Barbara Corcoran’s essential morning habits for a productive day

As a serial entrepreneur and investor on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” Barbara Corcoran is a lot busier than most. But she will always make the time for her morning routine.

“On an important day, my routine is no different than unimportant days,” Corcoran tells CNBC Make It.

Having a morning routine is a tried-and-true way to increase productivity, boost energy and improve your chances of success.

Here are three practices that Barbara Corcoran does for a productive day.

Three days a week, she works out with her trainer in the morning before heading to work, she says.

“That’s what saves me. It’s more for my mental state than my physical well-being,” Corcoran says.

Corcoran’s sentiments are backed by science. In fact, just 10 minutes of physical activity each week can make you significantly happier, research shows.

Engaging in physical activity can also increase your alertness for the following day, according to a study published in Nature Communications in November 2022.

“The higher the amount of physical activity, the more awake and alert you feel the next day,” Raphael Vallat, a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Human Sleep Science at U.C. Berkeley, tells CNBC Make It.

As an “early riser,” Corcoran heads into the office after her morning workout sessions: “I get in my office early because I do my best work before noon.”

To add some pizzazz to her days, she also aims to dress well, which can be helpful for self-esteem.

Wearing what makes you feel powerful is a great way to look and feel confident, according to Tess Brigham, a psychotherapist.

The clothes you wear “can increase your performance and heighten other people’s impressions of you,” says Brigham.

“There’s something I do every night for a successful day that follows,” Corcoran says. “I’d never go to bed without a to-do list done for the following day.”

But for a smooth day, she groups her tasks in categories of importance:

1. “A” tasks are “never the things you want to do” but they’re essential and must be done: These are “the things that push your business ahead, the things you don’t want to confront [and] the things you have to really say to somebody, even firing people,” she says.
2. “B” and “C” items are everything else, but are less important than the “A” tasks.

“I go into the next morning [and] get my A’s out of the way,” Corcoran says. “Because I know I can procrastinate the whole day away not doing the A’s. But if I procrastinate on the B’s and C’s, it doesn’t make much sense.”

Having a to-do list keeps Corcoran on track, and she finds that her method of organizing tasks by importance helps her to be accountable.

“It keeps me productive on the things that matter. And I mixed together in that list, the personal things and the business things,” she says. “That’s the way life is. Everything’s blended now.”

Disclosure: CNBC owns the exclusive off-network cable rights to “Shark Tank.”

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