My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired

by Benjamin Spall

“When you come up with a morning routine, understand that you’re undertaking it in order to do something good for yourself, not to meet some stranger’s standard of productivity.”

The kitchen is always cleaned and the house tidied before we go to bed. It’s hard to fit it in but it’s gratifying to wake up to a peaceful environment.

Maybe I’m just too old but I don’t believe that one’s life can be hacked; it can only be lived.

“After years of trial and error, I’ve found that the first thirty minutes of my day have the biggest impact on how I feel for the rest of my waking hours.” —MOLLI SUROWIEC, FITNESS INSTRUCTOR

“When the bed is made I feel like my world is clean and orderly and I can focus all my attention on my work.”

rule: Do one thing in the morning before checking email.

Context switching is inherently bad for us—every time we switch between doing our work and reading an article online, or reading an article online and checking our phones, we experience a “transaction cost” that drains our energy and slows us down.

There is nothing like simply opening one’s eyes when they naturally want to open to make the world seem pretty much completely okay.

“It turns out that the worst thing you can do with an email is answer it, because you get more back.” —SCOTT ADAMS, CREATOR OF THE DILBERT COMIC STRIP

My partner is exactly that—my partner. We divide and conquer the chores to get them all done.

Building the habit is more important to me than sticking to a particular routine.”

sometimes if I’m woken during a particularly interesting dream, I’ll snooze in order to go back and finish it. Of course, this rarely works, but it’s fun to try.

I like to go from the dream state of sleep to zazen and then directly to the page. It takes me a few hours before I can safely let in the world,