My Morning Routine
Over the weekend, I received an email from a recent blog-subscriber, asking what my morning routine is in regard to blogging and social media, particularly considering that I work full-time as a school administrator. After crafting a quick response, I thought it was worth sharing my response in a blog post.
Early to Sleep, Early to Rise
I am an extremely-productive “morning person.” As a result, I find it best to go to sleep at a relatively-early hour and arise as early as possible. My schedule is to be in bed by about 9pm and my alarm goes off around 4:45am. I LOVE the morning time, but I have a feeling that if coffee was cut from my existence, this opinion would be significantly different.
Can Never Get Enough News
Aside from pouring my first cup ‘o joe for the day, I like to listen to the preceding evening’s recording of Coast to Coast AM with George Noory, of which I am an Coast to Coast Insider member. It’s a relatively-small membership fee that bills every three months. I find it well-worth the price, since I’m rarely awake from midnight-4am. I also pull-up quick news stories at Lawrence-Journal World, Kansas City Star, Chicago Tribune, CNN, and Drudge Report. These are websites I frequent often during the day and find them to be a quick resource for acquiring news as a part of my morning routine.
Work-Hard, Play-Hard
I don’t waste any time getting right to work on my various blogs, websites, and overall digital marketing tasks. And since I consider the digital media work I do to be fun, I can actually “work-hard and play-hard” at the same time.
Before embarking on any tasks, my very first step of the morning routine is to check the preceding day’s Google AdSense stats. I don’t incorporate Google Ads on my blogs and websites as my method to “retire early,” but it does provide modest revenue. I believe it is important to monetize aspects of one’s blog or websites (which is different for each person’s blogging goals). It also gives me a quick glimpse as to how popular certain websites and sub-domains may have been the day before. And frankly, what a fun way to start your day than see a “paycheck” for the hard-work you put in the day prior.
Data, Data, Data
The next part of my morning routine is to heck my web analytics using Google Analytics. This is an awesome web tool that provides ample information about visitors’ behaviors on your websites. I like looking for how many pages have been viewed by unique and returning visitors, traffic generation sources, length of time on pages/posts, and from where in the world does the reader live. These quick analytics give me a pretty decent glimpse of my typical reader and their preferences, for that respective day.
Ultimately, I will be using Google Analytics to track conversion rates from blog posts to mailing opt-in lists and memberships, sales of my digital media products, and memberships purchased at my membership site.
Bombarded with Emails
After my analytics tour, I dedicate a big chunk of my morning checking, writing, and responding to emails. Needless to say, depending on how active I was the day before, I have a ton of emails waiting for me to open. Some of the emails are automated analytics tools that report when my blog posts get blasted and shared on social media tools. Others are spam. And several other emails are sent by the awesome readers, like you!
Getting Social, in my Pajamas
About this part of my morning routine, I find myself rotating between my various social media and social networking tools–Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, YouTube.
It’s important to respond to comments and posts from others, to keep the ongoing communication and dialogue going. I have to limit myself though, because this could easily dominate the ENTIRE morning.
Time to Get Ready for Work
The last part of my morning routine is to get ready for my day job. As a school administrator, our school hours are pretty early, which means getting in before 7am. The positive is that our dismissal is early. But, since I’ve been up since 4:45am, I’m usually wide-awake once the first bell of the day rings.
Hope you enjoyed this quick little synopsis of my morning routine. If I realize I left anything major off my list, I’ll be sure to edit the blog post.
Again, this information isn’t being shared because I actually think you CARE about my morning routine, but for those interested in knowing how I occupy my time and what tasks to prioritize early in the day–here’s how I do it.
Category: Blog, Entrepreneurship
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