Does this sound like you?

Your alarm goes off on your phone and you wake up a little groggy. Immediately you check your emails and answer some. You then turn to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to see your updates and notifications and attend to any `urgent’ business.

Before you know it over 30 minutes has gone by and you wonder where time goes! So you get up, get dressed in some form of workout gear with the best intentions to go after breakfast.

While making breaky you’re checking your phone for any further updates, half texting, half stirring your porridge or your eggs, or sipping your cup of coffee or tea. Likely you’re very unaware what the weather is doing outside and you’re already engrossed in your work day.

If you work from home like me, you probably have your laptop open already while eating your breakfast, perhaps checking Google Reader to read the latest blogs that you’re subscribed to.

Before you know it 2 hours have passed and you’re still in your workout gear, still at that table and on to your second cup of coffee and you haven’t actually got on to your To Do List for today.

Let’s check in with you. How are you feeling right now?

A. Successful because you’ve been on the go all morning being busy

B. A little stressed because you’ve been up for hours yet haven’t got much done yet

C. Frustrated because once again your dirty habits have worked against you

D. Fed up and wanting to know how to stop this time sucking routine

Great I’m hear to help.

Yes, I know where you’re at because I still catch myself doing that from time to time. And you do you know what? It never works. Trust me. I never feel successful, energized, structured and on top of the world?

Why? Because if you noticed I have not given myself even the slightest bit of time to just BE. To take stock of how my body feels this morning, whether my quality of sleep was good, whether I’m in the mood for writing, or marketing, or sorting out administrative tasks.

I’ve mindlessly eaten my breakfast and plonked my ass in a chair for half a day and got more and more bogged down. Basically I’ve spent my entire waking moments not being present and not looking after myself before I look after my business.

So what should I be doing instead?

Great question. Tony Robbins has a lot to say on this and he should know as the guru of self empowerment, and reclaiming your life. If you’ve never heard of him then I urge you to read his books, listen to his audios, even follow him on Twitter.

Back when I was doing my bodysculpting, studying exercise prescription extramurally and holding down a full on job I was reading his book – Awaken the Giant Within and I was a supercharged overachiever!

Actually I wasn’t just reading it, I was implementing everything he told me to (which is where most people fail – a book can’t change your life for you just by you reading it).  I also had a 40 minute drive to work each day and since I was getting up at 5:30am to hit the gym I had plenty of times to listen to his `Get the Edge’ 7 day series.

I’d arrive at work `juiced’ and on a high, determined to have an amazing day, kick ass and do the same for others.

How does this apply to me?

Well there’s a few key things that Tony knows, as do so many other successful people that you can make part of your daily routine that will give you energy, focus and a lot more time to do what you want.

You need to develop your Daily Power Hour.

Yes 1 hour in your day just for you that gets you leaping out of bed and into action and totally set for the rest of your winning day.

Here’s how my above example looks with you choosing to have a Power Hour instead.

Phase 1: Move and Breathe (5 minutes)

I don’t care where you live, whether you’re on the road for work, attending a conference that starts early, or taking a long commute. The first thing you do when you hear your alarm is LEAP out of bed, put your sneakers on and move your body!

Yep for just 5 minutes. Get yourself out the house and do a brisk walk or a light jog. Trust me it will feel so good to get up and get some oxygen pumped into your lungs.

Hint: You’ll probably find once you’re out and exercising that you want to extend this into 20-30 minutes or even a run to your gym or swimming pool. Do it.

Phase 2: Get grateful and visualise (10 minutes)

Do you ever catch yourself saying `If only I had this, if only I could do this, I wish I was more this, this and this’. How about starting off your morning saying  something like this, or writing it down:

“I am grateful for my great health, the fact that I am able to do anything with my body – dance, sing, leap, swim, jump, run, dive and push myself.

I am grateful for mother nature surrounding me with the great outdoors, fresh air, beautiful trees and flowers, amazing insects and animals that I get to experience everyday.

I’m so happy I have a loving father/ mother/ partner/ husband/ dog in my life. They make my day and I love spending time with them. I am so blessed to have an awesome network of friends who make me laugh and smile.

I am honoured to have an incredible business partner/ talented team/ board of advisors to make me realise how far I can go in life and all the strengths I have and make my business stronger.

I know today that I will be on fire, that I will rip through my to do list and focus on the top 20% of tasks that will bring me 80% of the results.

I will attract amazing clients to my business who make my work easy through word of mouth referrals. I will develop a new system to better market my products and they will fly out the door. I will then maximize my opportunities by making incredible new contacts at the business meeting tonight.”

You get my point. How good does that make you feel just reading the above. You have also created your own reality by visualising how you want your day to look.

The mind can’t decipher between something you vividly imagine and what you actually experience  so create what you want. Being grateful focuses you on how lucky you are and makes your own worries seem trivial in the scheme of things.

Phase 3: Incantations and Meditation (15-30 minutes)

Before I lose you completely as you imagine yourself chanting and dancing around a room, think about this. If you told yourself every morning that you were ugly, what would do that for your self confidence.

Now imagine you started your day with a daily mantra about why you were a superstar and were going to succeed, consider how your day would be.

Repetition is the key here and speaking out loud which engages your physiology and conditions the ideas into your mind. Use powerful words – none of this `kind of, nice, possibly, maybe’.

Go for it, be big, be bold and believe in yourself.

Not sure you can spare the time?

Just try this for a week, and if you don’t see results then call me a liar. But if you can’t take out an hour for yourself in the morning, get up earlier than the rest of the household to ensure that you have the best day ever, then what do you spend your time on? Your iPhone?

Does your iPhone make you feel on the top of the world? I think not.

I can guarantee by the end of the week you would have achieved more than you thought possible, you did it with energy, focus and conviction. And that you found some more time creeping into your day because you’d got the important stuff out of the way.

Make sure you use the Pareto Rule

In addition to the above I’m throwing in one more thing. That’s prioritizing your work so that you’re doing the right stuff. The tasks that bring you the results you need.

Yes I’m talking about the Pareto Rule – where 20% of what you do gets you 80% of the results. Yep, focus on that 20% and you don’t need to do the other 80% of the useless stuff that you fill your `busy days’ with.

How do you know what that stuff is? Well look at where your results are coming from and focus in on those things, start culling the rest. What seems `necessary’ to do may just be a result of long standing bad habits. Set them free.

Start creating the life you want!