10 Websites I Wake Up To Each Morning

Morning Tea

The morning is the most productive part of the day for me, i feel refreshed and energised, ready for the day ahead. Over the years i’ve developed a routine that gives me a good kickstart to the day.

My morning routine usually takes around an hour accompanied by a cup of tea or coffee and then onto work. I use this time to prepare for the day ahead but also to stay current with the latest news and to kickstart my creativity and provide me with a little inspiration before beginning work.

The first port of call each morning is the admin section on this blog. I approve comments, kill any spam which has appeared overnight, check the stats and spend a few minutes brainstorming some post topics and saving these using the Post Ideas Plugin.

I should also mention that i use the very useful Are My Sites Up? service so i can be notified if any of my sites timeout or go down.

Process Time – 5 Minutes

  • 2. Email (Using Google Apps)

I made the switch to using Google Apps for my email on all of my websites at the start of this year and i wish i had made the switch sooner. Google has cut down the amount of time i spend on email tremendously, i’ve said goodbye to spam and can manage all my email from my sites from one account.

I’ve setup auto-responders, filters and labels to keep things organised.

Process Time – 10 Minutes

I’m far from a stats junkie but it is important to have a clear perception of your visitors and exactly what they are searching for and interested in. It’s only by drilling down and focusing on the needs, wants and psychology of your readers that you write accordingly to address these and start to build your blog.

Google Analytics is a goldmine of information and i’m particularly interested in certain metrics such as referring sites, content and keywords. I use the morning period to quickly scan the most important data, then take some time at the end of the week to spend analysing the data within Analytics which i then use to craft blog posts and research more about my readers and visitors.

Process Time – 5 Minutes

As a geek it’s easy to just focus on the latest tech stories but it’s important to be aware of the current worldwide (and local) news and events. Using the BBC website means I can easily get a snapshot of the national, worldwide and local news.

I prefer the BBC as i love the ability to specify my own content and organise the page how i would like to it to be laid out. It was a massive improvement on the previous design and the use of the grids and dragable widgets is a major plus as it now feels more like a ‘personal’ homepage.

Process Time – 5 Minutes

With all the latest web buzz in one place, Popurls is my favorite news aggregator. From Digg, Twitter and Delicious to Boing Boing, TechCrunch and Lifehacker (to name just a few), it’s an amazing resource that saves a huge amount of time by allowing me to easily track what’s popular and newsworthy in the webosphere at that precise moment.

The ability to customise the layout and content is extremely beneficial as you’re able to get a short and snappy overview without having to do some major scrolling!

Process Time – 5 Minutes

I previously used NewsFire, however i decided to centralise my RSS feeds so they were synced with my Macbook and Google Reader seemed the obvious choice.

The fact it is inside the browser is a major plus, although i did use ReadAir for a short time but found it quite slow and buggy. One of my favorite features is the ability to share items using the built-in public page as i often share items with fellow freelancers and friends.

Process Time – 10 Minutes

Where would my morning routine be without signing into Twitter?! I use Tweetie as my main Twitter application, however in the morning i like to login online and quickly check my replies, DM’s, trends and scan the latest tweets from those i follow.

The morning is my most productive and busiest part of the day so i tend to shy away from using Twitter within this time frame. However i hate to miss out on the great resources and conversations happening so i spend around 10 minutes favoriting tweets to read later in the afternoon or evening.

Process Time – 10 Minutes

I’ve been a regular subscriber to Mashable for some time as it keeps me up to date with the latest social media news and rumors.

It publishes a wealth of breaking news, reviews, resources and guides and has grown into an authority on all things social media and web 2.0 (i really do hate that term!) I enjoy browsing through the recent posts and scanning the latest content.

Process Time – 5 Minutes

It’s completely silly and i really should know better but i just can’t help but giggle at some of those cats!

I find injecting a little humor into the working day is important and I Can Has Cheezeburger is pure and simple fun and you really can’t help but be in a good mood after giggling at some of the images and captions. Another of my favorites is Awkward Family Photos which publishes often hilarious and embarssing family photos which people submit.

Process Time – 5 Minutes

FFFFOUND! (along with Dropular) is an amazing quality resource of interesting images that also acts as a dynamic recommendation engine according to your tastes and interests. It is an inspiration resource that i could spend all day browsing through the archives.

I always make sure FFFFound is the last site i visit before starting my work day because it leaves me feeling creatively recharged and energised for the tasks ahead.

Process Time – 10 Minutes

While i don’t stick to these rigidly, it is a good indication of how i start my day.

Do you have a morning website routine? If so please share in the comments below or if you prefer to jump straight into work perhaps you can share some morning productivity tips.

Photo by P22earl

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  • FriendFeed
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Grace Smith is owner of the small but perfectly formed web design studio Postscript5, in Northern Ireland. To keep up to date with the latest designalicious content, then please consider subscribing.