6 Simple Steps to Your Best Morning Ever
Find more control, improve your energy levels and boost your productivity
It's undeniable that habits and routines play a critical role in achieving success. A solid morning routine is the cornerstone of a productive day, creating the momentum we need to build our identity and crush the actions that feed our broader vision.
What happens first thing in the morning is the most potent routine of all, and this article introduces some of the practices that have been helping me achieve some of my most productive days recently
I trust they can help give you some wakeful inspiration.
Estimated reading time: 6-minutes
Let's jump into it.
1. Morning Routines Start The Night Before
If you are to take away one bit of advice today, make it this one.
Nothing is more powerful to create a good morning routine than the intention you set the night before.
Less emphasis should be placed on the importance of getting up early to win the day. Instead, we must emphasise our night-time ritual's importance. Because as the saying goes, "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail".
Of course, the two routines are intrinsically linked. However, it's a much more straightforward relationship than the chicken and the egg.
Let me explain.
Suppose you stay up until the early hours yet plan on getting out of bed at 6 am to 'win' the day.
You might succeed.
But come 10 am when you're sinking your third cup of coffee, you'll likely regret a missed opportunity to feel fresher. Not to mention being more productive, on the ball and with far fewer caffeine-induced jitters.
As you know, we should aim for somewhere in the region of 7-8 hours of sleep per night. The trick is to simply count back from when you want to wake up and ensure you have that 8-hour sleep window on your calendar.
It sounds simple because it is.
You can build a solid night-time routine around whatever you like, but for me, it consisted of the following:
Getting everything ready for the following day
Help settle down my mind and body
Here's an example from this week:
9 pm - Power down my laptop/TV and put my smartphone in aeroplane mode in my office
9 pm - Write down my top 3 priority tasks for tomorrow
9.15 pm - Take a hot shower
9.45 pm - Write 1-page of my journal (including gratitudes)
10 pm - Read in bed
10.30 pm - Sleep
Play around with it. See what works for you.
But make a promise to yourself that nothing's getting in the way of the quality time you’re scheduling in to recharge your batteries.
2. Engineer Your Smartphone
As mentioned above, part of my routine is putting my smartphone away in my office to kick-start my wind-down process.
To help me stick to this, I've engineered the device so that between 9 pm-8 am, it transforms into not so much of a smartphone at all.
My device of choice is an iPhone, and I've recently set up my home screen to show only my Apple Fitness metrics and daily screen time report. It's been my attempt to eliminate the clutter and reduce the dopamine hit every time I pick it up.
It's been surprisingly effective.
Even more so, within the screen time report, there are a bunch of neat features you can utilise to block the 'smart' capabilities of the device.
From 9 pm, my device revokes access to all but the essential apps that make it a phone.
That means no web browser, no social media and no email. I can use it for calls and text messages between those hours, but that's it.
This has been a game-changer.
By having a 13-hour 'off' period, I've been able to:
Prioritise my analogue rituals in the morning & evening, i.e. journaling, reading, meditation, and exercise.
Be more mindful during my evening routine–given that there's now a degree of friction between me picking up my device and somehow winding up on Instagram.
Take control of the hours without notifications interrupting other tasks.
Buy an analogue alarm clock which meant I could leave the device in another room.
And these are just a handful of the benefits I've noticed.
Dialling down the capabilities of my iPhone and leaving it overnight in another room has improved my sleep, calmed my evenings and allowed me to focus on the tasks in the morning I need to kick-start a productive day.
Don’t let your device dictate how you use it. Take back control.
3. Limit Your Caffeine Intake
After reading 'Why We Sleep' by Dr Matthew Walker, I have never looked at caffeine the same.
One of the key takeaways from that book is that caffeine has a half-life (i.e. the time it spends in your system) of 6 hours and, therefore, a quarter-life of 10-12 hours.
Dr Walker likens drinking a coffee mid-afternoon to effectively having a Starbucks on your bedside table and giving it a sip just before you turn the light out. Something I'm sure we can all agree would be pretty careless if you're looking for a restful night.
Coffee is a big part of my life – I love the stuff. I'll never give it up, and it'd be hypocritical for me to suggest that to you. Quite surprisingly, Dr Walker doesn't suggest giving it up, either.
Instead, he recommends drinking your coffee (or tea) during a caffeine window during your day. That way, you can still enjoy it and know that it will have a limited impact on your sleep.
The general rule of thumb to follow, backed by both Dr Walker and Andrew Huberman, is that caffeine can be enjoyed 90 minutes after waking up, so long as we stop consuming it at around noon.
If it's good enough for both of them, it's good enough for me. And I have certainly noticed some marginal improvements in my sleep quality since restricting my window.
4. Don't Run Before You Can Walk
It will take a lot of work to make large-scale changes to your life in one day. Something that is entirely true of your morning routine. I am a big advocate for easing yourself in.
That's what I did, and it's certainly helped make it stick.
We all have these grand visions of the perfect routine where we wake up at 5 am, run 10 miles, meditate for an hour, and save the world all before a croissant. But realistically, all we're doing is setting ourselves up to fail.
Slow and steady changes help make sure this is a long-term commitment and not simply a flash in the pan.
Take my wake time of 6.30 am as an example. I used to get up somewhere between 7.30-8 am. However, I realised my wake-up time needed to be more conducive to the routine I wanted to create for myself.
With that in mind, I needed at least an extra hour to make it work.
Instead of scaling back my alarm from 8.00 am to 6.30 am in one night, I did it over six nights in 15-minute increments.
So by morning six, I was waking up at 6.30 am, which I found to be much easier on my body clock.
This also helped me create a series of small wins on the way, which ensured I bought into the new habit and the earlier rise time.
5. Get Real With Yourself
I wrote about this in a previous article about productivity, and I have come to realise it rings true for any change we seek in our lives.
A morning routine is generally a set of healthy habits you've recognised can move you closer toward your goals.
Yet, without honesty, you're fighting an uphill battle. Getting real with yourself around your successes and failures will stand you in far better stead as you try to switch things up.
For example, if you're hitting snooze half a dozen times because you've tried to get up an hour earlier, look for the root of the problem.
Did you neglect your evening routine? Or have you tried to make too much of an aggressive shift in your wake-up time?
Meeting obstacles is all going to be part of the process of creating your best morning. However, you must be honest about what's preventing you from where you’re currently at.
Only you will know the tweaks required to make lasting changes from this place.
After all, if this is going to be a routine, you want it to be able to go the distance.
6. Plan For Bumps In The Road
Life is anything but predictable at times.
You can create the perfect night-time routine and have all the intention to start the morning off on the front foot. That is, until you're suddenly thrown a curveball.
Travelling tends to be a big one.
You might have the perfect routine when you're at home. Yet, in a hotel room, it's completely whacked out of sync.
Planning for eventualities will help you make consistently intelligent choices, even in the face of change.
Just because you're in a different set of circumstances doesn't mean you must revert to old habits.
Be intentional and also have a little compassion from time to time. It's ok not to be perfect. Just remember to get back on the horse and remind yourself of why you’re doing it.
There we have it.
These six steps are having a significant influence on my mornings, helping me feel more in control and more productive than ever before.
I trust they'll also be able to work well for you in your quest for best.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this, I invite you to click the little heart ❤️ below. It’ll help others discover this post and put a big smile on my face 😄
Keep winning,
Jack
Another smart, practical article, Jack. Appreciate you, your writing, and your ideas.
Thank you for taking the time to read, Ryan. Glad you enjoyed it.