For most of us, the usual wake up morning schedule is designed for us perform at a basic level of accomplishment: where we grovel out of bed, fuel ourselves up with some coffee, and go out to face the tasks we need to get done for the day.
We find ourselves putting off the truly difficult tasks, and sometimes even canceling time to pursue our personal goals, in the name of it just couldn’t fit in the schedule. What does it look like to start and schedule a day geared towards success?
We've covered Mark Cuban's daily habits in the past but in a recent collaborative interview with Vanity Fair, Cuban shared an in-depth look at the details into the daily schedule of being one of America's most successful businessmen.
The Shark Tank investor and self-made billionaire worked his way up from selling garbage bags as a 12 year old to acquiring an estimated net worth of 3.9 billion. The proud owner of the NBA Dalla’s Mavericks knows how to maximize his time for achievement.
Getting an early start on email
"The first thing I do when I'm laying in bed still is, I'll grab a phone and start going through my email, whatever the stressful things are, I try to get those out of the way in the morning."
Self-development author Brian Tracy wrote about this practice in his book “Eat that Frog!” ”Mark Twain once said that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. Your 'frog' is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it."
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"The key to reaching high levels of performance and productivity is to develop the lifelong habit of tackling your major task first thing each morning. You must develop the routine of 'eating your frog' before you do anything else."
Getting the hardest tasks done first thing not only makes the day go smoother, but gives you a boosting sense of accomplishment to start your day.
On top of getting nagging messages out of the way early on, Cuban practices a strict e-mail only policy, to deter unproductive meetings:
"I get 700 emails a day. You may think that's a lot, but you know what I'd rather do? I'd rather do 700, even 1,000 or more, emails than sit in long and tedious and boring meetings."
In an interview with Huffington Post, Cuban added "No meetings or phone calls unless I'm picking up a check. Everything is email."
Before going to bed, Cuban punches in one more time through his emails and goes to bed at around 11:30, before waking up and starting another day as an American billionaire.
