Morning Momentum: How Newton’s First Law Makes You More Productive

Let’s be real:

Productivity is a constant struggle.

Some days are great. Some are a complete waste of time.

If you’re anything like me and you’ve got fairly big aspirations, dreams, and plans for your future, you can’t help but ask yourself:

“What makes me so productive on certain days and completely unproductive on others?”

Well, in today’s article I want to share with you ONE thing that makes a big difference for me. It’s something that can completely make or break your days from a productivity standpoint, so keep reading…

This ONE Thing Has a Huge Impact On My Daily Productivity

OK, let’s cut the crap.

Here’s the thing that makes a huge difference on how productive my days turn out:

It’s all about the first few hours of my day:

Isn’t that strange?

One would think that the opposite is true. If you feel like you haven’t done much yet that day, you should feel compelled to be more productive for the rest of the day.

Well, that’s NOT the case. And there’s actually a physical law that explains why:

Why Newton’s First Law Holds The Key to a Productive Day

You’ve probably heard of Newton’s First Law before:

“An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion.”

Here’s what it means for your productivity:

Once you’re in motion – you’ve started your day in a productive matter, you’ve got some momentum, you feel motivated, you’re getting stuff done – you stay in motion.

Hence, if you’re productive in the first few hours of your day, you tend to stay productive for the rest of the day.

If, on the other hand, you’re at rest – you’re lazy, you haven’t been very productive yet, and you’ve already wasted a fair amount of time – you tend to stay at rest.

Hence, if you’re NOT productive during the first few hours of your day, you’ll be unlikely to change that during the rest of the day.

Cool stuff, huh?

You may have witnessed this phenomenon many times in your own life.

Once you’re in a kind of lazy mode, it gets super hard to crawl back out again, turn the day around, and create a productive day.

That’s because mental states like laziness and comfortableness are addictive.

Basically, what I’m saying is this:

If you mess up the first few hours of your day, you’re facing an uphill battle for the reminder of it.

You don’t want that.

Instead, you want to ride the wave of positive momentum and get carried forward with little effort on your part…

It’s ALL About Momentum

I could have titled this post: “The Power of Morning Momentum” or something like that.

Because momentum is all we’re talking about here.

Needless to say, you want the positive one; the one that pushes you forward, not the one that holds you back.

So let’s see how you can get that.

How to Create Positive Momentum

It’s actually pretty easy.

All you need to do is to absolutely dominate the first few hours of your day.

You need to bang through your morning ritual and then knock out one task after the other. Bam. Bam. Bam. (Or, if it’s a long task, just keep pushing on that one.)

This creates a sense of accomplishment and the prior mentioned momentum.

Soooo… that begs the question:

How do you actually do this? How do you make sure that you are productive in those first few hours of the day?

Here’s the key…

The Key to Crushing It With This Technique

To make use of Newton’s first law and create powerful momentum, you need to simply make sure that you have a productive first few hours of your day.

The best way to do that?

You plan your day the night before.

Simple as that.

You just plan exactly what you’re going to do the next day, especially what you’re going to do during those first few crucial hours of your day.

This ensures that you can just bang out item after item on your plan - without having to do much thinking on your part.

There’s no more “What should I do next?” or “What should I do after I’ve completed this task?” or whatever.

You just follow the plan, pick up your momentum, and ride that wave of productivity for the entire rest of the day.

That’s all there is to it.

Try it out for yourself…

• STEP 1: Plan your day the night before

• STEP 2: Follow the plan. Be productive in those first few hours of the day. Feel that momentum building up. And enjoy a productive day.

Works like a charm.

QUICK UPDATE: There's another reason why dominating the first few hours of your day is absolutely crucial for your productivity that I wasn't aware as of writing this article.

There's something called the Progress Principle which states that making progress on meaningful work is highly motivating and boosts your mood. More motivation and a better mood in turn lead to an even higher productivity.

So when you crush those first few hours of your day - you're making progress on meaningful work - you boost your mood and increase your motivation. This, in turn, will give you an additional productivity boost.

(I explain all of this in detail in my article about how mood influences your productivity.)

Want to Go Further?

Want some additional strategies to become more productive?

Then download some of my top productivity hacks by clicking the link below:

My Top 7 Productivity Hacks to Get More Done (free PDF)