What's your morning routine?
I am interested in your morning routine! Feel free to share, how your perfect morning looks like and how many times a week you actually accomplish that routine.
I'll start:
- I get up and directly make my bed (for me, a game changer)
- A quick shower
- 30-60 mins for a large breakfast
- While having breakfast, I think about what I want to do during the day and pick out 3 main tasks
- I write down the 3 tasks on a white board and begin with the first task
Now it's your turn!
Unproductive activity as first thing in the morning was a game changer for me. Before that it was really hard to start morning routine. It's easier to wake up knowing that you'll have some time to yourself than with a thought that you need to exercise.
Found this hack in the book Atomic Habits.
Thank you for the insights! How do you regulate the unproductive activity in the morning so that it doesn't get out of hand? Personally, I tend to overextend the unproductive things when I start with those. What's your trick? :)
I’m waking up 2 hours before daily standup so I know I have only so much time to squeeze morning routine. And also mentally I think of the procrastination as the part of the routine, not a precursor.
"Read at least 3 pages" Nice! I love this idea. I bought some great books recently, but couldn't get into the habit of reading. This seems doable.
I code at night.
If the girls are out traveling and I stayed, I wake up 5.45 and start to code until 30 minutes before I start work.
True testament to your passion of coding, I love it!
@jwr I totally get what you're saying. But I guess it's like going to school - lot's of people hate it until they gotta go to work - you can't appreciate the time until it's gone.
It is what it is man,...
I started to code late 2017 since then, I I haven't stop. Is just super fun.
True, people should really appreciate time.
Finally an answer from someone with kids :-) Reading the replies, I was amused by the wonderful morning routines — long breakfasts, "do whatever I want", etc.
People, you have no idea how much time you have until you have kids. From then on, your schedule is determined by family needs, not your needs, so there is not much to dwell on. You simply try to use every bit of time when you can do concentrated work effectively.
Having kids is a game changer.
I remember, days that I had no time...
Many of those days I had https://www.colorsandfonts.com on Github pages and I was updating, fixing a small bug, or even a coma while walking with the phone....
Now I my work breaks to code more...on my project.
. Get-up 1H before Sunrise.
. Meditate.
. Contemplate Sunrise (or Nature).
. Practice Deep-Breathing Exercises.
. Bike (or Run or Swim) for 1H.
. Talk to Clients, and Build the Product to Grow my Startup.
Wow, really cool! At what time do you usually get up during this time of the year? How does your wake-up time changes during the year? In Germany, time of sunrise strongly depends on winter/ summer time.
Indeed, sunrise correlates with seasons. In Montreal, my wake-up times vary between 3:06am on June 21st (the longest day of the year) to 6:02am on December 21st (the shortest day of the year) :)
And at what time do you go to bed? Do you sleep a full 8 hours? As for 3:06 am, do you experience any social consequences as I assume many people to be more socially active in the evening.
In general, I am awake and active between 'Dawn'* and 'Dusk'* and sometimes have a short nap after 'Culmination'* to compensate as this is very good to maintain health and productivity while accomplishing the objectives of two days in one day! My Bed-time is usually 1H to 2H after 'Dusk'* and the time depends on the season and region ;) *Check https://suncalc.org/
Still working on #6 - sometimes its hit or miss, but #4 is the most important for me right now, it gets me going.
Are you drinking the butter coffee for weight loss reasons? If so, how is it going?
Definitely not weight loss, although I've heard it can help with that. For me, I'm drinking it to increase my focus and attention, which I struggle with. So far I think it helps, but hard to say. Have been doing it for about a month now.
*Kids wake up
*Make breakfast
This routine has help me cement reading every morning. It's such a habit I look forward to it now.
I can imagine that having kids has changed your routine fundamentally, right?
Yes it did. Its pretty stable now in terms of time. But when the kids were newborns the time was all over, but of course I wouldn't trade it for the world
Interesting! I've read about drinking a cup of water first thing after waking up as a way to tackle fatigue.
Why do you write the agenda the night before? I'd rather do it in the morning, couldn't really argue why though.
I've noticed drinking water has immensely helped in increasing my energy levels right when I wake up. Your body just needs to be hydrated.
I write the night before, to set my mentality that the next day is going to be a productive day. It's more of a mental thing, I don't follow what the agenda has to the dot, but it just gets my mind in a productive mood.
Do you alter the workout or is it set to be squats each morning? I've really enjoyed push-ups as a way to get the blood flowing.
What a coincidence! I also listen to the biography of Steve Jobs right now, what's your opinion so far? I'm about 14 hours in.
I always do the same thing, it's not a workout, more like stretching (a bit influenced to do more stretching than muscle strength after reading David Goggings's book).
I used to do push-ups, but I also (very often) play table-tennis and stay at the PC a lot and that already puts too much strain on my wrists, so I am currently just doing: stretch arms/back, 20 sit-ups (I wrongly said squats before) while stretching my arms/wrists, some leg stretches. It's all over in like 3 minutes (that's what she said...), but I feel that it helps a lot. For other exercising, I usually play table-tennis in the evening for 2-3 hours, 3 times a week.
About the Steve Jobs book:
I am also about 14hours in, it's an easy listen, a bit too slow and gets repetitive after a while. I do enjoy it, but it's not life-changing or teaching a lot of stuff that I didn't know. For me it's more like a leisure read than for self-improvement. I did like more Can't hurt me (David Goggings), Sapiens and "How to win friends and influence people" because I felt like I learned more from them and that the views were very varied and different than my existing opens. With the Steve Jobs book I read a lot of what I already think.
What do you think of it?
I like the biography regarding the insights into Jobs's mind. I am a business student so it's really interesting to study his way of motivating his people and comparing it to the kinds of Elon Musk etc. .
However, I agree that it is a bit stretched to the point that you think you've already heard that part in a similar way like 3 hours before.
Before this biography I listened to the biography of Phil Knight (Nike founder) and I can recommend that one too. It's an amazing founding story and feels very 'real'. It's not too much about crazy/ different mindsets (like the mindset of Goggins) though.
basically just trying to survive ;/
So I figure that it's hard for you to get out of bed? I really emphasize to read some of the previous comments, they are super insightful!! If you suffer of fatigue in the morning, try to drink a lot directly after waking up or try to do some squats/ push-ups/ etc. . If you lack motivation try to set goals that are not easy to attain but eventually attainable, it will give you the needed boost of motivation!
I wish you a wonderful morning for tomorrow!
I try to read a bit every morning. I bought an iPad a few months back, and set it up with a new Gmail account I created expressly for subscriptions to various blogs and newsletters I want to keep up with. I intentionally keep it free from distracting chat apps or other accounts where I'm used to getting messages. It's the only thing I keep in my bedroom (no phone, no laptop), so when I wake up I usually feel compelled to grab my iPad and start reading.
That's really interesting! I like to read in the evening 'cause I feel like it's calming me down so I figured reading in the morning is contra-productive to kickstarting the day. However, I have an iPad laying around that I seldom use which I might utilize to try your routine for a bit!
Thank you for the inspiration. Have a good day!