Claims like the high risk of mortality of people drinking coffee have been debunked and the truth about its benefits has been upheld. So pour yourself some early morning coffee and your brain will thank you for it.

Discipline

This is the last and obviously not the least. Almost everything discussed earlier revolves around this. There's one amazing quote by Jim Kwik; "Common sense is not common practice." People make a lot of plans and end up doing nothing and it's all because they lack discipline.

The first thing to know is that discipline can be cultivated so you don't have to beat yourself up that you're not disciplined. Developing this habit might take quite a while but it is worth it. One question that precedes the development of the habit is "how serious are you about your goals?" Once this question is rightly answered, you will go for it.