Seriously Boost Your Productivity With These Five Easy Wins to Do Every Morning (Number 3 Is a Game Changer!)

Why are we giving this away?

Have you ever heard the phrase “Start as you mean to go on”? Every day is a chance to reset, and every time you press snooze on the alarm, you’re also pressing snooze on your life.

Real change doesn’t begin with giant leaps, it starts with small wins. There’s no radioactive spider waiting to bite you and grant you powers overnight. In reality, you have to work towards it.

I believe everyone has an untapped version of themselves waiting to come alive, an inner power locked away inside. These tips alone won’t unlock it, but they’ll give you a bloody good foundation to start. Your mornings set the tone for your days, and your days stack until they become your life.

This isn’t just a list of tips. It’s an invitation to begin your own origin story. This is the moment you choose to rise a little higher, feel a little stronger, and show the world the real you.

 

1. Make your bed right away

It’s such a small thing that most people ignore it, but that’s the point — the smallest actions often carry the biggest weight. Making your bed takes less than two minutes, yet it can shift the whole trajectory of your day.

Psychologists call this a keystone habit. Start with one visible win and it creates a ripple effect. Admiral William McRaven, a US Navy SEAL, famously said: “If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.” He knew that discipline in tiny tasks leads to discipline in bigger ones.

Here’s why: completing small tasks triggers dopamine release, the brain’s reward signal. That hit of motivation makes the next task easier, and momentum builds. One study in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin showed that small, consistent habits increase self-control and overall life satisfaction (Oaten & Cheng, 2006).

Think of it through the 80/20 rule. Twenty percent of your actions deliver eighty percent of your results. This tiny habit sits right in that high-impact 20%. Two minutes, sheets pulled, pillows stacked — and you’ve already locked in one of the most effective wins you can get before the kettle’s even boiled.

 

2. Hydrate (and fast...if you can)

Your body is like a smartphone left unplugged overnight — you wake up low on charge. Even mild dehydration (just 1–2% of body weight) has been shown to affect memory, mood, and alertness (Armstrong et al., 2012; Ganio et al., 2011). That’s why step one in the morning is simple: water first.

I always add a pinch of grey salt (also called Celtic sea salt). You can grab it in most health food shops. Why grey? It’s unrefined, naturally dried, and full of trace minerals like magnesium, calcium, and potassium. These help with hydration, nerve function, and energy production.

Compare that to regular table salt: highly refined, stripped of minerals, and bulked out with additives to stop it clumping. It’ll season your chips, sure, but it won’t replenish much. Sea salt is a step up, Himalayan salt slightly better again, but grey salt still tops them because it keeps those minerals intact. If you want to get fancy, there’s even gold salt — rare, expensive, but prized for purity and trace elements.

Now, food. If you can fast, fantastic. Skipping breakfast for a few hours gives your body a chance to slide into autophagy, your natural cellular “clean-up” process linked to longevity and resilience (Mizushima & Komatsu, 2011). Pair that with hydration, and you’ll feel sharp without a heavy gut. By the way autophagy is fascinating! Leave a comment below if you’d like me to write more about it — I’d be happy to dive deeper.

But what if you absolutely can’t fast? Screw the cereal and toast — they’ll spike your blood sugar and leave you crashing hungry before lunch. Instead, get some real food in you. Prioritise protein: eggs, cottage cheese, an omelette. Protein slows digestion, keeps you fuller for longer, supports muscle repair, and helps stabilise energy levels (Leidy et al., 2015).

So whether you fast or fuel, the rule is the same: skip the quick carbs, hydrate properly, and give your body what it actually needs to start strong.

 

3. Use natural products (Game changer!)

Right, this is the big one! You’ve been warned. Once you start paying attention to what’s natural and what’s not, you might be shocked at what you (and pretty much everyone else) put on their skin every single day.

For me, the journey started when I saw an advert for a natural soap bar. It claimed that the chemicals we rub on our skin don’t just clean us, they can affect our mood (and even influence our hormones). I shrugged it off and kept scrolling, but something stuck. I couldn’t shake the thought that all those gift sets I got for birthdays and Christmas might actually be doing me more harm than good.

So I dug deeper. And sure enough, there are real studies backing this up. In one study, teenage girls switched their usual shower gels, shampoos, and lotions for natural alternatives. Within just three days, the levels of parabens and phthalates in their bodies dropped by up to 45% (Harley et al., Environmental Health Perspectives, 2016). Three days! That’s how quickly your body responds.

I decided to try it myself. I ditched the bottles of shower gel and shampoo (back when I still had hair and wasn’t rocking the Lex Luthor look) and picked up a simple natural bar soap. A week went by, and honestly? I felt different. I had more energy, I was less grumpy, and those random mood swings I’d been blaming on “just being tired” started to ease off. That’s when I realised there might be something real behind those studies.

Now compare that to natural products. When you step into the shower with something simple, plant-based, and scented with essential oils, you’re not just washing — you’re resetting your mind. This is aromachology in action: research has shown that natural aromas like citrus can boost energy and alertness, rosemary can improve memory, and lavender can reduce stress and calm the nervous system (Moss et al., 2003; Herz, 2016).

Here’s the kicker: your shower is something you already do every day. usually without thinking. That means it’s the perfect place to sneak in a mental reset. You can literally step out feeling fresher, calmer, or more motivated, all by making one simple switch.

It’s such a simple change, but once you notice the difference, you’ll never want to go back.

Natural products is a bit of a minefield at the best of the time, If you need a bit of help on where to start, there's a quiz at the bottom of the page that will point you in the right direction.

4. Get some natural light

This one’s deceptively simple, but scientifically potent. Blue light — the kind that comes from actual sunlight — acts like nature’s “wake-up call” for your brain. Exposing your eyes to blue light first thing in the morning activates special light-sensitive cells in your retina, called intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs). These connect directly to your brain’s master clock, the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), and reset your circadian rhythm for the day. That means better alertness now, and more restful sleep later (Czeisler & Gooley, Nature, 2007).

Stanford neuroscientists, including Dr. Andrew Huberman, explain that just 2 to 10 minutes of morning sunlight is enough to boost energy, sharpen focus, and set your sleep cycle straight.

Here’s the deal: artificial light — like bulbs or screens — just doesn’t have the brightness or the right spectrum to trigger your SCN properly. Only real sunlight can do that (Brainard et al., Journal of Neuroscience, 2001).

So, before you even think about scrolling your phone or reaching for another coffee — step out or open your curtains, turn your head towards the sky, and let that blue light start the show. In fact, its a good idea to keep your phone in the other room over night, reduces the changes of us getting that dopamine hit when we reach for it!

 

5. Write a to-do list

This one’s simple, but it works. Get up, grab a pen, and write a list for the day. And here’s the trick: put everything on there. Wake up? Check. Shower? Check. Even the basics count.

Why? Because every time you cross something off, your brain gets a tiny dopamine hit. That “tick” isn’t just satisfying, it actually reinforces your sense of progress and motivates you to keep going.

Keep it small. Don’t overload yourself. Start with a handful of easy wins — you can always add more as things pop up. If you miss something, don’t stress. Just move it to the next day and mark it as urgent.

And here’s a cheeky hack: if you’ve already done something that’s not on your list, write it down retroactively… then tick it off. Bonus dopamine for you.

It sounds almost childish, but this is how you build momentum. Each tick is proof you’re moving forward — and those small wins stack up into bigger ones.

 

Summary

Right, time to wrap up here. You've got an origin story to get on with! So here it is, my five easy wins to boost your productivity, all backed by science:

1. Make your bed for momentum.
2. Fast and hydrate to recharge.
3. Switch to natural products for a genuine reset.
4. Get sunlight to set your body clock.
5. Write a to-do list to build dopamine and momentum.

Don't forget to take the quiz at the bottom of the page!

So, what do you think?

Is this going to work… or is it just a load of rubbish? Honestly, there’s only one way to find out: try it. If you don’t believe me, prove me wrong. Do everything on this list consistently for 30 days and see what happens.

You’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain. An old manager once told me: “There are people who wait for things to happen, and there are people who make things happen. Which one are you?”

So assemble those Avengers. Carpe that diem. Major your Nuts. Or just keep doing what you’ve been doing now. The choice is yours, my friend.

And in the meantime, be sustainable, be pioneering, be empowering, be heroic.