Here's how never to snooze again.

I’ve designed my mornings very specifically in order to work on my mental health. I learned one magical detail almost by accident in this process.

I did all sorts of experimenting early on with morning routines, inspired by Hal Elrod “Miracle Morning” and Jocko Willink. But even if they felt good once done, I didn’t stick to the routine. For me routine is like a bad word. I fear stagnating into a grumpy white male who’s “always done things this way” more than anything.

But I’ve also found that creativity and growth both require frameworks to work. (Framework is another word for routine.)

Here’s the morning habits:

1. Wake up with alarm clock

2. Warm Shower

3. Put on coffee

4. Stretch while waiting for the coffee

5. Meditate

After the meditation I might eat my breakfast, but it might also wait until lunch time. It depends. But it’s usually smarter to have breakfast than to skip it. If I skip breakfast, it’s less likely that I’ll eat enough during the day and, more likely I’ll eat sugar in the evening. Because hunger makes it harder to resist the urge.

1. CORNER STONE HABIT. Waking up is hard. I used to be one to snooze and just feel even more tired after I’d snoozed for an hour. I am not anymore. The magical detail I stumbled upon by accident: the cornerstone to my entire morning is not to have the phone in my bedroom. I’ll charge it in my living room. So when it rings, I have to get out of bed, down the stairs and silence it. It gives momentum.

2. WARM SHOWER. I’ll go there automatically, and it helps me wake up, as well as calm the vagus nerve down. I’m prone to anxiety and ruminating on my fears. I am always afraid. The shower helps with that. Try it. If I feel good on a morning, then I’ll add a 30-60 sec cold shower at the end. If I feel my nervous system is not in shape, I’ll skip it. The cold shower challenges the nervous system, so I won’t add more stress to it than needed.

3. COFFEE I just like. But it also primes the stretching.

4. STRETCHING I do 3 x 1 min / side upper body maintenance. Mostly it’s the Pec Stretch, Classic Lat and Tricep Stretch, or Trap Smash with a soft ball. My idea is that I’ll do lower body maintenance at the gym. The point is that since I’ve got the corner stone in: the mobile alarm clock NOT in my bed, I can build on to this routine as much as I want, and it’ll just roll with the flow. You might not need upper body maintenance, and instead do something else here.

5. MEDITATION is my key tool for mind training, and it might well deserve its own blogpost or book. I started it to be able to concentrate more, but find now after 7000 minutes that awareness is the first benefit. It taught me to take a step back and look at things (thoughts, emotions, life) a little less attached. And even just to feel an emotion. Fear. Noted. Takes away some if the edge from it. It’s possible to work through difficulties when one is aware. It’s possible to become better at anything when one is consciously in it.

I’m still quite slow getting going any morning. But forbidding phones in me bedroom has made a huge difference in my life, so whatever you want your morning to look like, I’d suggest you start it the same way.

Miska, Head Coach, Scifi Writer and Dog-Kahu.