The Morning Routine

Before the pandemic, the internet was full of the importance of the morning routine. Website after website was celebrating those celebrities who rose at 3 am, exercised, made millions and won parent of the year by breakfast. Andrew Huberman waded, as is his wont, into a detailed analysis of exactly how much sunlight one needs in the morning to sleep properly later that night.

Through lockdowns, the early-riser narrative gained even more traction as people had greater power than ever to build their own schedules. Apparently, people were rushing to get up before dawn for no sensible reason whatsoever. I remark only in passing that afternoon wine consumption spiked similarly.

My unpopular opinion:

The importance of an effective morning routine is greatly overstated.

In reality, much of our day is determined by external forces. This is particularly true as employers increasingly insist that in a post-lockdown world, employees should attend the office during work hours. My wife works at a school, so Monday to Friday, she's up at 05:15. This dictates my day.

I rise at, or before, five to prepare breakfast and a packed lunch. Mrs L must stay on site all day, so she has to take her lunch with her. I meditate in the morning and write in my journal. Being up first gives me some silent time when even the dogs leave me alone. The boss packed off to school before seven, the day is my oyster. The productivity gurus would now have us cracking on with our most important task, getting some exercise in, or doing both. Get on that exercise bike while clearing your e-mail and doing star jumps. Eat your nutrient supplements and fermented food for your micro-biome simultaneously for absolute efficiency.

If all that is your bag, good for you. Crack on. Assuming that you have the opportunity. Me? In the summer, I'll take the dogs out as close to dawn as possible before it gets too hot. In the winter, I'll take a hot shower, have a cup of tea and read the paper while listening to the radio. It's a bit cold until the sun has got itself going.

In the office (at home), I'll dig into my task manager and calendar and spend a few minutes planning my day. I'll put tasks on my Analog card. At the top are "deep work goals", and at the bottom, whatever chores need doing—glamorous things like the bins, the laundry, etc.

Like everyone, I suspect, some days I have meetings or deadlines. Sometimes, many, sometimes, fewer. Today, I've got washing out. If I want to go into town this afternoon, I'll need to get that in. The postie dropped a "you've got mail" note into my letterbox, so I must visit him between 18:00 and 20:00.

The point I'm making is that in the real world, few of us have the luxury of designing sacrosanct daily routines. We build days around the constraints that the world puts upon us. The school run can't wait because we fancy some meditation.

I think it's essential to find portions of time for concentration, and we might prefer a time of day, but most of the time, we take what we can get. By far, the most essential factor in time management is realism. Checking e-mail weekly may be super time-efficient, but it is impossible in a client-facing role.

Far more important, I think, is intention. That five minutes each morning planning my day accounts for the constraints and allows me to get the best from a day while still keeping the cogs of everyday life turning over.

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