How much money did you make yesterday? $50? $500? $5,000? Or was it more like $2,000 or even less? Now, how many billionaires do you know who have made that much money in one day? Probably none, right?
There is certainly nothing wrong with making $50, $500, or even $5,000 per day (that’s not an insignificant amount of money), but if you’re trying to start becoming a billionaire yourself someday, then you need to get used to the idea of someone else making more than that in just one day.
1. Get up at 4 AM
Getting up at 4 am isn’t for everyone, but if you can find a way to make it work, there are many benefits. Many billionaires and successful entrepreneurs attribute much of their success to waking up early, including Richard Branson (Virgin), Warren Buffett (Berkshire Hathaway), Oprah Winfrey, and J.K. Rowling (author of Harry Potter).
These individuals have had different morning routines — sometimes starting with prayer or meditation — but they’ve all had one thing in common: Getting up earlier than others helped them achieve great results.
While he hasn’t been known to get up at 4 AM every day of his life, Zuckerberg reportedly wakes up around that time each morning to begin his workday. Here’s why: Because I’m in charge, I don’t wake up at 4:30 a.m. like everybody else; I wake up at 4:00 a.m., he says.
The morning is where many of us have more time to ourselves, without work or family commitments. You might find that you start to feel slightly more productive at a time when everyone else is asleep and your mind doesn’t feel bogged down by distractions.
Early birds also tend to be happier, probably because they avoid over stimulation as well as make better use of daylight hours. So if you can stomach it, just get up at 4 am every day and enjoy life after other people go to sleep.
2. Read/Reply to Emails
While many start their day off with email, it’s not always a productive use of time. Instead, read and reply to your emails at least twice a day (preferably before 10 AM and after 3 PM). Many people have been conditioned to believe that they need to work long hours in order to get ahead.
However, entrepreneurs like Warren Buffett have proven otherwise. He starts his day by reading through piles of paper rather than checking his inbox; it’s something he refers to as contextual intelligence.
Rather than allowing email and other digital distractions to influence your time management decisions, prioritizing physical documents will help you develop real-life context, so you can work smarter — not harder.
The billionaire Warren Buffett recommends that you read and reply to emails in your inbox first thing in the morning. Start each day with a clear inbox, he says.
When you’re done reading and replying to email, continue on with items two and three of his morning routine. This provides you with a clear barrier between work life and personal life — and reduces stress by giving yourself some breathing room before starting your day’s tasks.
In a 2010 interview with former Secretary of State Colin Powell, he said that he’s never checked his email before 10 am. Given that an average email contains 121 characters — not to mention attachments and signatures — that means there are more than 3,000 words in an average email.
That is a lot of information to process at one time; if you try to absorb it all at once, it can feel like drinking from a fire hose. As business magnate Warren Buffett puts it: I tell my staff six things I want doing and when I come back in three weeks, I find only four have been completed.
3. Exercise
This is a simple three-step practice that’ll wake you up and keep you focused. As highlighted in one of my previous posts, these are three practices often found among billionaires (including Warren Buffett, Mark Zuckerberg, and Oprah).
To try it yourself, follow these steps: First thing in the morning — after you get out of bed but before you do anything else — take 3 deep breaths.
Deep breathing increases oxygen flow to your brain, which will help wake you up and improve your focus for that day ahead.
While doing deep breathing exercises — like Panama yoga breathing or just taking deep breaths from your diaphragm (see below) — also relaxes your body by slowing down the heart rate and relieving tension in muscles.
Aside from pumping iron, studies have shown that cold water plunges can also increase your metabolism.
After a hot shower in which you’ve soaked for a few minutes, jump into an ice-cold bath or into a pool of water and spend one minute vigorously splashing yourself. This will not only boost your metabolism, but help get your day off to an energetic start!
Research shows that regular exercise can help boost energy levels, improve sleep quality and lessen stress — all of which can have a positive impact on your productivity. Once you’ve incorporated a morning workout into your schedule, you may notice yourself feeling more mentally alert and focused.
A morning workout also sets a positive tone for your day: it tells your brain I am active; I am in control; I feel good about myself. Instead of spending extra time snoozing in bed or rushing to work out after getting dressed and ready, consider waking up 30 minutes earlier to fit in a quick physical activity session before breakfast.
4. Breathe, Meditate, and Stretch
After spending time with billionaires like Elon Musk, Howard Hughes, and Steve Jobs, James Blucher noticed that they all follow a similar morning routine. A big part of their mornings involved breathing deeply and holding that breath for long periods of time. At first, Blucher thought he was imagining things.
But then he tried it himself and saw that there was something to it — and that by focusing on his breathing each morning, he became calmer and more relaxed overall.
Want to make sure you’re starting your day off right? Try meditating and stretching first thing in the morning — not only will it help you feel better throughout your day, but studies show it can also help lower stress levels.
Most billionaires have a morning routine, and those routines all start with an early-morning workout or light exercise. They also all include a few minutes of meditation and deep breathing. As Richard Branson says, An hour’s vigorous exercise in the morning will do more good for you than two hours of sleep a night.
This breathing practice helps to clear your mind, center your thoughts, and focus your intentions for that day. Spend some time visualizing what you hope to accomplish that day.
Breathing is a simple habit that can have powerful effects on our mental and physical well-being. Doing so several times a day not only helps you control stress, it can even improve memory, productivity, and longevity.
And while scientists are still researching why meditation has such a powerful impact on us, its effects are undeniably powerful — it’s been linked to reduced depression symptoms, lower blood pressure levels, better sleep quality, and improved concentration.
Taking time each morning to focus on your breathing will help you start your day off right. Just remember: Sitting quietly with yourself allows you to hear inner wisdom and gives you access to what shamans call ‘the quiet mind,’ said Dr. Perl mutter in an interview with Time magazine.
5. Write in a Journal
Studies have shown that people who keep a gratitude journal report greater happiness and optimism. If you’re not into putting pen to paper, try tweeting out three things each morning you’re grateful for.
(You might consider reading Adam Grant’s Thank You Economy, which points out that consumers are more likely to buy products associated with gratitude.)
But whatever you do, make sure it happens first thing in the morning — it helps your brain transition from sleep mode to work mode and sets your priorities for how you spend your day. So before checking email or spending time on social media, use those few minutes of quiet reflection for yourself.
As with most habits, once you’ve created your morning routine, it’s a good idea to write about it. This helps solidify your goals and keeps you accountable for each day.
Whether you choose to use a physical journal or create one in an app like Evernote or Day One, taking 10 minutes before work to reflect on your goals will ensure that they don’t get lost in a busy schedule.
Studies have shown that writing regularly in a journal is not only a great way to relieve stress, but also can help you live longer. Some of these studies have indicated that regular journaling can reduce your risk of heart disease and breast cancer by reducing levels of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline.
Additionally, keeping a journal will help you improve your memory while making your thoughts clearer and more organized. A study from Cornell University showed that people who wrote about their deepest thoughts and feelings for just 20 minutes three times per week for one month were happier than those who didn’t write about their feelings at all.
6. Read/Study Business Material
Make sure you have time to read, think, and plan every day. What’s Warren Buffett’s morning routine? He reads 500 pages a day (yes, you read that right), including newspapers and annual reports.
That might seem like a lot of reading, but research shows it takes 15 minutes of thinking to assimilate a page of information (as opposed to 2 minutes just skimming it).
This is why Buffett starts his day with reading: It gives him time to integrate new information into his thinking before he actually has to act on it. By contrast, making phone calls or attending meetings early in your day consumes your mental energy without giving you much chance for reflection.
Warren Buffett is widely known for reading 500 pages a day. Now I know what you’re thinking, I can’t read 500 pages a day! But guess what, neither can Warren Buffett. He doesn’t even try to do it. Buffet simply reads for about two hours in the morning and then spends a couple of hours answering correspondence.
It not just billionaires who get up early. Many successful people — like Virgin founder Richard Branson and Shark Tank star Mark Cuban — rise with the sun to read or study business material, spend time with family, or hit an exercise class before heading to work.
If you’re struggling to find time for a proper workout in your morning routine, consider exercising before work instead; doing so can give you that extra edge when it comes to productivity throughout your day.
You feel less stressed and more energized if you squeeze some movement into your busy schedule. So, why not fit it in while you’re prepping for tomorrow’s meeting? Go ahead and take those last few minutes of your lunch break outside for a quick run on that sunny afternoon.
7. Write Daily To-Do List
1. Write out your to-do list for tomorrow’s workday. Write down what you want to accomplish and how much time you will devote to each task (1 hour, 1/2 hour, 15 minutes). Writing a plan gives you something to refer back to when you find yourself getting distracted by new projects and tasks popping up throughout your day.
It is easy to lose focus without a concrete plan of action. Having an action plan on paper gives you a map of your day while also holding you accountable for completing specific tasks within a set amount of time.
2. Next, review your goals for next week, month, or year and make sure they are in line with whatever stage of life and career that you’re currently in.
From Elon Musk to Warren Buffett, nearly every billionaire entrepreneur agrees that maintaining a daily to-do list is one of the best ways to not only keep yourself on track, but also to remind yourself what it is you are working toward.
It is easy to get bogged down by work or other activities and lose sight of your long-term goals. By writing down your daily goals each day, you can keep them top of mind and add purpose and meaning to all that you do.
Schedule yourself for success by blocking off time on your calendar each day to work on your project, or plan out an hourly schedule to make sure you’re making progress.
And it never hurts to write down a daily to-do list; even if it’s just a quick list of reminders about what needs to get done, planning out each day can help make sure you accomplish what needs completing.
Keep in mind that successful self-starters are careful planners: They know exactly when they’ll put in long hours, how they’ll overcome any roadblocks along the way, and — perhaps most importantly — how they’ll measure their own performance.
8. Take a 15-Minute Power Shower
After waking up and eating breakfast, it’s best to take a 15-minute shower to get ready for work. Taking a cold shower has been shown to increase testosterone and decrease cortisol, two important hormones for optimal health.
Additionally, it will help you stay alert and focused by raising your body temperature slightly, thus increasing blood flow. When we’re tired, our mind wanders; having an active morning routine will keep you on track so that you can maximize your daily productivity at work!
When most people hear power shower, they assume that you mean taking a super hot and longer than a usual shower in order to save time. But power showers aren’t about using as little water as possible or shaving off a few minutes here and there;
These shorter, high-intensity sessions are designed to help you improve your focus and concentration. Power showers are great for getting into your creative flow — which is exactly why many billionaires take them first thing in the morning!
A fifteen-minute shower is a great way to increase energy and wakefulness. Because it only takes 15 minutes, you can wake up earlier and still have time to get your errands done.
The sheer act of getting out of bed is often enough to trigger a higher state of consciousness, which may leave you feeling more positive about your day ahead.
However, showering with cold water in the morning may induce a state called cold thermogenesis. Our bodies are able to produce heat by exposing ourselves to temperatures that are lower than our body temperature.
It doesn’t take much; cold showers have been known to make people feel better emotionally as well as physically, leading them to feel calmer and more confident overall.
9. A Healthy Breakfast of Oatmeal and Coffee with Honey + Cinnamon
Starting your day with a healthy breakfast is important for everyone, but especially so for billionaires. For example, oatmeal has many health benefits, including lowering cholesterol and blood pressure. On top of that, it fills you up, which is exactly what you need to kick-start your day.
Coffee is also perfect because it boosts your metabolism and curbs hunger — it’s one of billionaire Warren Buffett’s go-to breakfasts! With just a bit of honey and cinnamon on top, it makes a delicious treat as well.
Oatmeal and coffee together may seem like an unusual combination, but a study published in The Journal of Nutrition found that test subjects who ate oatmeal with a cup of coffee had decreased blood pressure levels and LDL cholesterol.
A study from Loma Linda University Medical School also found that people who ate hot cereal for breakfast were more likely to lose weight over a 16-week period than people who didn’t eat hot cereal.
According to author Dan Bittner, who’s studied blue zones (areas of the world where people live longer than average) extensively, among a hundred and twenty-one countries on five continents, an overwhelming amount of evidence points to one factor being what he calls the number one predictor of longevity in these communities.
That is an active lifestyle. Exercise is more important than diet when it comes to living longer. In fact, studies show that losing weight does not increase your lifespan unless you’re exercising regularly as well.
10. Daily Schedule — Do it Now
Every morning, right after you wake up, take 5–10 minutes to plan your day. Jot down all of your goals and tasks for today in a notepad or on your calendar.
Make sure to also include things like calling time with a friend, getting to bed early, so you have more energy in the morning, and anything else that makes your life better, but that might not be on your agenda yet.
By spending a few minutes planning out your day before it starts, you’ll give yourself a head start on accomplishing everything on your list. You’ll feel in control of how you spend every minute of every day, instead of letting it happen to you.
The billionaires we’ve talked to have an incredibly similar daily schedule. They wake up around 5:30 a.m., eat breakfast and meditate for 45 minutes to an hour, exercise for 30 minutes to an hour (but not on days when they are in meetings), take in another dose of information from audiobooks or podcasts, and then do 15 to 30 minutes of reading before starting work.
As Warren Buffett says, The difference between successful people and really successful people are that really successful person say no to almost everything. Build-in time to get things done by using your schedule to block off chunks of time devoted solely to focused work.
So instead of simply jotting down a few appointments at 8:00, 8:30, and 9:00 AM on a given day (and then ignoring them), carve out an hour for each task. If you know exactly when you’ll be working on specific tasks or goals during the week.
It is easier to prioritize accordingly throughout your day — making you more productive and making sure nothing falls through the cracks. And yes, there is such a thing as being too busy.
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