Morning routine, what and why
I started building my morning routine before I took the 30-day Stoic challenge. The challenge added to it. In my year-end retrospective, I wrote about how I’d gotten there.
Since the first of the year, I’ve improved my routine and also the way I manage it. I use Google Keep to keep track.
The night before
My morning routine starts the night. I have a checklist that I run through, so everything’s ready when I wake up.
Due to a magic keep feature, the checklist repeats every day at 8 PM.
Here’s the list. The annotations say why I do each thing:
Heat bed [so I can fall right to sleep]
Modafinil [put out, so it’s handy next morning]
Vasoline [keep CPAP from drying nostrils, also ready for next day]
Underwear, shirt, shoes [Ready for next day]
Coffee [Ready for next day]
Meditate [Better sleep, more insight]
Brush [Of course]
Pick music [I’ll play this in my shower in the AM-2 to 5 minutes long]
Charge phone [So it’s handy when I get up and charged]
Feet [Athlete’s foot, a constant challenge]
Ready for bed [Pajamas, and phone]
I have a phone with a vibrating alarm, set for 5:30
Lights out around 10;00 or 11:00. I usually wake up once or twice to pee.
And then, at 5:30
On Waking
At 5:30 my vibrating alarm goes off, and keep delivers this list to my phone.
I want to bounce out of bed and get going, but it’s usually more like a stagger.
Here’s the list:
Take modafinil [Which has been left out]
Cold shower [Playing the music I picked the prior night through water-resistant Bluetooth earbuds. 2 to 5 minutes, depending on mood and music]
Brush my teeth
Pee
Weigh myself [Same time every day, same empty bladder]
Dress
Athlete’s foot,
Clean up [because I make messes, and have to remember]
I’m done between 5:45 and 6:00 depending on how focused I am.
I’d like to do it in 15 minutes, then get it down to 5 + shower duration
After waking
At 5:45 Keep will have delivered me this list. I’ve set it up with links (motivated by writing this post) so that so I can go down the list, clicking links to other apps or pagers and then going back and completing this list.
Check calendar [Link to calendar]
Check todos [Link to Keep ToDo label group]
Gratitude [Hangout message to God to say thanks!]
Affirmations [Link to Keep Affirmations note]
Say hello [Hangouts to say hello to a couple of people]
Nag JL [WhatsApp to Nag my friend to write his book]
Meditate
My morning meditation is in two parts. I listen to a 10 minutes Sam Harris guided meditation, and then do a longer, timed meditation Culadasa style.
I emerge, clear-headed and ready to seize the day.
Seize the day
The next list takes care of my body
Burpees
Walk [up and down the driveway twice]
Shave [while I’m walking]
Plan the day [Back to my todo list and make one for the day]
Set alarms [to check in and make sure I have not gone to sleep.
How it works
I’m rock solid on the first three lists, inconsistent, but getting better on the last one.
I’m still working on a reliable way to keep myself on task during the day, but I think I may have figured out what I need.To be continued.
Written with the help of StackEdit, Grammarly, Markdown Here,Blogger, and Google voice typing on Android and Chromebook, plus other stuff.