Morning Routine! 2021 is all about connecting to intention.

Hey, there. Happy Friday. My name is Drew Bridewell, and I'm head of design at Growth Day. I'm founder and CEO of Next Level UX, and I host a weekly series on LinkedIn learning called Practical UX Weekly. So my whole purpose and when I share content like this is to always share things that I've learned from working deep in the product trenches, from building products every single day, and just sharing things that I've learned. And I just really, really care deeply about that. And so I started sharing a little bit more on my Fridays, because I love Fridays, because Fridays are great days to kind of create closure for the week and to kind of finish strong, like, win the week on Friday. So what I wanted to do today is talk to you about morning routines. So morning routines are pretty fun because they help you set up your day for success. They help you find balance and help you really know where you're focusing your time and your energy. For example, are you. Right when you wake up, are you opening up your phone and going in and scrolling through social media, or are you doing it a little bit more intentionally, like, okay, I'm gonna. If I am gonna open my phone up, what am I doing? Like, what are the boundaries that I'm setting? Where are the guardrails that I put up so that I'm spending my time wisely? And it's. You know, everybody has a different opinion for how they want to use their phone or how they want to set up their morning routines, but I just wanted to share some of the tips that have worked for me because I find it really interesting to kind of think about what people do in the mornings and how it sets their days up for success or how it kind of messes up your day? And I just wanted to share a little bit of my tips. So I wrote down. I have a little card here where. You know, it's so funny. Every time I'm. When I'm mapping things out or as a designer, I often find myself, like, writing things down and wanting to, like, kind of memorize the things that are most important to me. And to me, that creates a ton of intention. And as a. As a design leader and leading team of a lot of whole ginormous team, I need to be super intentional with how I show up for them, but I also need to be intentional about how I show up for my family and how I show up for myself, how I show up for my teams in every single one of my sessions. So. And even when I'm coaching for Next Level ux, And I have my one on one coach coaching sessions with my, with my students. I want to make sure that I'm showing up and I'm ready for them to serve, to help inform, to help, you know, unblock them. And it goes for, you know, all the different sessions that I'm in. So really quickly, here's what I do for my morning routine. So the first thing that I do is I wake up, I stand up, and I move about. So I have a couple different workstations and studios here, where right now you're in Studio A or Studio one. This is where I'm typically doing recording, I'm doing a lot of design work. And then I have another studio which is outside in my garage where I have another station where I'm doing audio, I'm recording. And, and. But it's more like kind of an intimate place where I can kind of go quiet and I can write and then I can get on the peloton and do some running or jump on the bike and do some exercise. So the first thing I do is I wake up, I stand up and I move about. The second thing that I do is I start to pump up. I work out and I read and I learn. So if I'm as I'm waking up and waking up, my body, like I'm stretching, I'm moving, I'm going outside, I'm smelling the air, I'm hearing the birds, I'm walking around, just getting my body moving. And that second thing is important because now that I've done that, I do need to start elevating myself. I need to start thinking about, okay, what are the things that I need to accomplish today and how can I start getting motivated to get my workout in? Because that is something that I've learned that's really helped me in the mornings is getting that workout, getting that 20 minute, like, nice run around the island and just kind of breathing in the fresh air. Then through that, sometimes I'm also listening to like a podcast or I'm listening to Growth Day. In the Growth Day app I'm listening to right now, Wayne Dyer talk about the power of intention. And it's a super. I resonate so much with it because, like, channeling the most important things in your life and the most important things that you're really trying to focus on and going into each moment of your, of your existence with a little bit more intention, it unlocks so many amazing things. So that's the second thing I do. The third thing that I check in with after I work out. And this is, you know, a little bit later in the morning is I start looking at my priorities, my task and my intentions. So I make sure, okay, my priorities for today are this. My tasks that I need to complete are this and my intentions behind those things. Like what do I need to do to show up for those moments in a really, really, really positive way, but also in a really intelligent way. Like I want to show up and I want to make sure that I'm, that I'm efficient with my time and I'm spending my time wisely so I can be appreciating and honoring all my peers time too. I want to value their time just as much as mine. So that's, that's the third thing that I do. The fourth thing is I have, I wrote down mental focus, action, time. So this is when I start. This is probably around like 7:30 to 9:00 clock in the morning. It's where I get super mentally focused and I start creating the actions and I start doing some of the work that I need to accomplish. Because if I accomplish the most important things that I need to accomplish in the mornings, it makes me feel super accomplished for the rest of the day. So my mornings are about serving my team, getting my work going, getting it started. That way I can go into my afternoons like crushing it and finishing that work and having a full cycle of two to three hours of time where I can fully work through things and I can fully go deep into this. So that morning sets me up really well. And then I also wrote down like, you know, I'm in the morning when I'm waking up and I'm standing up and I'm moving about like I'm waking up my body, my mind and my spirit. And then I'm connecting to the intentions of the day. So what do I mean by that? So, you know, throughout the day, if you're writing down, you know, you know the meetings that you have, you have the ability to start anticipating what the people in those meetings are going to need when, what kind of objectives and priorities do they have that they're working on throughout the day? And then how can you show up with your part and your responsibilities and your role? How can you help kind of move those things forward, supporting them while they're supporting you, and you're kind of pushing those things forward in a really positive, intentional way. That's how I like to work and that's how I like to think through showing up for my team. The other thing that I do after a Lot of this stuff is I open the plan, I connect to the plan, and I execute the plan. So I have little notifications that show up on my phone throughout all the devices that I have, you know, like iPads and iPhones and stuff all over the place. But, like, I have these notifications that come into me for these time blocks, and it's like, okay, connect to the plan. Connect to the plan. Open the plan. Open the plan. Sorry. Open the plan. Connect to the plan. Execute the plan. And I look at it as if I'm running a play. Like, I'm running a play in baseball. I'm running a play in football. I'm running this play because it's. It's how I kind of anchor myself, and I get prepared for the moment. And then another thing that I constantly am looking at is, like, when the morning Drew. When the morning Drew, how are you gonna win the morning? And how are you gonna connect with the team? And those are the things. Like, I have em written down here, and I just have a quick reference card that it's like my little cheat sheet of what I'm doing every day. And I just. I recycle it, I do it, and I refine it, and I'm like, oh, I'm feeling this. I'm feeling this. But I make sure that I do accomplish these things in the morning. So I sets me up for success. Makes my Fridays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, really fun, really uplifting. I get my workout in. I get my exercise in. I get to connect with. I get to connect the intentions and the purpose of why I'm doing what I'm doing. And then it just elevates me. It makes me feel really good, but it also helps me get my work done and makes that work a lot of fun. So that's my Friday tip for you today. And it's kind of like an exciting thing because it's your morning routine. It's like something that we all get to do. We all get to decide how we spend our time, how we evaluate the value of our time and what we do with it. And this is something that's really important. And if you want to learn more, there is a couple other really fun things that I wanted to share with you really quick. This month on Growth Day, it's all about leadership. So already this month, we've had three incredible leaders talk about leadership on the platform in a live event setting. So if you go to growthday.com and sign up there, you can see how that works. And to see how cool it is. So Brendan Burchard was talking about leadership for two hours. Then you got Jonathan Fields from the Good Life Project talking about leadership, some really cool tips that he was sharing. And then you got David Bock, who just went out yesterday. So we go live every Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is really fun. And you can go in and learn about leadership. Take notes while you're watching that content. And that's this. This is super cool. And if you haven't, if you're looking for more UX and product design support or product making support, I have a whole other program at Next Level UX Me, where we talk about action planning, we talk about mapping to learn, and then. And if you're inside the LinkedIn learning platform, then you can just go and search for practical UX weekly and get some of the content there. And that's like 70 episodes of things like case studies and working with product managers and working with engineers. And it was shot. It was shot like a couple years ago, but it's still super relevant, super, super impactful content. And if you have questions about that, you can always just DM me on LinkedIn and I can hook you up with some tips, templates, resources, and all that fun stuff. So other than that, man, this is a Friday finisher for me. I just love doing these videos and sharing my tips and sharing just the things that I'm learning and things that are working well for me. So if you have tips about your morning routines, like, share them down below. Love to hear how you set up your morning for success. Like, how simplified are you? How do you do it? Or is it complex like mine? Like, I write a lot of things down and I kind of process information and then it just like ends up. I get in my flow and I do my thing. But I'd love to hear about what yours are or if you're kind of struggling with this and you need a little bit of support on how to work through your morning routines, like, hit me up, let's talk. Other than that, I wish you the best Friday. I wish you a happy day, and I'll see you next week. All right, later. It.