055: 30 Minute Morning Routine For 500% ROI

 The podcast discusses the importance of establishing a morning routine to optimize mental clarity and physical energy for enhanced productivity throughout the day. It emphasizes how investing time in activities that prepare both mind and body can significantly improve focus, creativity, and overall effectiveness in work and daily tasks. The conversation underscores that any effective morning ritual should address both mental clarity and physical energy to maximize its benefits. 

Connect with Mike Chang:
- Instagram: @mikechangofficial
-Youtube: Mike Chang
- Website: www.flow60.com

Connect with Stephen Yeh:
-Instagram: @iamstephenyeh
-Twitter: @iamstephenyeh

Transcript

Mike: [00:00:00] When people are not spending time in the morning to set up their mind to clear their body when they're not preparing in the morning to do really good at work, they're actually missing out on a tremendous amount of. Opportunity. Tremendous amount of creativity. They're literally not preparing their state of being.

And this is often what I hear when people don't want to do a morning protocol, a morning routine. They think in their mind that they have so much work to do and that they don't have the time to take 30 minutes. You know, they don't have the time to take an hour. So something to keep in mind is to take a look at this time as an investment.

And this investment is not just. To get back 30 minutes later on, this investment can [00:01:00] increase them up to 500%, if not more in return on investment, just return on this time. So, for example, if somebody spends 30 minutes in the morning time doing something that is good for their body, for their mind, level up their state of being, they could buy back or increase their effectiveness.

By 2. 5 hours and the way that we can take a look at that, we have to take a step back and look when we are looking at a nine hour workday, for example, how much work could a person actually do in this nine hours? If we were to look at one task and we can say that this one task, takes 20 minutes to do 20 minutes.

You just focus on it. 20 minutes. You're done. Right. So this task takes 20 minutes. Now, if a person , is not focused, if this person feels a little pressure, tense, their energy is low. So what happens is this 20 minute [00:02:00] task, it's, It's difficult for a person to stay focused, to continuously do this task for 20 minutes.

It's difficult for this person to maintain a certain energy level required to finish this task, to continuously do it for 20 minutes and finish it. So what happens is a person would focus on it and about 20 seconds in, something pops in their mind and then they drift off and they lose focus. They feel something in their body.

So they stop and they adjust. They get up and they sit back down. They do something because they aren't, they're a little bothered. Something distracts them because they're not in a good state of mind or not in a centered state of being. Imagine if a person was to not think about anything else and just stay focused on what they're working on.

Consistently, this 20 minute [00:03:00] task would take 20 minutes. But if a person is losing their focus. And let's say they were to lose their focus every 20 seconds. Why 20 seconds? Just look at, observe your mind now. See if you can not think about anything else other than a thing that you want to think about.

And see how long you can maintain that. People's minds have thoughts running in and out. They're playing music in their mind when they can't turn it off. They have voices coming in when they don't care about the voices or what it needs to say. This is happening involuntary. So now imagine if somebody is to focus, try to focus on a certain task and every 20 seconds, something pops in their mind and distracts them for one second, five seconds, and then they have to now come back into focus.

Go ahead and take a look at what they're doing. And if this was happening every 20 seconds, every minute, that's three times. That means in a 20 minute period, there's 30 distractions. Every distraction increases the time by how much [00:04:00] more, you know, like information compounds. And when we're in the flow, we have everything we need and we start to build this momentum.

But every time when we're distracted, it decreases this momentum. It's almost like you're running, you know, like when you're going for a jog, you got a nice stride and then you stop and then you tie your shoes. And then you start to run again, it takes a little bit to get back into that momentum, getting the stride, sync your breathing up.

So now the same thing when we're working. And while it sounds like small little distractions, but it still stops momentum. So if it takes, let's say one minute every time to go ahead and get back into momentum, that's three minutes, three additional minutes for every minute. So that means that's 30 additional minutes.

For this 20 minute task, right? If it was that in this 20 minute task takes 50 minutes. Now it may not look like a big deal because it was double the amount of work already, but [00:05:00] now if we look at the quality of work, less creativity, less solution aware, because they're losing information and they're having to try to gain it back.

So they're not able to continuously build upon. So what happens is instead of being able to do high quality work, they might do subpar just enough to get it done, which then it causes less than optimal results for whatever it is that you're working on. Now, this is just a random 20 minute task type of thing, right?

Now imagine somebody working on something that takes a week to finish. So this one week could take three weeks, could take four weeks. It could take a month or longer. This is something that a person needs to be able to become aware of when they are taking a look at their morning routine and asking themselves this question.

Do I have the time to take 30 minutes out of my morning [00:06:00] to put towards my body and mind? Do I have the time or can I, can I risk not doing a routine for my body and mind? Can I risk that? If I don't do anything that is worth That I need to show up for. I can just do it with my eyes closed. I dig holes for a living and, and my holes can be a really crappy job.

Maybe I don't need to, maybe it doesn't even matter, but even digging holes, you got to have energy to dig that hole. Right. I think a lot of people require a certain level of mind, a certain level of. A focus to do what they do. And so, therefore, they got to ask that question. And once they ask that question, it helps them determine is it going to be worth it for them.

And I think when they really calculate it out, people can't risk not spending the time to do a morning routine to optimize their body and mind. They can't risk it. If they do, they will lose out on too much. 

Stephen: Let me ask you about this because [00:07:00] especially nowadays, there's so many different morning routines out there.

You can do your daily journal. You can go on a walk, you can do a prayer. So when you're talking about this morning ritual, are you talking about a specific one that can get you such an ROI?

Mike: So there's a lot of different ones. And ultimately. A person should do one that's effective for them. Whatever morning ritual person decides to do, they got to make sure number one, their mind is optimized, right? It's clear. It's focused. They're able to go and take on tasks. Their body needs to have energy.

Their body needs to feel good, right? Their body needs to feel loose, feel light, have energy. So they're able to actually physically do the action, physically be able to stay focused. So whether that is reading a book for, for 30 minutes. Well, that takes care of their mind. But what about their body? They got to do something with their body as well.

[00:08:00] Somebody goes and exercise or for 30 minutes. Well, great. But what are you doing with your mind? So no matter what person decides, it has to be able to focus both on mind and body, it's got to revitalize it. It's got to prepare it. If they do only one or the other, it's not enough. Because they work hand in hand with each other.

If you don't do the body, you don't have the energy. If you don't do the mind, you don't have clarity. So you need to have the energy, you need to have the clarity. So, whatever a person does, it has to work on both. And just as long as it works for them, there's no best one, you know.

There's only just the one that works for a person. I hear a lot of people talk about, Some people like to go and jog, they go ahead and jog for, for 10, 15 minutes every day in the morning time and they read for 20 minutes. Cool, you know, for, for myself, I do the practice, I do a short practice, 20, 30 minutes.

And the practice itself also has the mind also includes [00:09:00] meditation and focus. So then when I open my eyes, like I did it this morning, before I jumped on a meeting, I woke up, my body was feeling tight. I was feeling low in energy and it has slight headache because I didn't get enough sleep last night and I needed to show up to a,

a live social media interview first thing in the morning, and I woke up and I had like less than 10 minutes to prepare. So you know what I did? I went right into a practice because I needed to because I'm not, I can't, I can't function. And so then about 10 minutes in, I'm clear, jumped on and then we went, we went right to work.

So it doesn't matter what a person does just as long as it accommodates to increase the energy in the body and also creates clarity in the mind. 

Stephen: This reminds me of a quote by, uh, Abraham Lincoln, and he says, Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe. And when we sharpen our axe, which is our body and our minds, then we're much more [00:10:00] able to use this effective tool to go about into the world and whether it's for work or business or, or just like in your example, going on an interview, you're able to, to show up a lot sharper.

Another thing that comes to mind right now is Alex Hormozi. So, you know, he's kind of the new business guru guy and he has kind of a controversial topic, which is essentially shitting on people who do morning routines. And he's saying, Oh, you don't, you know, all these people going to do this ice bath and writing in your diary and doing all these things.

He says, no, if you want to be effective, just go and do the thing. That's you're supposed to do. And then you'll get it done. What would you say to something like that? 

Mike: So if we look at the guy, you can tell, yeah, he works out. [00:11:00] Right. So now the matter is, is he doing it first thing in the morning?

Well, based on what you're saying, I know who he is, but I don't follow all of his work. But let's say maybe he doesn't work out first thing in the morning. Maybe he decides that it's great for him in the, uh, in the afternoon as a break, or maybe in the evening as a way to kind of, you know, You know, to kind of settle down, right?

That's the finisher. Okay. That works out great for him. Right. Okay, no problem. There are some people that will, find that it's easier for them to, to start right away in the morning because their tasks involve a certain state of mind that's not so much of like, I don't, I don't need to have a lot of energy.

I was thinking a lot of things last night and then I went to sleep and when I woke up I had these ideas. And what I need to do is I need to go ahead and, and write these ideas and kind of figure and do this first thing in the first hour of the day to get it done. So this way I feel like I've accomplished something already.

And then I kind of do my, [00:12:00] my morning drink and breakfast or something like that for those people. Great. If it works out, you've been doing it for a while. No problem. But there are many, many people out there that a morning regimen is essential. It's absolutely essential, just like an evening regimen. So my recommendation is if a person does not have a morning regimen right now, then they want to ask themselves the question, how effective are you right now throughout the day?

Now, if they go, I'm very effective, there's no problem. Well, don't, change anything. Now, let's say there's a person that don't have a morning regimen and they find I can be more effective in my day. I feel like, yeah, I've got a burning time, losing focus, then I'd recommend do a morning routine.

And now the morning routine, there's a lot of different ones like I mentioned, but the one that I would recommend is one that I'm doing. Here's the reason why. Okay. This could fit for many people, but maybe not all. There are certain components to a [00:13:00] morning routine that's really, really important. It's essential.

Number one, you've got to be able to do it from wherever you're at, from whatever your lifestyle is. If you travel all the time, then your morning routine can't depend on you being in one location. It has to be multiple locations, which means if you need this piece of equipment for your morning routine, are you going to be able to bring that equipment with you when you travel?

If you can't, that routine can't have this equipment. Your routine can't have it, right? So there needs to be that aspect. Another thing is it needs to be the same. Every single morning. If it's not the same, then a person has to think about what to do. And when they think, now it takes too much work. They spend more time and energy thinking versus using that time and energy to actually perform it.

When they have to figure it out, now there's a chance that they may not do it. So it can't be something they figure out. It needs to be repetitive. The same thing. And there can't be any guesswork. And then the [00:14:00] third, it needs to be something that stimulates the body to increase energy. It needs to simulate the mind to bring focus and clarity.

So what I would recommend for the body part, I always start off with shaking the body and tapping the body. It's a fast way to wake it up. I do a little bit of exertion work through strength training, word of advice for strength training. Don't over exert. People that are used to doing strength training usually would overexhaust their body and it might be great if they're a bodybuilding or something But if they're trying to wake up their energy They're trying to optimize their body and mind so they can get more things done.

The last thing you want to do is You know what I mean? Exhaust yourself first thing in the morning and feel like you just kicked your butt first thing in the morning, you're gonna feel a little bit fatigue and tired throughout the day, right? So don't, don't do that. Use strength training as a way to go ahead and exert to wake up the body, but , you don't need to feel exhausted.

If you do, you're doing too much, right? So I do strength training to basically [00:15:00] open up, open up the energy in the body, feel strong, not exhausted. Right. So then afterwards I stretch to go ahead and release the tension. Make sure I have the mobility. I do breathing to center and get clear. And then I meditate to create that clarity and focus.

So then when I open my eyes, I'm ready. It's like just, okay, there is no, what should I do? It's like, okay, right to that first thing. And also have a routine to what are you going to work on first? That needed to be prepared the night before. So the moment that you're done in practice, there's no lollygagging.

There's not go, I'm going to know there is exactly the work you're going to do. So now it becomes very effective. We eliminate a lot of decision making and we get very clear on, I'm going to wake up in the morning, do this thing, and then I'm going to start on this work. And now this creates the momentum for the body and mind to wake up.

And this creates the momentum right into the work task. That needs to be prepared the night before and then from there [00:16:00] once you're in there and you accomplish that first task immediately after practice You're on your way to having a successful day because you're in that nice state of mind. You don't feel, stressed, you don't feel tense, you're maintaining the same level of state every single time.

And that's important because people are in different states in the morning time. But whatever state a person wakes up in, when they do a practice, , they need to finish off with the same state. That's why I recommend doing it this way. Because every time when I open my eyes after meditation, I'm in the same state every time.

And if I want to be consistently performing high, I need to be consistently in the same state. High performance state. I can't be consistently performing high if I am high sometimes and low sometimes, right? I need to be consistently in the same state of mind, state of being. State of energy, and then I can consistently perform at that level.

That's so important. So how do we stay consistent states? Right? We need to do a very consistent .. [00:17:00] routine that puts us in a consistent state that allows us to perform consistently high. That's the formula. It's just, it's, it's common sense. And so that's what I'd recommend. And again, like I started off, everybody's a little bit different and no matter which one works for a person, there are certain formulas that they have to cover.

And when they Do this, they can see the ROI increase in their, in their day, and they will find they can get so much more work done and they're able to do such better work because that little bit of time that they invest in the morning, they're going to get back 500 percent or higher by far. 500 percent is not like the minimum.

It really, it really is. And they will be able to excel that by far. And this will happen really quickly. It's not like it takes a couple months. If a person would have a routine that they would implement in the morning time, less than a week, they're going to see all of their performance in their work go up.[00:18:00] 

This is, this is a fact. Anybody that have done this has reported that. So I guess my intention is if a person hasn't recognized this, try it out and you'll see for yourself. Really, really just try it out. What's the worst you're going to lose? What? 30 minutes in the morning time? Right. And what are you going to gain?

Higher level performance, high level focus. And watch how your life takes off simply because you implemented a 30 minute routine to put yourself in the right state. 

Stephen: All right, guys, thank you once again for listening to another episode of body over mind. If you want to go into more details of what Mike is doing in his morning routines, you can definitely check out flow 60.

com.