Most of us procrastinate. Correction: ALL of us procrastinate. Heck, I even procrastinated writing this article. 
1. Reduce the Number of Decisions You Need to Make Throughout the Day.
Every decision we make has an energy consequence. If you wake up in the morning, and you need to ask yourself, “What do I need to do today?" — well, you’re about to procrastinate the today. If you approach each new day without having given thought to what you want it to look like ahead of time, then you’ll waste a large portion of your energy thinking about what to do and what not to do.
Should I hit the gym today, or go tomorrow? Should I say Yes to lunch with Barry Boombatz from Accounting, or should I do a quick lunch solo so I can get back to the office and finish up this presentation? Should I wear this or wear that? Eat this or eat that? Reply now or later?
We’re asking ourselves questions like this all day long.
Problem is, questions compel us to respond with answers, which compel us to make decisions… This drains you of your self-control and makes you tired—which leads to you procrastinating on whatever matters most in your life.
Tip #1 for avoiding procrastination is to reduce the number of decisions you need to make during a given day by making those decisions ahead of time and/or creating habits around certain areas of your life to boost your effectiveness and prevent you from draining your energy by thinking about whether to do them or not. Some examples:

• decide in advance exactly which days of the week you’ll exercise, instead of deciding the day-of;
• pick out your clothes the night before rather than the morning-of;
• choose the most important thing that needs to get done tomorrow, and schedule time to do it;

These are just a few simple examples, but it’s usually the simple things that matter most. What are some examples you can think of to reduce the number of decisions you make in your own life? Doing this will free up the energy you’ll need in order to stay focused on doing the big + meaningful stuff, rather than procrastinating on it by doing the little + meaningless stuff.

Now, back to waking up early and working out. How do you do it? Here are a few practical tips for making it happen.

1. Plan it out. 
Plan all your workouts BEFORE you step foot into the gym. Write it down, or get an app like Gym Buddy to keep you on track. Having plans and goals are crucial. Otherwise you’ll end up screwing around and leaving early.

2. Picture yourself doing tomorrow’s workout today. 
One of the things I do every night before going to bed is to whip out my phone and go over my workout routine for the following morning real quick before calling it a night. I envision myself CRUSHING it in the gym. Performing every exercise and hitting new personal records for each of them. Yes, it helps. And yes, it makes a difference. Currently, I’m keeping my workouts in an Evernote checklist titled “Dean’s Training Program: Week 2”. The tools I use change from time to time, but the process doesn’t. ​

3. Set it and forget it. 
Place your alarm clock far enough away from your bed that you must physically get out of bed in order to shut that thing off.

The Dopamine Effect
Now, once you’ve gotten out of the gym, you probably feel really good about yourself for having gotten up early and workout out. This then, gives you small doses  of yet another naturally occurring chemical in your body, known as Dopamine, which gives you the feelings of positive reinforcement for having done a good job. 
As The Day Goes On
Now you’re in your car and headed to work feeling like a champion. You already know that no one else in your peer group got up as early as you did to workout, so that just makes you feel even better. Whether that’s right or wrong is neither here nor there — but for a lot of us, it *is* true.

If you add a little morning meditation into the mix, that’s even better. And if you add a little visualization and gratitude action on top of that — well, then, you’ll *really* be setting yourself up for a GREAT day.

OKAY, I GET IT. SO HOW DO I GET MYSELF TO WAKE UP EARLY AND WORKOUT?Now, back to waking up early and working out. How do you do it? Here are a few practical tips for making it happen. SEE TOMORROW'S POST.

I’ve talked about how much I love waking up and working out. The reasons for this are many, including the research-driven data that shows how exercising in the morning actually gives us MORE energy, as opposed to the widely touted myth that working out early drains us of energy. 
Again, the reverse is true -- though not for every one, at least for most of us -- not only does working out in the morning help us become more energetic, it can actually set a powerful series of events in motion to help you create more productive days, weeks, months, and years for yourself. 

The Endorphin Effect
If you wake up early and workout vigorously for a minimum of 45 minutes or more, then a naturally-produced chemical known as Endorphin begins to surge through your body, giving you a natural high (also known as “runner’s high). This chemical kicks into your body because it’s meant to mask the pain your putting your muscles through when you lift weights or do hard core cardio. 
Side note: when you’re lifting weights, you’re basically ripping and tearing your muscle fibers… the reason why muscles actually grow in size isn’t because of the lifting of weights, it’s because of the eating of foods. When you tear up your muscle fibers in the gym, you need to put nutrition-dense foods back into your body in order to give them a reason to re-build… and if you want them to come back larger, it’s best to optimize your diet accordingly.