A Morning Routine That Appears To Work (for me)
I’ve been playing around with morning routines the past year, figuring out how I can best set myself up for success that day. After we were finally able to settle into more of a predictable routine (as much as one can with two small kids) I think I’ve finally found my sweet spot. It’s way better than where I was at a year ago.
Why is it important?
There are two things I know about myself that help me set myself up for success: I fight ADD and quieting my mind on the outset of the day helps me better maintain focus throughout it. I’m also an Enneagram 5, which basically means I draw energy from alone time. It’s kind of interesting that those things work out hand-in-hand.
Prioritizing quiet time alone in the morning helps me be more patient with the kids, stay more focused later in the day and feel like I’m coming out of the day out of a place of rest rather than hurry.
Now that the kids are sleeping a bit more predictably through the night, not needing to worry about a commute every day and having a more flex work schedule (thanks COVID), I’ve been able to design my life a bit more to what works best for me. That starts with the mornings.
What does my routine look like?
Get up around 5:30am, pour coffee
I know there are studies out there that say waiting to drink your first cup until about an hour or two after you’re awake is more optimal for energy. For me, that morning cup is a ritual. Coffee isn’t so much a source of energy for me as much as it is an odd mental security blanket.
Do the morning Wake Up and meditation on the Headspace app
At first, meditation seemed a bit woo woo to me. Not worth it. I gave Headspace a try and found that it did help a bit. So much that I got the Premium account and use it nearly every day. Mostly in the mornings but also some afternoons before the kids get home to unwind my mind a bit.
I’ve found that using their exercises are a great way to give my brain as much of a blank slate for the day. The guided sessions are great and they do a good job of helping you learn the practice. I’ll likely use a whole blog post talking about Headspace but long story short, the guided meditations are a great thing to do first before other parts of my routine.
Spend time Bible reading
This may not be for everyone reading this but that’s okay. It’s part of my morning routine. Staying with the theme of using apps, I use the YouVersion app on my phone. It has a decent quick daily devotional every day along with other study plans. My reading routine in YouVersion usually looks something like this:
Do the YouVersion daily session (typically has a video component to it)
Do a day out of one of their reading plans
Read a Proverb for the day (it has 31 chapters, perfect for a monthly rotation).
Do another type of reading
I spend some time reading a chapter out of another book as well, typically (though not always) sticking on the faith theme. It’s a way to read a book that may be dense/heavy in content where I don’t feel the need to rush reading. Taking this approach, I’ve only read two books: Hearing God by Dallas Willard and I’m about halfway through Mere Christianity by CS Lewis now. I try to read through Mere Christianity about once a year.
Blog and news reading
This is when I do my actually daily news reading. Some of this time may bleed over into when the kids get up and after I drop them off at school. I use Inoreader to catch up on marketing and other thought leadership blogs. I also read these daily newsletters every morning that I’ve found to be pretty balanced, straightforward and prevent me from doomscrolling the news throughout the day:
Sometimes I run
My wife and I have a nice routine where we trade off mornings on who goes and works out while the other gets the kids ready for the day. So every other day, I go running anywhere between 3-6ish miles. I use the Strava app on my watch to track my mileage/routes/effort while I either listen to a podcast or Spotify playlist while I’m moving.
Journal Quickly
I’m not great at being consistent here but this is a great practice. Typically I do this after the kids are at school and I’m sitting down at my computer. I use the Journey journaling web app and just word vomit about whatever is on my mind at the time for about 10 minutes. It’s been a great way to clear out the sludge in my brain and process quickly.
I use Journey on-the-fly as well and use it to record photos and memories to look back at later. But this morning exercise helps quite a bit to get other distractions out of my head before tackling work.
Does doing all that take a long time?
Sort of.
Excluding running, that whole routine takes roughly an hour. That’s what makes getting up at 5:30 worth it. It helps me do most all of that before my daughter gets up at 6:30.
I’ve found that if I rush the routine, I feel rushed throughout the day and am a bit scattered as a result.
If I make an effort to be intentional with the first hour of my day, I respond better to fire drills at work, think more clearly and often feel way more patient with the kids.
Granted, my days don’t always work out this way. Real life isn’t nearly that accommodating.
Sometimes a kid wakes up really early feeling sick. Sometimes there’s a work deadline that I have to cast aside my routines (morning and night) to address.
Sometimes the Atlanta Hawks have a playoff game that goes late into the night and you prioritize the extra hour of sleep over your routine so you don’t crash midday.
Life is unpredicatble and you have to hold routines with an open hand as much as possible. That said, we also have more control over our routines than we often like to admit.
What about you? What kind of routines help you (morning or night)?