A Morning Routine to ensure each day is like the one before it.
Or progressing toward your goal of getting “middle-class” quick.
I joined Medium a couple of months ago and I have been running across a bunch of articles detailing successful people’s morning routines. I read them because I have my own morning routine and I wouldn’t mind being successful so maybe I can add stuff…it might work…you don’t know!
My current routine has not changed much over the past 10 years or so, although I have added in some new things lately. Without further ado, let me tell you about the routing that has launched me to the current level of mediocrity I enjoy. I can assure anyone that wants to follow this routine it is a sure way to kill about an hour and a half as you ease yourself into your day and will, most likely, not put you at risk for any personal improvement. Fair warning: if you’re looking for some insight into how to improve your life, be successful, attain enlightenment or lose weight you need read no further. For those who continue; thanks for the read!
Waking up
I get up early. I hate sleeping in. I like my quiet time in the morning, to execute my routine, and so I get up early; usually about 5:00 am. I don’t need an alarm clock at all, I wish I did. This morning my watch told me I slept for around 4 hours, 48 minutes of deep sleep. I should probably be on a watch list.
Every evening before bed I ask my wife when she’s getting up, she always has a plan and an oddly specific time she’s getting up, 7:05 say, and I reply, “I’m just going to sleep till I wake up!”…which is typically 2 hours before she even thinks of getting out of bed. I’m a hoot.
Coffee
I start the coffee. I usually set the machine up the night before, so I can just stumble into the kitchen and hit the button. On the mornings when I was too lazy to set it up (~50% of the time) I usually make a huge mess as my bleary eyes adjust to the light.
Checking the numbers
I’ve been working in software development for a long time so I’m all about the metrics. I’m also a diabetic so I must check my blood sugar each morning. I do my BG reading before I touch my coffee because I want the lowest possible reading, so my endocrinologist doesn’t yell at me every three months. I also check my watch for how long I slept and the quality of that sleep and then I weigh myself…stepping on and off the scale several times from several angles to ensure I get the lowest possible reading.
Let the Dog out, feed the dog.
I have a 15-year-old dog, very adorable but very needy and I’m happy to oblige. He must, at this point be carried up and down the stairs from and to our bedroom. I do not wake him as early as I get up, I’m not a monster, but when he’s ready and I hear him stirring upstairs, I carry him down and let him out and get his breakfast ready. He comes back in and happily eats and then joins me on the easy chair in my office to finish out my morning routine.
Daily Puzzles
I do the New York Times Crossword Puzzle every day. Monday thru Wednesday I typically have it finished before I fall asleep the night before (it is released at 10pm) but on the more difficult days (Thursday-Saturday) there are often some clues left to discover in the morning.
I also do an annoying game the Times has called “The Spelling Bee” where you have to discover all the words that can be made with 7 provided letters. It makes me feel dumber than the crossword puzzle.
TikTok
Ok, this is new. I started watching TikToks (or as we hip[1] middle-agers call it, “The Tok”) a few months ago. I imagine my approach to these videos a similar to a heroin addicts approach to heroin; I can handle it if I just don’t let it get away from me. I have very strict rules on how I “handle” this
1. I watch the FYP page until I get an ad then I swipe left to my followed accounts.
2. If a video comes up that, as an adult man, I have no business watching (young women dancing suggestively or someone really eating a lot of carbs, for example) I swipe off that video as quick as a I can to teach the algorithm a lesson. I have both a daughter AND diabetes; I don’t want to see anymore of either genre.
3. On my “followed accounts” page I watch videos that are either funny, Scottish, socially-justicey, or all of the aforementioned scrolling quickly past accounts that aren’t…to teach the “algorithm”. Yes, I understand I should “unfollow” those accounts I’m whipping past but, c’mon, That’s a lot of work.
4. I wrap up watching “The Toks” once the coffee is ready (Sometimes I pretend the coffee is not ready yet)
Morning Pages
Also new to my routine are “Morning Pages”. I adopted this from another “morning routine” article but the idea actually was introduced in a book called “The Artist’s Way” by Julian Cameron. The idea is to sit down first thing in the morning and so some “stream of consciousness” writing. There are no hard and fast rules except they must be written out, longhand, and occupy three full pages of an 8.5 x 11 notebook. This is actually a struggle for me but, if nothing else, my handwriting is improving.
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[1] By definition using the term “hip” ensures I am not even “hip adjacent” or whatever word relevantly aged people use to denote “hip”
