“Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise” – Ben Franklin, famously
There’s nothing new about women achieving the heights of success in almost every field. But this journey to the top is not easy and theres a lot that goes into paving the way to success. It is said that "a thousand mile journey starts with a single step".
For every successful journey, it’s the start that is important. The one commonality amongst successful people around the world is, the way they kick start their mornings. It was for this reason that we got you the perfect formula to "Rise and Shine" a few weeks ago. Most successful people including doctors, sportspersons, presidents and business- persons around the world cherish their mornings and dedicate the major part of their success to their morning routines.
When it comes to women the case is not much different but much tougher. Women have always been setting examples in how they maintain their family and work life balance. Handling their families, kids, and household responsibilities along with the professional pressures is no joke - and yet we multi-taskers do this with considerable ease.
As per recent research on some top women, suggests that they are able to handle all this successfully because they start their day early.
Each one of them has their own rituals in the mornings that keeps them going, through the day. To have a great day you need to have a great start, a great morning. In the words of author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins, "an hour of power every morning is a must to have a great start".
Routines help you reduce stress as when your day is planned and managed, you exactly know what to do and when, and hence your efficiency and consistency is improved.
According to recent Forbes article about top 12 women, they all heed to strict morning routines. Being on the top in their industry, they strictly follow their regular schedule. They wake up at 6:00 am on average and most of them being married and mothers have additional responsibilities too.
If they can, then so can we. It’s just that you need to focus on what would be your priorities for the day. That’s it and you are sorted! Whatever comes your way, you're ready to face.
Let’s have look at the daily morning routines (source: Forbes) of some of the top ladies of their industry:
1. Noel Bailey Merz, The Doctor
5:40 Out of bed, a hold-over from driving kids to 6am workouts and never changed the habit.
5:45 Exercise and shower
6:30 Breakfast with husband
7:15 Drive to medical center, 30-45 minutes depending on traffic. Frequent conference call with hands-free in the car. Otherwise listen to NPR (Three stations in the LA area so I can avoid fundraising drives as an annual subscriber.)
Noel Bairey Merz, MD, FACC, FAHA is the Director, Preventive Cardiac Center, Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.
2. Stacey Bendet, The Designer
4:45 Wake up and have a bowl of quinoa cereal. I do an hour or so of 3rd or 4th series ashtanga yoga.
6am My little ladies wake up and I make their breakfast—green milk (almond milk with coconut water, banana and steamed baby spinach) and either whole wheat French toast or pancakes. I usually run downstairs to get dressed while they eat and then I get them dressed and do their hair.
8am We leave the house and I drop them off at school on my way to work.
8:45 I’m at the office. I spend the first hour by myself working on design ideas for the day.
3. Leslie Hale, The CFO
6:30 Wake up and express in prayer how thankful I am to have woken up that day because someone went to sleep that night and didn’t wake up.
6:35 Mentally walk through my priorities for the day. (family priorities, then work)
6:45 Head down to the home gym for a workout and watch Squawk Box.
7:15 Wake the kids and give/get lots of kisses and talk to them about what they are going to do that day.
7:30 Get dressed while continuing to watch Squawk Box.
8:15 Head to the office and listen to local news on the radio.
8:30 Skim the newspaper (WSJ).
8:45 Send at least two networking notes, a follow up note or a new connection note.
9:00 Write down the priorities for the day. I have to get all the mental notes that have been piling up in my mind since I woke up on paper before I forget.
9:30 Start working on that list.
Leslie Hale is the CFO and Executive Vice President of RLJ Lodging Trust
4. Keri Glassman, The Nutritionist
5:45/6:00 Alarm goes off. I am usually very fast to get up and out. Go to kitchen and pour myself large glass of water and add a lemon wedge. Take my supplements. Turn coffee pot on – on a good morning I already put the coffee in the night before.
Go to the computer and usually edit one or two items. I do my best thinking in the morning so I save these for the early morning. Then I move on to the kids scheduling. Did I respond to so and so’s mom that yes Maizy could play that day, did I make sure to tell the soccer coach that Rex had a dentist appointment?
6:45 I pour my coffee and make breakfast and then sit by myself in my living room. Sometimes with the Post or WSJ, sometimes the news, sometimes my iPhone. Breakfast could be a smoothie or ezekial toast with cashew butter, or oatmeal with chia seeds and almond butter.
7:00 Two sets of push ups and then I am in the shower fast.
7:15 I wake the kids up. While kids are getting dressed (wooohooo this is done on their own now!) I make their breakfast and lunch. I am down to making one lunch so it goes faster.
8:05 We walk to school to drop Maizy, then I walk Rex to the bus.
8:15 I say, “Aaahhhh” and then the rest of the day begins.
Keri Glassman is the founder and president of Keri Glassman, Nutritious Life.