My Morning Routine & Free New eBook!

A month or so ago my friend Jonothon Kneeper reached out to me about my morning routine, mentioning that he was compling data for a book he was writing. I’m happy to say the book, Win Your Day, is live on Amazon and you can get it for free today (Feb. 4th)! It has lots of great information from all sorts of folks on how they start their day. I’ve always had an interest in morning routines and have placed a big focus on mine as a way to make sure I start my day off right.

7:30am Start Time

This actually varies a bit when I teach class, but on a normal day, I’m up between 7 and 7:30am, usually without an alarm clock. I need to shower and shave when I wake up; if I don’t I feel tired and pretty unproductive until I do.

After showering I make some coffee/breakfast and do what I call morning triage, a term I got from Alex King. I check my bank accounts and credit cards, Feedly for news, social media (Facebook & Twitter mostly), and respond to email.

Then I plan out my day in my Bullet Journal – if it’s Monday I will do the whole week, and if it’s the 1st, the whole month. I write out all of my tasks and any events/appointments I have. I find this last bit especially helps me focus on the day ahead. Once I see everything I need to do in writing, I can begin to tackle everything. All of this can take between 1-1.5 hours to complete.

Why Do I Do It?

One reason I try to stick to a routine is I’m ususally juggling a few things at once, and jumping right into a task before really focusing on what I have to do that day puts me on edge a bit – like I’m forgetting a million things. But doing the non-work things first helps me jump-start my brain and get ready for any challenges I face.

The Bullet Journal really, really helps with that. If I don’t do this, I usually switch between 3-4 tasks before realizing, “OK I need to write down everything I need to do.”

Possible Improvements

Every process has room for improvements and this is no different. I’d like to make 2 changes if I can handle it:

Work out or do some physical activity. It really is the best time to do it, but it’s so hard to get motivated. I like to wake up earlier but I also go to bed pretty late (around 11:30 or midnight). Working out would force me to wake up around 6am, which means an earlier bed time.

Ignore Email for the first hour. Back in 2009 Matt Mullenweg wrote that he did this and I think it’s a great idea. I wonder if it’s still part of his routine. I think it would help me wake up with less on my mind, especially if one of those emails isn’t pleasent. Stressed is not a good way to start your day.

A Fly on the Wall

One of the questions Jonothon asked me was, “If I could be a fly on the wall for anyone’s morning routine, whose would it be?” Aside from Matt, two people came to mine.

The first was Walt Disney. That man accomplished so much in his 65 years (and 42 running a company). He had to start his day right, right?

The other is Elon Musk. In my mind, this guy is a modern day Walt Disney. He runs 3 companies and he’s doing things that are changing the world- privatized space exploration AND self-driving electric cars? Are you kidding me? If doing what he does in the morning makes me half as productive, I’ll take it.

Win Your Day!

If you thought this was interesting, you’re in luck! Jonothon’s book, Win Your Day, is out now. And as an added bonus, for today only (Thursday Feb 4th) it’s free! Finally, he also put together this nifty infographic. Go get it now! Here’s what Jonothon has to day:

I’ve been working on a project chronicling the morning routines of entrepreneurs/creatives – best selling authors, CEOs, one man/woman startups, etc. The main focus of the book are the morning routine spotlights of over 30 entreprenurs + takeaways from what the data looked like collectively from over 100 people/routines.

Get Win Your Day