I’ll let you in on a little secret about an observation I have made over my 18-years or so working in marketing.
Every truly successful marketer, salesperson or entrepreneur I have ever had the pleasure to work with (with the exception of just one individual*) shares one common trait.
They start their working days really early in the morning and get most of their work done before they are bothered by phones ringing, workplace politics or the general day-to-day routine of running an office.
I’ve got to admit that I’m not great with early mornings. This might be the reason (despite being in my forties — and so almost a dinosaur in the digital workplace), I’ve yet to make my first million.
But this is going to change.
This morning I crawled out of bed at 6am and was at my home office desk before 6:30 with a cup of coffee firmly in my hand.
In the hours before 9am, I wrote two blog posts, wrote the text for an email campaign and accompanying landing page, and updated a presentation for an event I was speaking at in the afternoon.
At 9am, I had a leisurely breakfast, caught up on some reading (an essential component of any content marketer’s day) and cleared my email inbox.
At 10am, I had some telephone calls scheduled before leaving the house at 11 to catch a train to the event I was speaking at.
Networking started at 1pm, I hit the stage at 2:30 and I spent 30 minutes chatting to delegates before heading home (and writing this post on the train) before 5pm for an early finish.
This just might have been one of the most productive, least stressful days I have had in a long time — all thanks (I believe) to an early start.
What could you achieve by getting out of bed early? Share your thoughts below.
*As for the one successful entrepreneur I know who isn’t an early riser? Well, he might just be superhuman because he just never seems to sleep.
This post first appeared in the iContact Email Marketing Blog.