Hour 1: The Empire Building Habit

Commit the first working hour of your day 100% to building your empire without distraction.

Building your empire means working for yourself, on the projects that are ultimately going to reward you with freedom. For a lot of us, this means working on our small businesses; developing our own brands, content, products, systems, and marketing.

• If you are a career professional it could mean developing your hard skill sets.
• If you are a writer it means turning blank white pages into art.
• If you are an athlete it means training, hitting the gym, or getting coaching.

For the longest time, my morning routine was something like this...

Alarm
Snooze
Get dressed
Relax in a hammock
Check my email
Check social media
Get a snack or light breakfast
Get on my laptop
Finally, begin working on what seems like the most pressing issue of the day

Like most people, working on my own empire just got pushed back in the day; it either didn't get done or didn't get the attention and mental energy it deserved.

During Hour 1 there are some things we need to say NO to:

• social media
• email
• calls
• digital socializing
• text messaging
• dealing with BS or drama
• client work

But there are a couple of reasons you won't practice Hour 1: Empire Building...

• Your environment - You really need a physical space free of distractions for Hour 1 Empire Building; working alone in a home office is ideal, however on the laptop in a cafe with headphones in (to prevent distraction) has also worked great for me.
• Your job - You have a job that you go to daily, you wake up early to get ready or to commute to your job. You are either need to have to start Biohacking your sleep to wake up earlier or lifehack your commute to free up an hour in your mornings.
• The Wifi settings on your phone - In an article on smartphone addiction, the Huffington Post reported that 54% of smartphone users begin their mornings by checking their phones while in bed. If you start your morning by looking at Facebook or checking your email on your phone you are inevitably going to be distracted from empire-building.
• Lack of consistency and accountability - Hopefully you'll get inspired and try Hour 1 this week (leave a comment here letting me know how this goes), however, this is one of those habits that only creates powerful life-changing results when it's multiplied by hundreds of hours of focused work. The most effective free way to keep you motivated and accountable is, in my experience, gamification and social pressure...

I invite you to join the Hour 1 Empire Building Habit on Coach.me - the best habit tracking app

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I will try to personally comment or give props to support everyone who checks into this habit. If you join Coach.me and add the habit I hope you'll do the same!

As a creative, with this productivity habit and others, in a decade I've managed to write two books and a thousand articles (totaling over a million words), along with producing hundreds of high-quality educational videos and podcasts. All while traveling to +20 countries, learning two languages, maintaining a happy marriage, staying fit, and getting enough sleep. So STOP making excuses and start lifehacking...