What are your daily habits? The most successful entrepreneurs, billionaires and those at the top of their field have developed purposeful routines that allow them to focus all their attention on what matters. Here are 7 daily habits of top performers you might want to consider adding to your daily routine.

Everyone is different, and different routines work for different people. It is an ongoing experiment and you need to adapt until you find what works best for you. One thing is for sure: If you don’t adopt a daily ritual of some sort you will waste too much time doing the wrong things at the wrong time to achieve anything of note.

Daily Habits

Use your time wisely every day. Become ultra-productive. Learn from the best…

Get Up Early

Start your day before the rest of the world rises and the chaos of the workday begins. Bob Iger, Chairman and CEO of Disney gets up earlier than most, “I get up at 4:30 in the morning, seven days a week, no matter where I am in the world.”

Exercise

Training early gets the body and mind in the perfect state for optimum performance for the rest of the day.

Create

We are most alert in the morning so get your creative juices flowing early.

Sometimes I wake up with an idea as if it has been handed to me by God during the night. I need to work on it immediately after waking before the idea I have been gifted begins to fade.

If I get my exercise and creative tasks done within the first 3 hours of waking it is a good day.

Meditate

Not necessarily sitting legs crossed with your hands in the air, just a time of absolute focus to get your mind ‘in the zone.’

This is a great time to come up with ideas. Try closing your eyes and doing this for just 10 minutes, it can be incredibly powerful.

Some top performers even have specially modified rooms at home or in the office. You can also use your creative imagination to do this from wherever you want to be…

If you’ve watched BBC’s ‘Sherlock’ you will have seen Sherlock go to his ‘mind palace’ to get the information he needs to solve a case. This is the same philosophy. Your creative imagination and your subconscious mind are your most valuable secret weapons.

Learn

I read every day. This keeps my mind alert at all times. As well as helping me consistently learn and develop new skills reading also helps me to remain focused and motivated. Crucially, it inspires me to take action.

Learning is a lifelong commitment of the elite and it should be for you too. It doesn’t end when you ‘make it’ if you want to stay at the top.

You might be thinking this will take up too much time. Just read 3 pages a day at first or an article on The Self Improvement Blog, it only takes 5 minutes. Do this every day and it compounds, small steps are better than no steps.

Rest

Whilst some like Gary Vaynerchuk claim to work 20 hour days that isn’t the norm. Some of the top class performers I have met and studied work as little as 4 hours a day at full throttle.

The majority of those in the exclusive top-class bracket know the importance of getting enough sleep. At least 7 hours a night for most and often up to 9…

You will have heard of leaders such as Margaret Thatcher famously operating on 3-4 hours of sleep a night but these are rare breeds. To perform at your best getting the amount of sleep that your body is telling you it needs is critical.

Play

We are all children at heart and the best way to take a step back and relax is to play, laugh and have some fun. More and more people are starting to understand the importance of this. It has been proven that play not only helps us enjoy ourselves, but it can educate us and improve our relationships too.

Take time out to play every day. It could be a board game, a computer game, some golf practice, games with the kids. Whatever it is that you like to do.

Putting it All Together

Whether you want to be a business leader, a top class athlete or simply less stressed trying to manage your day to day, you need to think about how you use your time. Make definite plans and create sound routines. Be a top class version of yourself.

-Matthew Brown

About the Author

Matthew Brown is the creator of personal development blog ‘The Business of Life’ https://thebusinessoflifeclub.com. Aimed at aspiring entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs, Matthew offers entertaining, candid and honest advice to help readers improve their personal and professional lives. Learn more here – https://thebusinessoflifeclub.com/about/