I am not a morning person. No way in hell.
Which sucks because doing your mornings right is absolutely CRUCIAL to living an epic life (I’ll explain below).
For those of us setting our own schedules (the self-employed, un-employed, and in-between), handling our mornings can become one of the most epic challenges we’ll ever have to face.
With no office job holding our asses accountable, it’s way too easy for our mornings to take control of us, and not the other way around.
Believe me. Ever since I started freelancing 3 years ago, I’ve been fighting a daily battle against Shitty Morning Syndrome, and more often then not, I’d get my ass beat.
If you’ve been there, you know what it feels like. Waking up feeling completely unmotivated. Hitting “snooze” over and over (and over) again. Lying in bed mindlessly checking e-mail. Staring at the wall, unable to decide what to do first (and already feeling overwhelmed).
And then before you know it, it’s 3pm and you’ve gotten jack shit done. Your eating schedule’s all thrown off. You’re too drained to workout. Your entire day is screwed and you feel guilty and angry at yourself for letting this happen…again.
As someone who wants to do a lot before his short life is over, I hate hate hate these wasted mornings (and the wasted days that would follow).
But try as hard as I might, I could never consistently have kick ass mornings. I’d always fall off the wagon time and time again.
Until I realized why, despite my best intentions, this kept happening.
See, I realized that there’s one unstoppable force determined to fuck up your mornings no matter what: your mind.
Your mind is one tricky bastard, ESPECIALLY in the morning. He’ll do whatever he can to make you sleep in, disrupt your plans, slow you down. He has no shame. He’ll lie, cheat, cajole, and use every excuse in the book.
But never trust him. He’s a filthy little liar.
So it becomes obvious. To have an amazing morning, you need to take your mind completely out of the equation.
You need to put your mornings on AUTOPILOT.
From the moment your alarm goes off, you need to shut off your brain. You can’t give your mind even ONE chance to say something. Every thought will lead you back to your pillow.
You need to have your entire morning already figured out for you before you even set your alarm. You shouldn’t be making a single coherent decision for yourself until lunchtime.
Now once I had that figured out, I finally came up with an autopilot morning routine that works PERFECTLY for me. I’m absolutely in love with it. Call it infatuation if you want, but no joke, it’s been rocking my world.
These days my mornings are the complete opposite of everything they used to be. They’re energizing, motivating, highly productive, and actually enjoyable. And when I start my mornings off that way, the rest of my day always follows suit.
Lemme share my routine with you guys in full detail so you can see how and why it’s so kickass for me. Feel free to modify this routine and try it for yourself, but I’m warning ya, you might fall in love too:
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- The night before – Set my alarm
As I’m going to bed, I set my alarm for the morning and whatever I set BECOMES LAW (it’s usually set for 9:30am, but if I’m up super late, I’ll adjust). From this moment on, everything’s on Autopilot and out of my control.
- 9:30am – Wake up, eat breakfast, get ready
Alarm goes off and I’m up! I blast music from my iPhone and start getting ready (Morning rule: iPhone can only be used for music, nothing else).
My rule is I have to be out the door within 30 min. Once I’m awake, I go straight into the bathroom and wash up. Then I eat a light breakfast (these days it’s 2 hardboiled eggs – you want to get some protein in as soon as you can).
After that, I put on my gym clothes and…
- 10:00am – Get Outside and Get Physical
…I’m out the door! If I can get out earlier, then I’m even more of a baller. I have exactly an hour to do two things:
Get Outside: I start by taking a nice, pleasant walk to my gym. I soak in the sun. Breathe deep. Enjoy being a part of the outside, alive world.
This is crucial for us work-at home types. Starting the day by getting out and interacting with the world is so necessary to our health and happiness. Trust me on this.
The key part of this walk is to enjoy it and slowly shake off the sleep. I usually listen to music and try thinking about things I’m grateful for and appreciate. Keep your mind light and positive.
Get Physical: After getting outside, I’ll usually hit the gym or do sprints. Whatever it is, keep it short and intense. The goal of these workouts is to get you feeling f*cking great afterwards.
To really feel awesome after a workout, it needs to be intense. No yawning here. You need to push yourself as hard as you can. Trust me, you’ll feel AMAZING afterwards.
When I’m done with my workout, I walk home, down a protein shake, and quickly rinse off. I always feel ALIVE after my workouts and on top of the world. I feel like I can tackle anything. Perfect, because next up is…
- 11:00am – Complete 2 Pomodoro’s of my highest priority project.
After my workout, my energy is through the roof, my mood is high, and my brain is firing on all cylinders. This is the perfect time to get productive.
Without even thinking, I’ll just launch immediately into getting shit done! No checking e-mail. No sending tweets. Just 2 Pomodoro’s (30 min. sessions of work) back to back.
Use this peak time to tackle your HIGHEST priority project. Maybe it’s learning a language. Or working on your debut novel. Usually it’s the item on your to-do list that you’re most dreading.
Whatever it is, start it immediately, before you can make any excuses. Before other distractions come up. Before your mind can say no. Now’s the time!
- 12:00pm – Morning’s over and you just kicked its ass! Now go forth and conquer the rest of the day!
My Autopilot Morning Routine
Now if you followed this routine, take a look at what you accomplished in just the first 2.5 hours of your day:
Got up like a lightning bolt. Ate a nutritious breakfast. Got ready without wasting a single second. Interacted with the outside world. Engaged in positive thinking. Worked out like a beast. Energized your body and mind. Flooded your brain with happy endorphins. And completed 2 Pomodoro’s of your most important work.
All on autopilot.
Wow. Now that’s one helluva way to start your day. And you still have 13.5 hours left!
Even if you did nothing else, you’ve already accomplished more then what most people do in 24 hours.
But of course, with a kickass start like that, why would you stop there? The momentum of an amazing morning will carry over to the rest of your day. Always.
See, that’s why morning’s are so damn important.
If you put your mornings on autopilot, you’re guaranteed a morning full of win.
A morning full of win leads to a day full of win.
Day after day full of win leads to a life full of f*cking win!
Get the picture? See why morning’s are absolutely crucial?
This is about way more then just that time of day when you drink coffee and eat bagels. It’s about wanting to live an absolutely epic life. And about fulfilling that promise in its entirety – not just having epic nights and epic afternoons – but the whole frickin’ epic shebang!
You can’t afford to NOT be a morning person. Dude, that’s like a third of your life right there! If you want to live an epic life, then you need to follow through with it, all the way. Every single day, right from the get-go. From the moment you open your eyes til the moment you close ’em.
Think about it.
Or better yet, don’t. Just put it on autopilot.
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So I’m writing this on a plane right now, meaning that my 2 awesome, sleep-deprived months in New York have finally come to an end.
Aw man. I’m gonna miss that crazy, dirty little city. My time here was both hella fun and full of growth – a sweet combination.
But I’m not going to lie, I’m also really looking forward to being in Santa Monica again (especially for the end of summer).
Maybe you could tell by this post, but lately, I’ve been in more of a “productive mode” and I’m looking forward to getting shit done in peace and quiet.
And I’m also looking forward to motorcycle classes. And performing at an open mic night. And being a big buddy at camp again. And going to Burning Man for the first time.
Okay, so maybe I overestimated this peace and quiet thing. Either way, I’m stoked for the next few months. I feel like I’m getting back into “try new random things” mode and I like it.
