UPDATED: 5th November 2024
I’ve always had a morning routine.
Although no one called it a routine back then.
It started back in my late teens and early twenties. Even though I was a night owl, I would get up early and go to the gym before work. I made sure I focused on my health and fitness, but I wish I’d focused more on flexibility.
Constructing A Morning Routine
Fast forward 20 years, constructing the “perfect” morning routine has become big business.
A few years ago I read The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod
He prefaces his book by saying a morning routine can change your life in months, even weeks.
I’m sceptical of statements like this, this time I’d convinced myself that this book was the key to my success. It’s because a lot of the things he talks about in the book I was already doing at some point during the day. As well as the fact that a lot of friends had recommended it.
The book talks about the morning routines of people like Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey.
I’ve lost count of the famous names in there.
Whether you like or respect these people is for another day. What you can say regardless, is that they have become uber-successful in what they have chosen to do. It all seems to stem from how they start their day.
Committing To Making A Change
This made me commit, I stuck to it for months.
It didn’t seem to make any difference in me reaching my goals, my version of success.
I tried the book’s recommendation of meditating, and affirmations, followed by visualizations. Then get the blood flowing by exercising, then read 10 pages of a book. Finishing the routine by journaling.
Did I achieve my version of success in weeks? Months?
Nope, far from it.
Following the book’s morning routine didn’t bring me the success I wanted. It added to my stress levels, “Why isn’t this working”. As with most books like this, it’s a framework, a guide.
Since reading that book at the start of January 2020 I’ve been tweaking my morning routine a lot.
Morning Routine Is About Trial And Error
Finally, over the past month or two, it seems to be that I’ve found the correct routine for me.
What I would say is that the book misses one key thing that helps with your routine. Your professional commitments, whether that’s a 9-5, side hustling. Even running your own business.
I was always “clock watching” through my morning routine.
My mind was racing about what I needed to get done on my side projects before starting work, it was a nightmare.
Recently I’ve realized that has been the problem. The fact I wanted to do 4/5 things for my “personal development”, is my morning routine. Then started on this huge list of things that I needed to do over the next 90 minutes to kick-start my own businesses.
It’s too much for anyone to do.
Professionally, what I’ve done is batch a lot of my “daily” tasks and use automation, but that’s for another day.
Here is what my morning routine looks like:
- Get up between 5 – 5:30 AM
- Journal – using “The 5 Minute Journal”
- 10 minutes of “breathwork” (Google ‘Wim Hof’)
- 1 hour+ of exercise
- Food
- 45 minutes of meditation
- Cold shower (Google ‘Wim Hof’)
- Start my “daily” to-do list
It sounds like I’m doing a lot.
I’ve left things out like affirmations and visualizations. (I won’t go into this for personal reasons) As well as reading, which I do later in the day.
But it feels like I’m making progress, that I’ve got the structure right now. I’m not thinking “I need to get onto the next thing” like I was before. Professionally I’m not where I want to be…yet.
Conclusion
It feels like this morning routine is working for me because I’m a lot happier.
Isn’t that the most important thing?
It could be for many reasons, but my gut instinct is that I’ve set aside so much time on the breathwork and mediation. We know you have to “put in the reps” when it comes to physical exercise. But with mediation, I was trying to “hack it” by doing only 10 minutes a day, which isn’t enough.
We need to set aside that same amount of time, if not more to work on our mental health as our physical health.
I would recommend reading The Miracle Morning, but use it as a framework.
My key takeaway and what I’ve learned most over the last two years is that your mental state, your mindset. Is your most important asset.
UPDATE: 5th November 2024
So. 2+ years after first publishing this article about my morning routine. Have things changed?
Yes, and no.
Let’s start with what has stayed the same.
Same, Same
I’m still getting up at 5 AM. I don’t think this will ever change. I’m not up this early 7 days a week. But I do get up early on a weekend.
Also, the exercise routine is still in place.
Again, this will never change. Exercising every day will allow me to live a long life, without the quality of life dropping either.
I’ve gone even further with cold exposure too.
For my birthday in 2023. My wife bought me a cold plunge. The first thing I do now when I wake up at 5 AM is to get into the cold plunge for 5 minutes.
Yes, I know, I’ve become a cold plunge wanker. But I love it.
I then move on to my exercise routine.
But Different
So, what have I changed?
Well, I was doing so much each morning. It started getting overwhelming. By the time I got around to making a start on my to-do list, I felt a little worn out.
Because of this, I’ve stopped meditating, as well as journaling. And I’ve dropped the breath work too.
Also, I don’t do any sort of affirmations, or visualisation. When things don’t turn out as you’d like. I’ve found these two things just made me feel more shitty than I was already feeling.
I’ve also started fasting in the morning. Trying not to eat my first meal until noon.
My “to-do” is a little different too. I spend the first few hours of the day writing. This update to this blog post is a good example of that.
I’ve written a new blog post documenting my experiences. Tweaking my morning routine over the last 2 years. You can read it here: There’s No Such Thing As “The Best” Morning Routine
Also, here’s a post I’ve written about a super simple morning routine you can try.
You Can’t Manage What You Don’t Measure.
One of the big differences though for me. Was to track my process, to track my habits.
For that day, for the week, have done what I wanted? Have I ticked off things that I want to do? Like exercise, cold exposure, writing, and marketing my business.
Even the fun or educational stuff.
Have I played the guitar today? Have I spent 20 minutes learning Spanish?
Here’s what it looks like so far this week (it’s Tuesday morning as I write this).
Oh, if you want a copy of my habit tracker. You can download a copy here.
You’ve got this.
