The Daily Routine of Professional High Fliers

Everyone wants to be successful. Human beings are just wired that way; we seek out success and gravitate towards successful people. Whether that’s in our professional lives, or in our extra-curricular activities like sport, people enjoy the positive feeling that achieving something brings.

If you take a look at those who are the most successful and their routines, you can usually find common ground between them. Here's our guide to the daily routine of professional high fliers that you can use to help you achieve more in your career.

Wake Up Early

This seems to be a shared idea amongst successful people in all walks of life. CEOs of big corporations tend to wake up well before their lower-level employees. Apple CEO Tim Cook, for example, wakes up at 3:45 am every morning. You could possibly put that down to the fact that CEOs need the extra hours just to get through their heavy workload, but there's more to it than that.

You don’t need to have as drastic a sleep pattern as Mr. Cook, but waking up early is something that everyone can benefit from. Waking up at 6am instead of 7am means you’ve gained an hour where most people are still asleep, leaving you distraction-free to power through work or fit in some exercise.

If you’re in need of a little help becoming a morning person, check out this Business Insider video.

Positivity

It’s a bit of a cliché, but staying positive when faced with challenges is a great common denominator of successful people. The former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, once stated that he doesn’t “do bad days”. It is a choice you make, and when put like that, it seems silly to choose a bad day over a good one.

Being upbeat and positive are attractive traits. Ultimately, whether you work in-house or in an agency, recruitment is about fostering relationships with potential candidates and/or clients. Your demeanour will play a huge role in how those relationships play out.

Plus, being positive is good for your health.

Set Goals

Having a list of goals that you want to achieve, and giving yourself a target to strive towards, is a common strategy used by successful people. 

Whether you want to place a certain quota of candidates per month in new positions, or get that sought-after promotion by the end of the year, goals motivate us to work better. 

One way I do this on a small-scale is to have a ‘tomorrow list’ which is one of our 5 Resolutions Recruiters Should Stick to in 2016.  I have a small notebook that sits on my desk, and at the end of each working day, I write down everything that needs to get done the next day.

The next morning, begin ticking those tasks off the list. Other tasks will get added during the day but you’ll know exactly what needs to be accomplished before you can leave the office.  

Do The Work

Having set your goals, you now have to get on with accomplishing them! Unfortunately there’s no quick and easy fix for doing the work you need to get done. 

And yes, that might mean you have to stay late to make phone calls to candidates who aren’t contactable during normal working hours. But would you rather spend an hour working at night to speak to a candidate who is a great fit and you know will delight your client, or settle for a candidate who is just an okay fit but made your life a little easier because he could speak to you during the working day?

You don’t need to work yourself to the bone for 16 hours a day and work every weekend. In fact, Sweden has introduced a six-hour working day in order to actually increase productivity. That being said, going the extra mile every so often could be the difference between talking about being a high-flier and actually becoming one.

By getting up earlier or sleeping better, remaining positive, setting goals both short and long-term and then getting stuck in to achieving those goals, you’ll find it that much easier to be successful. 

Feel free to leave a comment and share any tips that you think are crucial to becoming a professional high-flier!