Many traders have issues or struggle to find a way to "get in the zone", below are a few morning rituals that I have found to help get me in the zone.
Sleep
If you're not sleeping well or sleeping enough you will always have issues with getting into the zone and focusing. It is a proven fact that individuals who get 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night performed better cognitively than those who slept less, or more, than this amount. Moral of the story preparing for a good day of trading starts the night before!
Exercise
Start the morning off with a proper work out, I personally like to do about a 30 minute workout before I start my day. This one lets me get out any tension/aggression I could have and helps me get focused for the day. During my workout I like to walk through my day and figure out what I am going to be doing and remind my self about all the rules in my trading plan. I also make sure there are a few financial news programs on and this is a great way to see what the current day buzz is. If you do end up watching the news take everything that is said with a grain of salt, there is a lot of fluff and by now you should know we let the charts do the talking around here!
Breakfast
Your mother was right you need to start the day off with a decent meal. What I have found works the best for me is a large protein and veggie smoothie. This is a nice light meal that wont end up putting me in a food coma and ruining my cognitive state. After I switched to a shake in the morning my trading actually improved and I could stay focused for a greater amount of time. You should also have a healthy snack at your desk, this will prevent you from getting up and missing any trades.
Pre-market prep
If you don't start the day off by doing a proper pre-market prep then you're digging yourself into a hole. This doesn't have to take hours to do, simply figure out what levels are in play and look at all the higher time frames! I like to go down and write down 1-3 sentences about each time frame starting with the Monthly and working down to the 4500 tick chart. This takes anywhere from 10-15 minutes and is great tool to keep you on track. Always have a trading plan!
Meditation
This is a great tool if you have any issue with your emotions. The second you start having problems or feeling anxious it is time to step away and meditate for a few seconds or minutes. A simply breathing exercise will do wonders to help control your emotions. Just like the pre-market prep this doesn't have to take hours to do.
In summary you need to make sure your mind and body are ready for the trading session. A proper trading day always starts the night before be sure you wake up each day with a plan on how to get into the zone and stay in the zone once you are there.Trading is a very difficult task and if you decide to get into trading you need to treat it like anything else and be prepared to handle everything that gets thrown at you!
Comment down below what you do to get into the zone.