As a self-proclaimed morning person, I tend to have the freshest mind and do my best work first thing in the morning. For a long time I channeled this energy into work, craving flexible jobs where I could get some uninterrupted coding time in at 7am or even 6am some days and cut out around 3pm or 4pm. These days I prefer to give these hours, arguably my best hours, to myself. For the past 5 or 6 months, I’ve been working to build a morning routine. It doesn’t look the same every day, some days I optimize for reading over writing and vice versa. I’ve accepted that some days have more constraints than others and pull what I need most from below on those days, but on a day without excessive constraint where I have 3-4 hours to myself in the morning, here’s what that routine looks like:
- Wake up, pop out of bed, don’t open any apps on phone
- Head downstairs, light an incense match or an incense stick or a candle in the living room
- Turn on the kettle and brew a strong cup of black tea
- Sit down on the couch with tea
- Do a daily tarot pull to reflect on the message or energy for the day ahead
- Write stream-of-consciousness morning pages (this is a practice I picked up from The Artist’s Way but I don’t focus on the 3 page/750 word count. some days I do write 3 pages but some days I write 1 and that is better than none)
- Read some pages of whatever book I have in progress
- Take notes on what I read
- Make a pot of coffee for my partner and I to share
- Sip coffee and spend 20-30 min catching up on Instagram, BlueSky, etc.
- Make breakfast for myself and my partner usually either yogurt mixed with protein powder topped with berries & granola or avocado toast with a fried egg and bacon on the side
- Get some movement in - usually a walk but could be a bike ride or weightlifting, aiming for at least 30m in length
- Start the workday