My Morning Routine Gave Me Extra Two Hours
No, I didn’t trade my sleep time, and I cut down my caffeine intake.
I have practised my morning routine for almost a year. I loved what I get. Here is the list of what I have achieved from having a morning routine:
- I published my first eBook (Chinese). It all happened as part of my morning routine in 2020.
- I have drastically increased my reading volume. On average, I read about 8 books per year before I adopted the morning routine. I have read 33 books this year so far.
- I have started my writing endeavour on medium.com, committing to at least one article every day.
- I have cut my caffeine consumption by half, surviving only on one cup of coffee per day. You could read how I manage to control my caffeine addiction after 23 years of drinking coffee here.
Above all, I have extra two hours per day without trading my sleep time off. I still get my seven and half hours of sleep every night. What gets changed were the time I crawl into my bed and the time I get up from it without hitting the snooze button.
What’s In The Extra Time?
Alright, there isn’t extra time; I just said it metaphorically. I wake up every morning at 6 am, walk across the room to turn off the alarm. Walk straight to the bathroom, do whatever routine you and I will do every morning. Then I will start my first activity of the day — reading. I put reading as the first thing to do is because I figure if I would have a healthy breakfast for my body, why not feed my brain the same thing? My morning reading routine is the best breakfast for my brain.
I will read for at least 21 minutes (search #read21in21 to learn more about this challenge by Gretchen Rubin), and I would time it. The timer could force me to focus for at least 21 minutes, and if I could read more, I will. I marked it on the calendar once I have done the daily reading challenge.
Next, I committed myself to a 365 daily project — a daily activity I have for years. This year, the challenge is to write a short story that begins with a dialogue and involve not more than three characters. I did this to stretch my creativity and to make writing a daily activity. Most of the stories I have written so far were in Chinese, and I would share them on my Facebook accounts.
Then I would continue my writing exercise, this time, on Medium. So far, I have published 38 stories in English (English is my second language, so it was challenging for me to start writing in English, here is how I improve on the language).
I could say that if it wasn’t because of the morning routine, I could never achieve any of those.
What Is Morning Routine? How To Set One?
A morning routine is a set of actions one performs before the main activity of your day starts to kick in, such as going to work or school. A morning routine is easy to set up but is formidable to keep on. You should set your morning routine based on your own need, but the purpose of having one usually for self-improvement.
We want to become better.
There are several caveats in setting up an effective morning routine that you should be wary of.
- Know your purpose: if you have a crystal clear reason why you want to leave that cosy bed in the early morning, it makes thing a lot easier. Without a strong purpose, you will soon be hitting that snooze button and sleep in.
- Use the extra quiet time for what really matters: my morning routine is valuable because it creates a quiet, solitary moment for me. I could use this time for things that mattered to me — reading, thinking and writing. We have so much to do but have so little time, so don’t try to rush anything in your morning routine. In short, set priority.
- Consistency creates routine: it is called routine because it happens repeatedly. If you use one morning for exercise but the next morning for reading, you will find it hard to keep things together.
- Find the minimum effort: before your set of actions become routine, our brain would recognise them as something excruciating. So, don’t rush to make your morning routine identical to Robin Sharma’s 5 am club. When I first try out my morning routine, I set my sleep time at 11.30 pm (it was 12.30 am before) and set my alarm at 7.30 am (it was 8.30 am before).
- Celebrate every milestone: it is hard to keep up with the morning routine without motivation, and it is impossible to seek out motivation externally. We need to motivate ourselves, but how? I make a record every day once I complete my daily reading (see picture below).
Conclusion
Like you, I have heard about morning routines for many years. Still, I have come up with thousands of excuses not to try it.
“I’m a night owl.” “I have night classes.” “I have a headache. Let’s sleep in.”
The list will go on. My point is, give it a TRY! You can use the 14-days challenge to give it a good start. My morning routine help reduced my consumption of caffeine. I used to drink lots of coffee to stay alert in the daytime (thanks to my habit of staying up late), never wanted to admit that the caffeine would jeopardise my sleep. To commit to this morning routine, I will need to trade off my pleasure in sipping the afternoon’s cup of Joe. To my surprise, I could actually stay vigilance and productive at work without it.
When you start your morning routine, make sure you have a clear purpose for starting one. Use the quiet time for activities that matter most to you, set priority. You are not sprinting; you are running on a marathon, so being consistent in the morning routine gives you a head start. Before everything becomes routine, try to sneak your morning routine at minimum effort so that your brain did not notice the nuance changes. Lastly, collect small wins and celebrate every milestone on the way.
What’s your morning routine story about? Do you mind sharing?
