Not Another Morning Routine Story

It’s a morning RITUAL story. Here’s the difference.

I like to think of myself as the ultimate morning girl — a natural early riser, breakfast lover, and eager beaver while the rest of the world has yet to open their eyes.

And as a person who, at one point in her life, glorified busy and got high off of checking things off her to-do list, I reveled in being able to accomplish so many things within 24 hours.

But at the same time, being that busy bee & productivity junkie never gave me the chance to evaluate my mornings. I didn’t think I had to. I’d wake up early, go through the motions, and then get shit done. As far as I was concerned, I was making the most out of my day.

But was I?

Just because I start my day early, does it mean I’m starting it right? And just because I accomplished a couple of tasks, does it mean my performance was optimal?

Peak performers like Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Bob Iger, and a whole lot of other leaders wake up early. Deep inside, I guess that’s also why I’d always took pride in my being a morning person.

But with the luxury of time at home because of quarantine and unemployment, it struck me that I wasn’t actually the ultimate morning person I thought I was. My morning “routine” was basically me waking up early and then doing whatever floats my boat.

So, with my mission to recalibrate my life, I decided to become a true-blue morning girl. To establish not just a morning routine, but a ritual.

In this journey, I’ve come to fall deeply in love with the morning. And I’ve learned so much along the way.

This story explains the difference between a ritual and a routine, what happens when you reframe your morning into a ritual, and two essential things to remember in creating one for yourself.

First, let me share what I’ve gathered from the greats about why they stick to and swear by their morning rituals.

Why are successful people morning people?

It seems superhuman — How these guys wake up before the crack of dawn, accomplish a dozen things before 8 am, run off to their 9 to 5, lead an entire organization, get an insane amount of work done, and then come home with their health & sanity intact.

But as it turns out, it’s not just about catching the worm. Sure, a headstart allows them to squeeze a few more things into their day, but that’s not the whole story.

Oprah Winfrey walks her five dogs first thing in the morning. Richard Branson plays a couple of sets of tennis. Bob Iger gets up to work out in silence.

They wake up early because those first few hours are their me-time — private, personal, indispensable. They know that it’s how they spend the mornings that allow them to be their best selves for the rest of the day.

A smart morning ritual calls for smart morning habits. It lessens the guesswork early in the day and thus preserves mental energy for decision-making. It supports your body so that you can operate with the stamina to last the day. It primes your headspace so you can think more clearly, creatively, and confidently. And most importantly, it makes space for gratifying yourself which is crucial to staying motivated and sustaining momentum.

The greats treat and talk about their morning rituals as if they were sacred because that’s what they are. And they protect that time at all costs.

Why call it a ritual instead of a routine?

Whatever you repeatedly do in the morning is considered a routine, whether it’s done consciously or on autopilot.

But as creatures of habit, we end up doing a lot of things because we’re used to them. For something as mundane as waking up, it’s easier to just go with the flow and give in to the most convenient or accessible triggers. When you sleep beside your smartphone, how can you not routinely check it first thing?

Routine graduates into a ritual when two things happen: (1) you’ve assigned meaning to it, and thus (2) do it out of intention.

You invest in it because your subconscious understands & believes the gains from practicing it.

As Harvard Professor Mike Norton points out, calling something a ritual and doing it repeatedly increases its efficacy, no matter what the action is:

If it helps you create that sense of control… that’s what matters. Think of performers who do strange rituals before performing. They know that walking in a circle three times while repeating a mantra doesn’t help them win, but it helps them calm down so they can perform.

If you believe that a specific set of activities gears you up for the day ahead, you are training your brain to manifest that.

Moreover, framing practices as rituals provides people with a sense of agency. This is especially important when circumstances drastically change (you know, like when a pandemic wreaks global havoc) and people feel stressed & demoralized by the feeling that they’ve lost control over their lives. When you lean into a ritual & actively practice it, you are somehow reasserting control. You are choosing familiarity, regularity, and the preservation of that ritual’s meaning in your life.

Ritualizing something engages you. It gives you a stronger reason to commit. To make it stick. On both good days and bad days.

But as I’ll explain in the next section, your morning ritual is effective only if it serves your physiology and your lifestyle.

What makes a good morning ritual?

There’s a lot of material on how a morning ritual should look like. But after thorough research and experimentation, we can simply boil it down to these two criteria:

1. It optimizes your performance.

Creating a morning routine isn’t rocket science, but it wouldn’t hurt to understand some science behind it either. There are common habits among rituals of different people because these behaviors have a direct effect on our brain & physiology.

I used to pressure myself to read through 3 different news apps and at least 3 Medium stories in the morning, with the intent of sparking creativity & inspiration. But if you read the research further, there are simpler, and maybe even more optimal ways to mobilize the neurotransmitters that induce creativity and motivation. When you can understand what your body needs and what types of behavior support that, you can make your body work for you.

A good morning ritual is grounded on smart habits that hack the chemicals in your body, and thus optimize your performance throughout the day.

2. It doesn’t make you want to kill yourself.

While I believe that people can accustom themselves to a new habit as long as they commit to it, I don’t believe in hammering yourself into a completely new direction when there are other less-demanding alternatives. I had a colleague who I was such in awe of for his dedication to fitness. His habits included a daily 7 km run at 4:30 am. I thought I could do it. And I did. But after a few days, I admitted to myself that running just wasn’t my thing.

A good morning ritual is tailor-fitted to you — That’s the most awesome part about creating one. There’s no one way to do it. You can read about how other people do it, but you shouldn’t have to force yourself to start waking up at 4:00 am to perform a 30-min vinyasa flow when it’s something you obviously don’t enjoy. You can and should design a morning ritual that you can look forward to waking up to.

As with more traditional & religious rituals that you practice because they align with your beliefs & values, so should your morning ritual align with your interests & overall lifestyle.

After reading through the morning rituals of famous people, understanding the psychology and neuroscience behind these habits, and experiencing the rejuvenating impact of a uniquely-designed morning ritual, here’s my key takeaway:

It’s not enough to just wake up early. To be a true-blue morning person, you need a smart, purposeful follow-through. You need to build a morning ritual that suits you.