Is My 3+ Hour Morning Routine too Neurotic?
Most people don’t have a morning routine - they have a mourning routine: why can’t I get out of bed? *SOB*
Even emperor Marcus Arelius had to write lengthy, private journal entries to pep-talk himself out from under the covers.
I built an 8-figure a year business on a morning routine of diet cokes and cigarettes. Nothing like nicotine withdrawal to get you moving first thing. Thank god I broke those habits.
You don’t need a morning routine - I’ve done well without one for many years, though I never performed optimally. Some can’t have a morning routine because they’re biologically predisposed to be night owls. But for most of us, a structured morning routine will increase output and general well being.
If you nail it, your morning routine starts to feel so good, it’ll be hard to come down from its high… and you can ride it for hours, kicking ass and taking names.
My Routine
I awake at about 5:30AM. No alarm clock. I’ve learned my body’s natural circadian rhythms and know that this is the time I’m supposed to wake. I pay the price if I wake up later than this more than a couple days in a row. I need to get to bed between 9:30-10pm to get the best sleep to be ready to go at 5:30.
The morning routine starts the night before.
As soon as I wake up, I get outside. The superficial reason for this is to escape the phone screen. For years I started my day like most people do with a phone in front of my face. It’s about as bad as shoving a cigarette in your mouth.
The more important reason to get outside first thing is sunlight has a powerful effect on your circadian rhythm. It’s an anchor: oh, this is when I need to be awake, because I feel the sun. Only for the last 0.1% of humanity have we even slept inside.
Being outside connects me to something greater than myself, which puts me in a state of gratitude. I try to take in the view for a minute or two to see the world from a wider perspective, as opposed to our narrow, screen-focused perspectives we’re more used to these days.
Some mornings I just sit outside and watch my dogs frolic about. Other mornings I journal. Sometimes I create outlines for articles or talks, or try to organize my ideas. Other times I just meditate. Other times still, I read. I trust my intuition for the morning - doing any of those things is right. Having a variety is also helpful, because overly-structured morning routines tend to become repressive and then insufferable.
I remain outside between 10-45 minutes depending:
How warm it is.
How well I slept the night before.
How interesting of a meditation I get into.
How captivating the book is I’m reading.
How excited I am to get to work.
The last one is my favorite. While outside I often come across an idea or insight that gets me wanting to beeline to my office and just go at it. But I resist at first. Guess what happens? It amplifies even more the desire to get it on. But I resist, still. I try to hang on as long as I can so when I do work, it’s a relief - not a burden.
The Magic Elixir of Productivity
When I go inside, I still don’t switch to beast mode. Instead, I make my bulletproof coffee. This is about to get weird, but hang with me. I can’t imagine I’d’ve tried this stuff if I didn’t know Dave Asprey personally. He’s a cool dude, his attitude is infectious, so after seeing him carry a stick of butter with him to a restaurant, I figured I’d try it.
The first few times I phoned it in. I used cheap coffee and just flicked a pat of butter into the cup, and stirred it up. Now I know better. I use clean coffee now (a controversial subject, beyond the scope of this article). I add Dave’s Brain Octane Oil in with it, as well as some collagen peptides. Then I blend it because supposedly blending makes it work better.
I’m not as sold on the science as Dave and his ilk. Whether true of placebo, it just works for me exactly the way Dave advertises it. I have more energy, focus and cognitive ability and I don’t go through a caffeine crash and my hunger is sated.
Your mileage may vary, but I am most cognitively sharp if I drink this bulletproof concoction and don’t eat. I can then work on high-demanding tasks with deep focus for an hour or two straight - sometimes even three hours in a row. Without wrecking myself, or needing time to lay down after. No burnout.
I do better work, too, because I’m less distractible.
When to stop working?
My first work session ends when:
I hit the finish line for the task. I try to make my task take around 90 minutes with a clear “finish line” point, e.g. “research then write an article” or “outline an upcoming podcast episode”.
I’m at the point of diminishing returns. This is tricky. If you’re by default unproductive, you’ll spin your wheels all the time, so that’s not a good sign of when to call it. But for me, I know taking a break is going to make me more productive than pushing through. But I never step away earlier than 45 minutes in.
I have a hard deadline. Rare, but sometimes I have to take morning meetings, or there is a pressing issue I need to attend to. If this is your norm, you have an issue with boundaries. You must make time to do deep, uninterrupted work on a regular basis.
It just feels right. Intuition is underrated. Once you get a routine going, you’ll be clued in on when enough is enough.
After that first session, I immediately go back outside. I switch my view from focused on a screen back to a horizon. My dogs go greet me like I’ve been gone for a decade. I try to pet them and just focus on being in that moment, tapping into my inner Eckhart Tolle.
I then either do Wim Hoff breathing (which takes 15-20 minutes), or I just sit there and try to stay present. I got three kids, and during the summer they’re around so I attempt to co-opt them into my Zen. Or jump on the trampoline.
The big secret is the type of task you switch to, when you come off a deep work session - you must get into the body. The breathing is one way; jumping up and down another; petting the dogs, another still.
I learned this from Steven Kotler who wrote the book Flow. Once I asked him: “I feel like I burn through all my neurotransmitters when I work intensely for a few hours on creative projects, so it takes me forever to recover after. What should I do?”
His answer: low-level physical exertion.
Any mind-demanding task now gets followed up by a non-mind task - either physical (jumping on the trampoline) or spiritual (practicing mindfulness).
I used to lay down and watch youtube after a cognitively demanding work session. Kotler said that’s the worst thing to do, because even though I’m conserving energy, think of the amount of moving pictures, context switching and overall stimulation from even one video. Got it.
Active recovery is better because I still feel resilient while my brain reboots, and I can get right back at that second work session after I do my breathing or meditation. I’ll consider another cup of Bulletproof Coffee, then throw myself into another work session, which can range between another 1 to 3 hours.
Most days, that’s it - I am done working and it’s only noon.
Afternoon are (mostly) for me
If I have no other pressing work matters for that day, then immediately after my second work session I hit a workout or I go do a Red Light Therapy - Sauna - Cold Immersion protocol. Then I eat, breaking my fast usually between noon to 2pm.
Some days I have to take meetings after my second work session, but not often. Occasionally I have to sacrifice my second work session for meetings. But mostly I can get 2 solid, deep work sessions in and be done by noon and have the whole rest of the day to devote to my self care and my family.
If I’m really in the zone, or a super pressing business deadline (rarely), I sneak in a third work session in the evening.
What I like about this morning routine - even though it lasts until about noon most days! - is that I feel good and I perform well.
Smokes and cokes got me moving, but I ended up feeling worse as the years went on. Unstructured mornings made me feel good for a while, but I tended to lose meaning to my life because I get fulfillment from contribution - and my contribution suffers from lack of structure.
For me, for now, here is my sweet spot. I can go further and get more done and at a higher quality without using stress or fear to motivate me - which allows me to actually turn off the work when I’m not working. I get the best of drive and the best of contentment.
I hope this motivates you to trial-and-error your way to such a routine in your life.