My New (Better) Morning Routine

Summary

The speaker emphasizes the importance of a morning routine for productivity, sharing their personal experience and evolution of morning habits. They describe waking up at 6:30 am, engaging in physical activity, a casual walk with audiobooks or podcasts, and a nutritious breakfast. The speaker highlights the benefits of learning in the morning, vocal practice during showers, and the strategic shift to afternoon workouts to avoid the afternoon slump, concluding with a recommendation for a learning platform called Brilliant.

Takeaways

• 🛏️ The way you start your day is crucial for productivity, with a structured morning routine providing momentum for the day's work.
• ⏰ Waking up on time and having a plan can prevent procrastination and wasted time, unlike waking up late or without a plan.
• 🕰️ The speaker now wakes up at 6:30 AM using a second alarm on an iPad downstairs to ensure they get out of bed.
• 🐱 Morning activities include feeding the cat, watering plants, and doing pull-ups to feel awake and maintain fitness for rock climbing.
• 🚶‍♂️ A casual 10-15 minute walk outside is part of the routine, often accompanied by listening to podcasts or audiobooks.
• 🎵 The use of an Echo speaker to start the day with a personalized morning routine, including calendar updates and a Spotify playlist.
• 🍳 A simple breakfast routine consisting of a wrap with eggs, cheese, bacon, and salsa, along with an apple and coffee.
• ☕️ A preference for Caribou coffee dark roast beans over more expensive craft-roasted beans, highlighting the value of taste tests.
• 📚 Dedication to learning in the morning, either through reading or engaging with long-form articles, to foster personal growth.
• 🎤 Utilizing shower time for vocal practice with the help of Bluetooth speakers and tailored Spotify playlists for targeted training.
• 💼 The speaker starts work at home or heads to a coffee shop for writing or research after completing the morning routine.
• 🏋️‍♀️ A shift from morning workouts to afternoon sessions to avoid the afternoon slump and improve work consistency and alertness.
• 📈 The importance of making time for daily learning to prevent stagnation and to enhance work quality and business growth.

Q & A

What is the key lesson about productivity mentioned in the script?

The key lesson about productivity mentioned is that the way you start your day really matters, as it can give you the momentum needed to be productive or lead to procrastination and wasted time.

What was the speaker's previous method for waking up early and why did it stop working?

The speaker used to schedule a tweet to be posted if they didn't wake up, which would tell people they were being lazy. It stopped working because it led to anxiety and negatively affected the quality of their sleep due to worries about waking up late.

What is the speaker's current method for ensuring they wake up on time?

The speaker now uses a second alarm on an iPad downstairs, which requires them to go downstairs to turn it off, ensuring they do not hit snooze and start their routine.

What is the purpose of doing pull-ups in the speaker's morning routine?

The purpose of doing pull-ups is to ensure the speaker feels fully awake and also to help maintain their physical fitness for rock climbing.

Why does the speaker recommend using an old towel with a door frame pull-up bar?

The speaker recommends using an old towel to wrap around the contact points of the door frame pull-up bar to prevent damage to the door frame, as these bars can cause damage if not padded properly.

What does the speaker do during their 10 to 15-minute morning walk?

During the walk, the speaker listens to a podcast or an audiobook, which is a habit they wanted to reintroduce from their post-college days in Iowa.

What is the speaker's breakfast routine after their morning walk?

After the walk, the speaker activates a morning routine on their Echo speaker with Alexa, which informs them of the day's events, weather, and starts a morning playlist. They then have a simple breakfast consisting of a wrap with eggs, cheese, bacon, and salsa, an apple, and coffee.

What was the outcome of the speaker's blind taste test between craft-roasted beans and Caribou coffee beans?

The speaker found that they actually preferred the taste of Caribou coffee beans, which were half the price of the craft-roasted beans, showing that price is not always an indicator of quality.

How does the speaker incorporate learning into their morning routine?

The speaker incorporates learning by reading books or long articles, such as Ray Dalio's article on paradigm shifts, which influenced changes in their investment strategies.

What is the speaker's vocal practice routine during their shower time?

The speaker uses a small Bluetooth speaker in the bathroom to practice singing during their shower, utilizing different Spotify playlists targeting specific types of singing practice, such as high-range and low-range training.

Why did the speaker change their workout routine from mornings to afternoons?

The speaker changed their workout routine to the afternoons because it allowed them to work earlier in the day, helped to eliminate the afternoon slump by providing exercise at that time, and made them more consistent in their morning learning time.

What is the speaker's recommendation for a learning resource to build a daily learning habit?

The speaker recommends Brilliant, a learning website with an active, problem-centric approach to teaching various subjects, which helps in building daily learning habits and improving problem-solving skills.