“Music. It lifts us up. It soothes our soul. It keeps us going when we are working out. It helps us get ready on time.”
WHAT?!
You heard right — use music to motivate you and keep you on track in the morning. You probably already have a “Workout Playlist” on your ipod. But do you also have a “Get out the Door Playlist”?
Here are some tips for setting up a playlist to get you out the door on time.
- What gets your motor running? Figure out what songs you like best. Do you like to wake up slow and quiet or are you more likely to use calm music as a way to roll over and head back to sleep?
- Block out your tasks: wake up, shower, shave/make-up, get dressed, prepare breakfast, eat breakfast, daydream/reflection/day planning, find your stuff, head out the door.
- Block our your time: Decide how much time you need for each time block, pick music for each time block.
- Download your playlist to your ipod and make sure you leave it (charged) next to your alarm so it’s ready to go in the morning.
- Use the music. Each song group becomes a timer to keep you on track. For example, get your makeup on while “Last Friday Night” is playing. When it’s over, it’s time for you to run downstairs and get breakfast.
- Mix it up. When you start ignoring the background music, it’s time to set a new playlist.
- Don’t limit yourself to what’s hot today. Songs like James Brown’s, (I Got You) I Feel Good, have been used for generations to get moving. Many old tunes can be downloaded for free using Freegal and a library card.
Some hot hits today you might consider for your morning playlist are:
- Party Rock Anthem, LMFAO
- Blow, Kesha
- Fabulous, High School Musical
- And here’s the classic, James Brown motivator:
And a few more ideas:
- You can also use a playlist to keep you on track for studying. Classical music has been shown to improve learning and retention.
- You don’t have to spend a lot of time engineering your own mix. You can find playlists that have worked for other people on services like playlist.com or share and build your playlist with your friends using Spotify.
So what’s on your playlist?