Throughout the day, you need to take yourself from mindset A to mindset B. This is where Trigger Routines come into play. They help you get into the best mental space to go from "I'm sleepy, mornings suck!" to "I'm so ready to kickass at work today!" https://twitter.com/mar15sa/status/1257503598302248960?s=20

So what is a Trigger Routine? Basically, it involves taking into account your starting state and your target ending state. Then stacking habits that will help you trigger a transition mentally and physically to get to the place you want to be instead of forcing it.

Like a switch telling your mind "it's time for x". Depending on the states that you are starting and ending with, your Trigger Routine is going to be different. Let's dive into one that most people are familiar with: getting from waking up to productive working state.

1. Start by identifying your starting state and where you're at mentally/physically/emotionally. For me, first thing in the morning I'm out of it mentally, my body is stiff, and I'm cranky. Not exactly starting the day with a winning productive work state of mind

2. Next identify your ending state and where you want to be mentally/physically/emotionally. When I start work for the day, I want to be mentally alert, physically loose/awake, feeling calm, and know exactly what I need to do.

3. Then compare your starting and target ending states. What are the major differences? Is there an area that you could target that could effect more than one of these differences? The objective is to find the most effective transitions that you can implement habits around.

For my example of going from sleep to work mode: I start my day by waking up naturally with the sunlight around 6:30am. I find that waking up like this leads to less morning crankiness. Next, I'm trying to wake myself up, so I go downstairs and drink tea while reading for 25 min.

The tea is to bring hydration to my body. The reading is to kickstart my mind. It's always a nonfiction. After getting mentally stimulated, I head to my rower and put on a workout playlist. This wakes up my body and makes the stiffness disappear.

Then it's time for my hygiene routine of shower, brushing teeth, skincare, and getting dressed. I keep my workout playlist on during all of this so that I stay on schedule and keep a rhythm going. At this point, I'm physically and mentally awake but my mind is racing.

I journal a couple pages of a brain dump of what happened yesterday, how I'm feeling, what I'm planning on doing today and why. Then I meditate for 7 minutes where I just outline mentally what a successful day looks like today. At this point, I'm hyped.

I get my first win by getting my email to inbox zero. Then I pull out the top 3 focuses that I wrote the night before and I'm off to the races. These habits stacked together create a Trigger Routine that takes me from "I hate the world" to "let's go!".

One thing to note is that there is intention behind every step of my routine. None of these habits were stacked because someone said they should be included. The actions, how long they take, and the order were carefully selected and optimized to get me into an exact mindset

My personal routine isn't going to work perfectly for you. But if you follow the 3 simple steps above and start experimenting, you can find your own Trigger Routines for any mindset shifts in your life. Go from forceful to thoughtful transitions that lead to consistent results.