Author: Bud Hennekes

Did You Hear The Big News? + The Biggest Misconception About Morning Routines

Did you hear the big news? Pavlok is introducing the Pavlok Rise later this month. And we couldn’t be more excited. Pavlok Rise is the only wearable and software combination that will help you wake up, stay up, and form a productive morning routine.

Be sure to checkout the announcement video here and comment “tell me” to get the latest Pavlok Rise News

Now to today’s post…..

There’s a common misconception when it comes to building a morning routine, one that we’ve seen time and time again when helping people build better habits here at Pavlok.

The misconception?

You HAVE to be a morning person.

While it’s true, to get the most out of a morning routine, you may have to wake up a little bit sooner than normal…

You can see amazing results just by waking up 20-30 minutes earlier. No really.

You don’t have to wake up at 4 AM or only get 5 hours of sleep to benefit from having a morning ritual.

In fact, the morning routine is incredibly flexible if you implement it correctly.

We get it. Sleep is important. And waking up can be a challenge for many.

But once you learn to ENJOY your mornings.. It becomes much less difficult to greet the day.

And that’s why morning routines are so powerful.

It’s not about being right in the “morning person vs night owl debate.” It’s not about being perfect.

It’s about making a conscious effort to set your day up for success.

When you start your day with exercise, meditation and prayer, or reading your favorite book, you start to view your entire day and life differently.

You start to be less crabby at the office.

You start to plan a little more.

You start taking action on what used to be only ideas in your heads.

And then the magic happens.

What we’ve found over the years of helping hundreds of people wake up, is that a productive morning routine is a powerful motivator to help you be the best person you can be.

Waking up late and rushing out the door only sets you up to start the day in a bad mood or super anxious.

But there is a better way….

If you like staying up super late and that works for you — by all means go for it. If you feel like you have boundless energy and time.. Great.

But if you’ve struggled to get  quality sleep, are always falling behind, and have no time to chase your dreams…

Perhaps it’s time you try something new. Perhaps it’s time you consider having a morning routine.

Next week we’ll be sharing exactly how to build a morning routine, by doing 3  simple things the night before.

Talk soon,

-Maneesh Sethi

CEO of Pavlok

P.S My good friend Daniel DiPiazza just released his new book Rich20Something. Daniel was the FIRST writer here at Pavlok and even has a badass Pavlok tattoo. If you’re looking to upgrade your finances and life, I highly recommend you give it a read. Plus, the best part is, I’m featured in one of the chapters. 🙂 

 

How Maria Changed Her Life With A Morning Routine

Like most people, Maria struggled to get out of bed.

The temptation of hitting snooze was just too much.

She tried everything.

She went to bed earlier.

She put her alarm clock in the other room.

And she even had her friends knock on her door to her wake up.

Nothing worked.

Instead of being able to eat breakfast at her own pace, she would often throw something together as she rushed out the door.

Then she gave Pavlok a try.

After years of struggling to get up on time, Maria’s mornings quickly changed for the better.

She was finally able to take control of her day…

But something funny happened. Getting up on time was just the beginning.

After a while, Maria wanted to make the most of her extra time.

She started reading before heading to work.

She started enjoying her delicious homemade breakfast without worrying about being late.

She even dabbled in meditation.

Watch the video to hear how Maria used Pavlok to wake up on time.

While she didn’t intentionally set out to make a morning routine, these many positive habits, slowly became a part of her morning.

And she hasn’t looked back since.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about the power of the morning routine. Why? Because it is without a doubt, one of the best ways to build positive habits that last.

While there’s no such thing as ‘magic bullets,’ having a morning ritual is the next best thing.

We’ve even noticed, that many of the most successful members of the Pavlok community all have a morning routine. That’s not a coincidence.  

Why is a morning routine so powerful? Because instead of reacting to the world, you are consciously choosing how you start your day.

A few years ago, I shared my morning routine, as well as the morning routines of super successful entrepreneurs Tim Ferriss and Leo Babauta — it was one of the most popular things I’ve ever written.  

Since then, I’ve continued to improve and tweak my morning ritual to set myself up for having the best day possible.

And after years of testing and tweaking, and helping others do the same, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t when building your morning ritual.

Over the last few months, the morning routine has been the foundation of what we’ve been working on at Pavlok – because we believe it has the potential to change so many lives.

Getting up on time is one thing, but imagine having 1-2 hours of focused productivity as well. The opportunities are endless.

In a few weeks, we’ll be launching Pavlok’s best product yet [Hint: it has to do with morning routines.]  But in the meantime, I’d love to invite you to our LIVE announcement this Tuesday at 3 PM EST (12PM PST) where I’ll be sharing our BIG news.

Imagine… instead of walking out the door stressed and anxious, you’re pumped to greet the day.

Imagine... starting your day off with some invigorating exercise and your favorite food for breakfast.

Imagine… being able to finally work on those projects you’ve never had time for.

With a morning routine, you can.

Regardless of where you find yourself in your habit journey, a morning routine is very well within your reach.

We’re excited to show you how to get where you want to go.

Join Us This Tuesday, May 2 @ 3PM EST (12 PST)

Register for the Event Here

Can’t wait to see you there.

-Maneesh Sethi

P.S Be sure to join me as we announce some HUGE news at Pavlok. Tune in on Tuesday May 2nd @ 3PM EST (12 PST) to watch our LIVE announcement. If you’ve been wanting to have a morning routine… You won’t want to miss this.

6 Products That Will Change Your Sleep Forever….

As you may have noticed, over the last few weeks we’ve discussed a lot about the power of a morning routine, and while we’ll have much more about that coming up soon… getting high quality sleep should be your number one focus when trying to improve your habits and life.

At Pavlok we believe getting high quality sleep is one of the best things you can do improve your life.  Being well rested is especially important for having more willpower and implementing positive habits.

Unfortunately, you’ll read a lot of blogs and books out there that push the “Hustle! #NOSLEEP” lifestyle, which for many, does much more harm than good.

Of course, we believe in working hard in any area you’re trying to improve, but you shouldn’t sacrifice quality sleep in the process. If you’re looking to dive into the science of sleep, we highly recommend Arianna Huffington’s recent book “The Sleep Revolution.”

In today’s post, we’ll be sharing 5 products that will help you get better quality shuteye — all tested personally by the Pavlok team.

1. Philips Wake Up Light

One of the reasons many people are so groggy in the morning is because they wake up to a blaring alarm in the wrong stage of sleep.

Making sure you wake up at the ideal stage of your sleep cycle goes a long way in making sure you wake up with the most energy and focus as possible.

The Philips Wake Up Light is programed to wake you up gradually within a 30 minute window and it’s light mimics the sunrise, so your body is woken up naturally.

It also includes a variety of soothing sounds from nature and elsewhere so you wake up feel refreshed and ready to go.

 

2. Melatonin

For most people, getting to fall asleep is the biggest roadblock to actually getting high quality sleep.

Maybe you toss and turn for several hours before finally reaching dream land.

Melatonin is easily one of the most effective supplements to help you fall asleep and quickly.

Melatonin is a hormone found naturally in the body and responsible for adjusting your bodies internal clock. Unfortunately, many of our bodies “internal clocks” are a little off.

When taking Melatonin, you’re basically telling your brain — it’s time for bed. It won’t work for everyone, but for many, it does just the trick.

Note: We don’t play doctor at Pavlok, but one of the benefits of melatonin over a prescribed sleep medication, is melatonin is not addictive by nature. Please speak with your Dr. first.

 

3. Flux

One of the reasons our bodies “internal clocks” are so off, is we’re constantly being bombarded with unnatural light, particularly from our computer and phone screens.

So it’s no wonder why after watching Netflix for three hours before bed, you struggle to finally get some sleep after shutting your computer down.

Fortunately, there’s an awesome application that alters the color of your screen to emulate the respective time of day, so your body and eyes know it’s getting close to bed.

Using your phone and computer’s GPS signal, Flux will alter your screen light automatically. After using Flux for a few weeks you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

You can download Flux here.

 

4. Swannies Blue Light Blocking Glasses

Altering the light from your computer screen and phone are one thing, but there’s still plenty of bad light that affects your sleep — your TV, Kindle, the light outside, etc.

Blue Light Blocking Glasses are designed to block ANY incoming bad light so you’re free to continue on as usual.

Most blue light blocking glasses are anti reflective and anti glare so it actually reduces quite a bit of stress on your eyes as well.

Just pop these bad boys on an hour or two before you go to sleep.. and you’re good to go.

These glasses are game changing.

 

5. Aroma Therapy + Music

Another fantastic combo for getting to bed at a decent hour is aroma therapy + soothing music.

You can get an aromatherapy mister and humidifier for just 20 bucks.

It’s a nice ritual to get your brain in the mood for sleep and helps you relax after a long or stressful day.

My favorite go to is Lavender while listening to The Monument Valley soundtrack.

I fall asleep almost instantly.

6. The Pavlok

The best way to improve any area of your life is to start tracking.

If you’re trying to lose weight, log what you eat.
If you’re trying to gain muscle at the gym, log every workout.

The same goes with sleep.

Use the Pavlok to help you track your sleep.

Over time as you continue to track your sleeping behavior, you’ll discover patterns on what your body does and does not respond to.

Maybe you start to notice your sleep quality is significantly better when you don’t drink. Or maybe you notice you get more sleep if you read before bed.

The only way to find out is to track it, the Pavlok and our app will help you get there.

 

 

Inside Pavlok – April App Updates

Welcome to another edition of Inside Pavlok.

Twice a month our engineering and development team share the latest updates with all things Pavlok. We like to give the community an inside look at what’s going behind the scenes, and we’re super excited at some of the newest features and updates.

Hope you enjoy the inside look at what we’re building…

Take it away, John and team. 

—

This month’s release of the Pavlok app is all about building a better infrastructure and measuring the user journey. Our goal is to make sure things just “work.” In every decision we make, we want to make it easier for you to get the most from the app — aka build and improve your habits.

We spend a ton of time working hard to understand how the Pavlok community progresses through the app, and what works to keep their habits in check. We love seeing our users have HUGE transformations in their lives and we aim to make the Pavlok app the best resource around.

Our latest update won’t look much different from a UI (User Design) perspective, but we have added significantly more function in regard to analytics and actionable insights from that data. Moving forward, we want to help you along the path of habit transformation with real-time feedback and suggestions.

On the infrastructure side, our back end boys, Igor and Rafael, have been busy constructing an automated testing framework that performs full regression testing on every build. In plain English, they make sure the app runs as you’d expect. There’s nothing worse than a helpful app that struggles to work properly.

Here is a rundown of what is new in this release:

  • Analytics
  • Crash detection
  • Bug fixes
    • Android memory optimizations
    • Intercom fixes
    • Push notification fixes
    • Battery indicator fixes
  • Grammar Updates

For our coding readers out there, you know that continuous integration is a best practice for making sure an app works time and time again. I am excited to say that we are well on schedule with this release and can’t wait to share it with you. We’ll be testing dozens of proof points to make sure there are no bugs or surprises.

With the new update, we also fixed a few old bugs (thank you Pavlok community for letting us know!) There were 7 people these bugs affected in the past, but we are also happy to report we have patched things up successfully. One of the biggest improvements we’ve made recently is the communication between the app and Pavlok hardware — no more freezing or hangups.

We are always testing on how to make it a better experience for our users, and constantly releasing new iterations of the app into the wild.

Before we go, we wanted to share a few useful features of the app.

You can set a “Sleep Goal Reminder” on the Sleep page by clicking on the edit pencil icon as shown below: There you can turn on notifications and set up the times to be notified. Tap the wake up goal to set your desired wake up time to properly calculate the sleep goal.

When setting up your alarms, you can also choose the stimuli patterns and even program your Pavlok to require you to get up and do 5 jumping jacks (some refer to these as “Star Jumps”). See the screenshots to locate the proper controls!

We are very excited about the progress of the app, and even more excited about some exciting new features and releases in the very short future.

Here’s some of what you can look forward to coming your way soon.

  • Pavlok is changing its interface into a Launcher style (Apps within the Pavlok App)
  • Adding better onboarding for individual habits and use cases
  • Improved graphics and tracking capabilities
  • Much more

We love hearing from you,  so please reach out with your suggestions and feedback, it helps us make the best product and app possible.

That’s it for the latest edition of Inside Pavlok.

—

Thanks for the awesome update John.

As you can see, we’re super busy here making Pavlok the best resource and tool to help you improve your habits.

And while we’ve had some pretty significant updates recently with the app, the best is yet to come.

If you joined us for our morning routine webinar last week, you got a sneak peak…

But here’s a little hint in case you missed it —  What is the most important keystone habit you can form before most people wake up?

We’ll be sharing more very soon…

-Maneesh Sethi

P.S Check out latest improvements on the Pavlok App. You can download on both  IOS and Google Play (No Pavlok wearable needed.)

 

#MotivationMonday – The Power of Community

Happy #MotivationMondy everyone!

We were blown away by the turnout for our Pavlok Spring sale, and we’re excited to officially welcome so many new faces to the Pavlok community.

Speaking of which, we received a ton of emails from people who wanted to buy, but the timing just wasn’t right.

Maybe you were unsure if Pavlok will really help you with a specific habit. Or maybe cash is a little tight.

We get it. Really.

Our number one goal at Pavlok is to help you reach your habit and life goals, no matter where you’re starting from.

Whether you’re a single mother working two jobs, and trying to cut back smoking…

A busy business executive trying to wake up early…

Or a sophomore in college trying to be more productive…

We want to make Pavlok the number one self-improvement resource for you.

Which is why we’re excited to share the latest developments of the Pavlok app.

Each week we post the best articles and resources to help you get the most from life. Over the next few months, we’ll continue adding tutorials, ultimate guides, courses and more.

You’ll also be able to interact with hundreds of people all around the world trying to improve themselves each day. What’s not to like?

Best yet; you don’t have to own a Pavlok or shock clock to use the app.

If you have a smartphone, you can use the Pavlok app for free.

Check out some of the awesome conversations and comments from the Pavlok community.

Evan stopped sleeping in using the Shock Clock.

Jesse went from smoking 3 packs a day to having one on occasion with Pavlok.

We couldn’t be more excited about the direction Pavlok is heading and we can’t wait to show you the latest features we’ve been working on as well as some exciting new products launching in the near future.

Let this email be your permission to go have a kick ass Monday.

But before you go, leave a comment and tell me how you’re gonna make today great.

P.S Download the app on IOS and Google Play (No Pavlok wearable needed.)

Ain’t Nobody Got Time For Fake News

Happy Monday Pavlokians,

Welcome to another edition of #MotivationMonday. There’s nothing like a little boost to get your week started on the right track…

But you know what’s not very motivating?

Fake news.

Specifically, the influx of “1 Star” Amazon reviews that we’ve received over the last few weeks on both the Shock Clock and Pavlok — almost all of which were unverified purchases.

Here’s a few of our favorites.

Gee.. where have I heard “scammer” before.. Also, Pavlok did release a rubber band. 😉

Now look, as CEO of Pavlok, I’ll be the first to admit we’ve had our fair share of growing pains. We’ve made mistakes. And while our product has helped thousands of people change their lives for the better, it isn’t the right fit for everyone.

We’re extremely grateful for constructive criticism and welcome it with open arms, and we are constantly listening to the Pavlok community to continue to improve.

But we won’t let fake news deter us from helping people all around the world become better versions of themselves.

And the truth is, I’ve never been more excited about the future of Pavlok.

So here’s your dose of motivation for the day. Go out and make a dent in the universe doing the things you truly believe in.

Because the secret to fighting the fake news… is telling your truth.

Whatever you do, don’t let fake news hold you back.

-Maneesh Sethi
CEO of Pavlok

P.S Easter just ended, and once the bunny leaves it’s back to those bad habits for many. We’ve got something special coming up this Friday that will help you stay on track with those good habits. Stay tuned. 🙂