There is a phenomenon in psychology known as the primacy effect. This concept illustrates why it is a good idea to create a morning routine. Or to tackle your most important work early in the day. Reason being, the primacy effect is the observation that we tend to remember the beginning of something vs. the middle or end. We pay more attention to the start of something. This is the reason behind the old saying “You never get a second chance to make a first impression”.
And this is the reason why our program focuses on the importance of creating a morning routine. It is critical to changing our brains, our habits and generating success in all areas of life. Just think about it – not only are our brains in a lower brain wave state, more alert and more malleable in the morning, but we are also more likely to be attentive because of the primacy effect. And attention is critical for neuroplasticity in adulthood.
Capitalizing on the Primacy Effect
Reading and learning are integral components of a strong morning routine. Let’s say we want to learn how to better manage our stress by leveraging the primacy effect. Pretend, as part of your morning routine, you are reading the book Logic Mind & Health: Moving Beyond Stress to a Happier, More Purposeful Life. Great book I might add.
And in that book, you learn about breathing techniques to calm you down in the heat of a stressful moment. Because you read the book in the morning, you just increased your chances dramatically of committing the material to memory. And of being able to incorporate that technique later that day.
You also just helped promote neuroplasticity because you had strong focus while reading in the morning. And because you likely remembered what you read, you also likely incorporated the technique later that day.
See how this all ties together? If you tried to pick up the book sometime during the daily chaos, you likely would have forgotten what you read. Or you may not have even read at all. You would have missed out on the learning and a greater chance at neuroplasticity. Also, you would’ve missed the opportunity to incorporate the breathing technique you learned that morning.
So use the power of the primacy effect to start your day off with a morning routine that consists of learning, thinking and action that will have a cascading effect throughout the day. For help with this, check out the book or other blog posts/logicast episodes and resources on the website.
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