Reflecting Back on the College Routine
Ah yes. The college schedule. I think my “morning routine” for junior/senior year was wake up at 9am, go to the gym for a little, talk shop over breakfast with some buddies, and get to my first class by 11am. It sounds like the dream…
And by definition it is a dream because reality doesn’t actually support this type of amorphousness.
As I’ve entered “real life”, I’ve come to see that mornings aren’t just a time of day—they are the foundation for my day. Being able to go about the rest of the 24 with a good jump start is one of the most rewarding things I’ve noticed.
Mentally feeling accomplished, but also actually becoming accomplished.
Being Consistent is Better Than Being Perfect
All of this isn’t to preach the idea of the 5am “grind-set” (which if that works, than more power to you). Routines look different for everybody. You’ve probably seen someone like Ashton Hall on the internet have an entire morning routine pretty much be his actual day.
I don’t personally journal, or meditate, or do all the things Andrew Huberman wants me to do. Instead, I do what works for me (I’ll share what that is exactly at the end). Like any routine, your morning routine relies on consistency, not necessarily density.
And yes, ideally this includes weekends (we’ll talk more to that later on).
How do you know what’s important to do and what’s not? Good question. Let’s break down a few core components that have helped me turn my day around.
The Core Components of a Productive Morning
Here’s the list of the 5 components; we’ll dig a little deeper into each of these. There are definitely more than this, but here is what I like to focus on:
- Taking Care of the Body
- Rigging the “Game” in Your Favor
- Creating Rolling To-Do Lists
- Setting Up Reward Systems
- Taking a Second to Breathe
1. Taking Care of the Body
This one is probably talked about the most, but is also probably the most important. After all, you are your body.
To begin with, let’s just assume you’re brushing your teeth, doing your business on the potty, and whatever else needs to be done on that side of town. Enough said there.
After all of that is in check, do yourself the biggest favor and drink a good ol’ glass of H2O, with a little salt in it if that’s your style. Your body needs to rehydrate from the night (you sweat a lot when you sleep) and a glass of water helps to reset your system and wake your nervous system up. The salt is to replenish electrolytes that were lost as you sweat. I don’t know all the exact details, but you can look that up.
Once you get a little water down the hatch, you should look to do some sort of physical movement. This part varies drastically for people. For some, that might be 1-2 hours in the gym lifting heavy weights. For others, a 20 minute walk outside. Or maybe just a 5 minute stretch and a couple pushups. As the common theme will be throughout, you should do what you are actually willing to do and stay true to that.
I know I hate the idea of detracting, so I set up the expectation to do 30min of weights/movement. If I do the 30min, I did what I said. If I happen to exceed that number, then look at me go. We’ll get more into this principle in the next component.
Finally, after you got a little motion going, refuel your body. I know people that are starving when they wake up and can wolf down 1200 calories for breakfast. I also know people that can’t think of even the thought of food until lunchtime. At the very least, get a little more water in, and maybe a small snack if you’re not a big eater. I like to have some fresh fruit out, on the counter, or do some yogurt or cottage cheese.
Try to avoid those heavy, sugary items as this will not do you any favors with regards to maintaining energy for the rest of the day. And no, blueberry muffins aren’t technically fruit.
2. Rigging the “Game” in Your Favor
As I alluded to in the previous component, rigging the game is all about setting attainable expectations for micro goals, so that more often times than not, you “win” that game.
I had mentioned this idea with scheduling out 30min of exercise. This amount of time is short enough, that if I’m really not feeling that day for some reason, I can push to reach it. But I also know, I’ll probably just hit that mark on the bare minimum based on my normal gym sessions. I can consistently win.
If I instead set an hour goal, or maybe tried to hit PRs first thing in the morning, sure I might feel better on the days that achieve those things. However, if I don’t, I probably set myself up for a day of some small regrets and remorse. Probably not life altering, but I’d rather have confidence and motivation from achieving what I set out to do, even if it is a “lower” end result.
Another example of this could be a goal of reading. Sure, you can set out to read a couple chapters of a book every morning if that’s your thing. Or, you could set out to read one page of a book every morning.
If you go through the bother of picking up the book for one page, I’m sure you’ll end up reading more, and even if you only read the one page, win.
But say you fail to read those two chapters. You failed for that morning, which kinda makes you fail that day, and failure is a sucky feeling to be honest. No professional baseball team wants to lose game 1 of the World Series. Win game 1 to win the series.
James Clear writes to this point in his book Atomic Habits, which is one of my Top 5 Books to Read for Newly Grads (future post to come).
Rigging the game doesn’t mean you’re not pushing yourself, or not working hard. It just means you are giving yourself some extra confidence, giving your brain a boost, and giving your day some momentum. Try it out.
3. Creating Rolling To-Do Lists
Speaking of momentum, I like to write out what I call “rolling to-do lists”. When do I write out these to-do lists? Well, that answer will give some insight into how they work.
I write these to-do lists AFTER I’ve done a couple of tasks I usually do. However, I still write those completed items down. For example, my to-do list that I wrote down after I worked out and showered includes working out and taking a shower. Confused? Here’s why I do it.
As was the case when you rigged the game to win in the previous point, having a to-do list with items already checked off generates some momentum and gives you a sense of progress. Hopefully, you are able to finish whatever other tasks are on that list for the day, but if you don’t, would you rather be 0/4, or be 2/6?
And again, it’s not trying to give others the illusion that you’re doing things, it’s to give yourself that illusion. And even calling it an illusion is not entirely true. You did actually complete the task, but now you got a little mojo.
Heck, you can even put down “writing a to-do list” on your to-do list!
4. Setting Up Reward Systems
Did you ever wake up on Christmas morning as a kid and think to yourself: Gosh, I’m tired? Of course not.
When you are excited to wake up, you don’t really concern yourself with continuing to sleep. I know it sounds obvious, but often times we aren’t leveraging this. A lot of people have a hard time getting out of bed for work, but if it came to waiting in line for concert tickets, they’d be out on the block at 4:30 that morning.
I know from experience that the days that I have chest day, are a lot easier to get up for than the leg days in the gym. Be intentional with setting up these systems. It doesn’t have to be your favorite thing in the world to do, but just that little bit of oomph to get you out of bed.
Some examples could be:
- A special coffee you like to order/make
- A new tv show/podcast episode
- A new route for your morning walk
- A new Spotify playlist
- A breakfast that’s been sitting over night
Your brain responds to incentives (I think it has to do with dopamine?). So give it some. If you make the mornings have that element of enjoyment, they’ll become repeatable.
5. Taking a Second to Breathe
For me, I do not like being in a rush. If I feel rushed for that morning, that uneasy feeling tends to linger throughout the entire day. Once 8am hits and I need to start work, situational control is lost. Things at that point might get frantic, I might have to handle multiple tasks at a time, and overall, a lot of stress can be built up.
On the other hand, I have total control over my morning. And since I have control, I want to be calm, and relaxed, and at ease. I want those feelings to last. This time is your chance to average out the chaos for the day, since you know it is inevitable that there will be some.
As I mentioned earlier, I am not journaling, or meditating, or writing daily gratitude, but if that works for you then that’s awesome. You could do something as simple as just sitting on the couch and thinking. Maybe step outside and literally breathe in some fresh air.
You need more time to rest? Can’t you use that time to be even more productive?
Yes, I probably could fit more into my mornings. But the peace of mind and rest that takes place while being awake, is far more valuable to me.
How to Actually Build Your Morning Routine
Okay, let’s take all this theory and turn it into something practical. Now that you know the components, you can build your morning routine to help you seize control of your day.
1. Set up your rewards
What is it that’s gonna be that motivation for you? What’s going to stop you from scrolling on your phone in bed and put two feet on the ground?
2. Find your preferred method of movement
Are you chasing the gym? Are you going on a run? Are you doing 20 pushups on your bedroom floor? Whatever it is, get the blood pumping a little.
3. Identify what other goals you want to chip away at—rig in your favor
Is it that book you never have time to read? Is it that blog you wanted to start writing (hey, not a bad idea)? Are you trying to take in more calories and want to be able to prepare and enjoy a full breakfast?
Take whatever those micro goals are and find a way to make them attainable on a daily basis.
4. Prepare to write out your rolling to-do list
You can already check a couple off the board. Think about what else you need to get done for that day.
5. Identify what time you need to wake up/go to sleep
Now that you know all the other parameters in this equation, you can reverse engineer your wake-up time, as well as your go-to-bed time.
Let’s Add it All Together
Let’s just say you want to get in a 20min walk, 5 pages of a book (~10min), prepare a nice breakfast (20min), and still have time to shower and get ready, with a work start time of 9am and a 20min commute. I would add up all those times, plus an extra 15-30min of buffer to prevent psychological rush.
With all of those, you are looking at a wake-up time of ~6:45am (that gets you to work 5min early).
With a wake up time of 6:45am, getting your 8 hours of sleep means you go to bed by 10:45pm. Bingo.
It is vitally important to go to bed at the same time every night, and wake up every morning at the same time. This sets your “circadian rhythm” and starts to make those early mornings feel full of energy.
My Actual Morning Routine
Here’s the exact morning routine schedule I’ve been following for the past couple of months. This is what works for me—use it as inspiration, not necessarily a template:
5:55am
Wake up; make my bed; do my “business”; drink water; brush my teeth.
6:10am
In the gym for 30-45min; I currently do a push, pull, legs split with gym workouts on M T Th F Sa, and walks on W and Su.
6:55am
Drink more water/maybe eat something; make my Nespresso coffee and open Duolingo to play chess (rewards).
7:15am
Shower up; shave if I need to; get dressed for work.
7:45am
Walk to work.
8:00am
Start the workday.
Actual and Reasonable Challenges
One thing that’s hardly mentioned by any online gurus is that having a morning routine (especially if leans on the early side) is hard to keep in practice. Weekends with friends exist, busier times of year for work exist, social guilt exists, internal pressure exists, etc.
And truth be told, you’re going to have days where you don’t follow it. You’re going to have weeks where you don’t follow it. Seasonal depression is a real thing and that’s going to throw your mornings off too. That’s ok.
The worst thing to do is to let that beaten streak be the catapult for this new streak of “off days”. It sounds like worn out advice, but take it one day at a time.
You can also take some pressure off the mornings themselves, by doing the prep work the night before. Maybe that means prepping some breakfast for the morning, maybe that means laying out your clothes for the next day, maybe that just means cleaning your kitchen to declutter things.
You always somehow end up having less time in the morning for everything, so help make some of that time back.
In Conclusion: Your New Morning Lifestyle
For you competitive types out there, make it a game. See how long you can keep it going. Bring in a friend or your partner to have an accountability buddy. Maybe you send each other a text when you wake up, loser has to buy dinner. Whatever it is, try to make it fun.
Think back in high school to those 300 day Snapchat streaks. If you could remember to send a random picture of yourself to your friend every day, you certainly have the ability to wake up and drink water.
As mentioned throughout, the most important thing I have found is finding what works and is realistic for me, and then just doing it on autopilot. Repeating it day after day only makes it easier to do. And when it’s easy, you have no excuse but to do it.
We are no longer in those college days of sleeping in, getting stuff done in between classes, and going to sleep at 2am. Take control of your morning to setup a system of taking control of your day.
As I’m sure we’ve all realized, years fly by. Think about how much better your life can be if you take back that 1 hour a day, that 7 hours a week, and that 365 hours a year. That alone shows that a reclaimed hour a day isn’t just an hour—it’s a lifestyle shift.
Your morning, your way (sounds like an ad for the McGriddle). It’s all part of figuring things out.
And it’s all part of writing your story.
—Will
Leave a Reply