At last, I’m glad the time has come to share the result of my morning habits after 1 year. 😃 I could share with you how each habit has contributed to each outcome, but I feel they are highly interconnected, so I’d rather tell you the overall result from all the habits combined.
RESULT, after 1 year of Miracle Morning Habits
| Habit List |
|---|
| 🌄 Wake up early in the morning |
| 🛏️ Make up the bed |
| 🧘 Meditation |
| 🏃 Exercise |
| 😋 Have breakfast |
| 📰 Read newspapers |
| ✏️ Study/Do something productive |
The first and probably the most important thing I would like to mention is that I feel I have truly grown since 1 year ago and also feel much more confident in myself.
Meditation and looking at my bed all made up nicely has kept me productively work while receiving hundreds of work-related messages and meeting invitations everyday. Thanks to such peaceful mind, I believe I have been able to effectively work as a product manager even when there is conflict with other stakeholders, by persuading them with rational reasons and confidence.
Reading daily newspapers from different countries has offered me various perspectives around the globe and information. (Actually, there has been really interesting and controversial issues recently such as GameStop, Tesla’s Bitcoin investment, Ban on Clubhouse in China etc)
Also, Study/Productive Activity was certainly where I spent the most time out of all of the habits. The result may not be impressive but still quite satisfactory from my point of view. The below does not cover all I’ve been studying since 1 year ago, but let me still share the list of the certificates and courses that I accomplished within a year.
| Type | Certificate/Course Title | by |
|---|---|---|
| Certificate | Professional Scrum Master I | Scrum.org |
| Certificate | Professional Scrum Product Owner I | Scrum.org |
| Certificate | Google Analytics Individual Qualification | |
| Course | Digital Product Management: Modern Fundamentals | University of Virginia by Coursera |
| Course | Write Better Emails: Tactics for Smarter Team Communication | Udemy |
| Course | UML and Object-Oriented Design Foundations | Udemy |
| Course | Consulting Approach to Problem Solving | Udemy |
| Course | Technical Product Management: Learn on 4 real industry | Udemy |
| Course | User Experience Design Fundamentals | Udemy |
| Course | A/B Testing and Experimentation for Beginners | Udemy |
From the the physical health point of view, here is what I believe I gained from my Exercise habit. When I started jogging, I was able to run about 5km at a time. However, bit by bit, it slowly got better and better, and by the time it was around September, I was able to finish a half-marathon, and started to work just like any other typical working days. (Of course, my legs were screaming 😅)
As winter came, it was just too dark and freezing to jog outside at 5 o’clock in the morning. Also, my chronic ingrowing nail issue started to cause problems again as I tortured my feet too much (I think). I realized I needed some help to maintain my Exercise habit inside my room, so I bought myself some weights and Nintendo Switch Ring Fit 😆. But still, weight training and Ring Fit could sometimes be boring. In such cases, I watched Korean/Japanese news of the previous day while working out to keep myself entertained.
Retrospective and Future Plan
Although I call this ‘habit’, it was no habit by nature but continuous effort. Frankly speaking, I failed to do some habits from time to time, especially in the beginning phase. But that’s completely okay, that is a part of the journey to have one habit-ized. Remember this above graph? I was at the starting point 1 year ago, and where am I now? Did I grow by 3700%? I do not know. Maybe not 3700% since I’ve been doing this for working days only. But I’m pretty sure I’m not at the starting point anymore, and I’m probably going upwards along the graph line. And it is all that matters.
So, am I going to keep the morning habits? Yes, I don’t expect to receive all the benefits of compound interest just within a year, it has to keep going, and for many years. Still, there is some room for improvement. I’ve been planning to make my habits more efficient, especially the Study habit. I have recently started to use an email productivity service called Superhuman, and also Pomodoro technique (Concentrate for 25 min, take a break for 5 min). And these, I believe, are quite helpful when trying to achieve my next goals of the study areas: JLPT N1, Design Thinking, Tableau, UX etc.
My last note is that you do not necessarily need to set morning habits, as long as you have good and positive habits. There exist many celebrities who are never morning persons. Winston Churchill awoke around 7:30 am but he did not actually get out of bed until 11 am. Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has mentioned that he was never a morning person. Although I wake up at 4:30 am, it is merely shifted sleeping time phase, just like the one when you suffer from jet lag. I wake up early because I believe there are some advantages when doing the routine in the morning, but you don’t have to follow it if it doesn’t suit you. As long as you maintain your positive habits, I’m sure you will be able to achieve your final goals in the end. I sincerely hope everyone who’s reading this post sets positive habits, improves, and achieves the ultimate goals of your life.
Thank you for reading the series.