✦Wellbeing · 14 recordsBuild a morning routine

Morning routines copied from somebody else's hour-long list last about a week. This builds a short one around three things you actually want, protects it by moving the phone and fixing the night before, and adds a step only once the previous one has held for a fortnight.

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✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

A morning routine that holds for two months Month 2

Short, started the night before, and built one step at a time.

Design it Day 7

Three things, in order, and nothing borrowed wholesale.

  • Write down the three things I want before the day startsDo firstDay 2
  • Move the phone charger out of the bedroomDo firstDay 3
  • Set a bedtime that makes the wake-up time realisticDo firstDay 5

Build it up Month 2

One step at a time, each held for a fortnight first.

  • Two weeks of the first step onlyDo firstWeek 2
  • Add the second stepWeek 2
  • Add the third stepWeek 4
  • Review: what gets skipped, and why?Week 6

Routines

  • Phone out of reach until the routine is donedaily
  • The morning routinedaily
  • Set up tomorrow the night beforedaily
✦ It comes with a note

Start the night before

Most failed mornings were decided the evening before: a late night, a phone in bed, no idea what the first task is. Fix those three and the routine is half done before the alarm.

Short beats impressive. A ten-minute routine done on a bad day is worth more than an hour-long one done only on good days.

✦ Questions

Build a morning routine, answered.

Three things you actually want to do, not ten you feel you should. Water, some movement and a few minutes deciding the day is enough for most people, and a routine that short gets done on the mornings when a long one would be skipped entirely.
The night before. A fixed bedtime, a phone charging outside the bedroom and tomorrow's first task decided in advance do more for the morning than anything done after the alarm.
Usually longer than the popular twenty-one days, and it varies a lot by person and habit. That is why the plan adds one step at a time, and only after the previous one has held for a fortnight.
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