Your morning routine sucks.
If you are reading this, chances are you fall under one of these two categories:
1) Hard Working Optimizer
You follow a shit-ton of biohackers and biz gurus online. They all scream about how their absurd morning routine is the sole reason for their success.
So naturally, influenced by the online content you consume, you created one of these "highly optimized" morning routines advertised by your favorite guru in the hopes of achieving similar success.
Because "that's the only way".
2) Snooze Scroller
You don't have any morning routine at all. You just wake up, press the snooze button, and go on a mindless social media scrolling spree.
You do this for 30 min or so, and then when you finally have no choice but to get up, you gather all the willpower you have, and you roll out of bed.
You know that you probably should be a bit more productive, and have some kind of routine or something. But you simply don't go to bed on time every day, so you wake up later, and let's face it, all that "morning discipline" is kinda a drag for you.
You feel stuck in this limbo, you feel guilty but don't have enough motivation to actually do something about it...
Believe it or not, no matter what category you fall under, your current morning routine (or lack thereof) negatively impacts you, your productivity, your life, or whatever you want to achieve.
Here's how to avoid these mistakes
What's the point of the morning routine?
If you are into self-improvement or self/personal development (however you wanna call it), you are probably following and consuming content from "influencers" in this niche.
Morning routine's been a trend for a while now. Every biohacker, biz guru, or any other "self-improvement" influencer had a video or 2 about their morning routine.
That's cool and all, except the fact that morning routines are presented as a holy grail of productivity. Almost as if their special routine is the sole reason for their success (some even flat-out say it is).
So here you are stressing about having that "perfect" morning routine because you are led to believe that's the missing piece — the only thing that keeps you away from your dreams and the success you always wanted.
You think that replicating one of these special morning routines you found online is the answer to all your problems. But there's a catch. You struggle to do so because they are so unrealistic, absurd, and flat-out unnecessary.
You know what I'm talking about. Those absurd routines that go something like this:
"I wake up at exactly 4:37 AM (yeah that's how special I am). Immediately after waking up, I do 126 push-ups, and then I start doing my morning affirmations for 20 min. After that, I do "hot-cold" therapy (sauna and ice baths) followed by red light therapy. After that, I go on a 30-minute hike (fasted), and while I am on that hike, I listen to an audiobook at 2.7x speed, which allows me to read 2 books a week. After that, I take xyz special supplements, eat breakfast, and go to the gym. By now it's 8:00 AM and that's when I start working..."
Yeah good for you...
Tell me this is not absurd.
Do you really think Elon Musk or Warren Buffet are complaining they had a bad day at work because they didn’t do red light therapy at 5:43 AM this morning, or whatever?
Almost none of these ultra-successful/most productive people don't give a flying fuck about their health and "optimization" (which is also bad, though).
All they care about is their work.
This just goes to show you none of those absurd routines are actually necessary.
The only people who claim they are, are the ones that have to sell you something. Those that don't, don't speak about their routines.
Or if they do, more often than not, it's something very simple that helps them kickstart their day, and they don't rub your nose with it.
And that's exactly what morning routines are useful for — to help you kickstart your day and be a bit more productive.
That's it.
So even though it's not necessary to have a morning routine, it can be pretty useful and helpful to have one.
I mean having no routine at all and just laying in bed scrolling TikTok for 30 min after you just woke up doesn't exactly scream "productivity" or "goal crushing" either, right?
The way the morning routine helps you is by leveraging something that’s called a “flow” state.
“The term “flow state” describes a mental state in which a person is completely focused on a single task or activity.” per MedicalNewsToday.
We won’t dive into flow right now. That's the topic for a different time.
All you need to know is that if you organize your morning properly (aka create a morning routine), you'll be an overall more productive person, which is obviously helpful.
Doesn't matter how much more productive you get, even if it's only by a bit, it compounds and after some time the difference will be visible.
It's worth it if you ask me.
How do you create a good morning routine?
As I already said, biohacking gurus' routines are not the way to go.
If the goal of your morning routine is to help you kickstart your day, be more productive, and finish your tasks — then having those 3-hour long, ultra-optimized, red light therapy morning routines would be counterproductive.
I mean, apart from the fact it's unrealistic for 99.9% of normal-functioning human beings, how exactly would a 3-hour-long routine help you finish your daily tasks? Simple — it wouldn't.
If anything, it would make it harder. Not only would you spend hours and tons of energy doing something completely different from your daily tasks, but you would also prolong the time that's needed to complete those tasks.
Let's say you usually start your work (or whatever you do daily) at 9:00 AM, and there's a really important task on your to-do list that takes about 2 hours to complete.
Normally you would finish it by 11:00 AM. But now if you add one of these ultra-optimized morning routines into the mix, you won't even start doing that task till noon.
So how exactly do you think this makes you more productive? If you think red light therapy and fasted hike will make you somehow finish tasks at double or triple speed... You are wrong.
Of course, those things can be helpful, don't get me wrong. For example, I am the biggest proponent of hikes, walks, "hot-cold" therapies, etc.
But there is time and place for everything, and doing all those things right after you wake up like some robot, priming yourself for 3 hours for the day ahead... — it's just stupid and absurd.
Your morning routine, as I said, is there to help you be a bit more productive that day. So it should be very simple and straightforward — easing you into your daily tasks.
Here's an example of my morning routine:
I wake up around 9 AM.
Ironically, I do a couple of push-ups (nothing too much, just to wake my body up).
Then, I either eat breakfast or as of lately, skip it. The reason is I am never hungry in the morning, and I've been flirting with the idea of eating when I'm hungry, not when I'm "supposed to", hence why I skip it.
Then, I take a cold shower if I feel like it (because I genuinely enjoy it), and then I start working (aka doing the #1 task for the day).
On normal days (when I don’t have anything important business-wise like writing or filming or whatever), my most important thing of the day is working out. I do the workout and then I go on with the rest of my day/tasks.
If I have something more important on my to-do list, like writing for example, then I do that first. Note: I noticed that when I write first, I tend to write a lot more content on that day (this is probably due to the flow state).
That's it. Simple, right?
What you need to understand is the fact that morning routines are a personal thing. What works for me won't work for you.
And what's more, what works for you now, maybe won't work for you in a year or two. That's why there isn't such a thing as a "perfect" morning routine. And that's why you shouldn't copy mine, nor anybody else's.
For example: As you can see fitness is a big part of my life, for you maybe it isn't and that's perfectly fine. But to copy my morning routine, centered around fitness, would be a complete waste of time in this case.
That's why you need to make YOUR morning routine that suits YOU the best.
Here's how:
Creating a good, simple morning routine is a fairly simple task.
All you need to do is the following:
- Take a step back, and think about what are your goals. After that, think about what daily tasks you should complete to achieve those goals (if you have a job, then you already know this).
- The night before, list all tasks in order of their importance (starting with the most important task).
- Pick the most important task, and that's what you should do first thing in the morning. Of course, you can eat breakfast, or do a bit of stretching, cold showers, walks... whatever you like. That's up to you, just don't prolong it too much. Remember, the goal here is to start doing the most important thing as soon as possible.
- Do deep focused work without any distractions for about 60-90 min, rest a bit (10-20 min), and repeat. When you finish your #1 priority task, move to #2, then to #3, etc.
Simple as that.
Stick to this routine, and you'll see that it will make you more productive and closer to achieving your goals than any of those "ultra-optimized" routines ever would.
The bottom line is, that you don’t need some fancy routine that your favorite biohacker or biz guru preaches. The best morning routine is usually the simplest one — the one suited for you and your goals.
That's it from me for today.
Djosa
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