My Morning Routine

Photo by David Brooke Martin on Unsplash

Updated: 29 August 2025

It took a global pandemic for me to realise how much I needed daily routines to help me reduce stress, create stability, and set myself up for success.

Routines ground us in times of uncertainty and free our minds to focus on decisions that matter. It’s true of teams and certainly true of individuals.

Bookending my day with some simple intentional practices helps me to improve my sleep, boost productivity, and enhance my overall wellbeing.

This version is from August 2025. I’ll try to keep this page updated as life changes.

Beds designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. Not sure I could sleep in so many stripes.

The evening routine

A good morning starts with a good night. For me, good sleep depends on three things:

A cool, dark, quiet bedroom
A clean body with a lower core temperature
A calm mind

For the first, I crack the window, wear an eye mask, and use earplugs. A cool shower helps with the second. The third is trickier: turning off devices, dimming lights, meditating, reading, listening to music or nature sounds, and jotting lingering thoughts in a “Tomorrow” note all help me unwind.

This small study appears to confirm the effect of bright light before bed, and this longer paper dives deeper into light, mood, and circadian rhythms.

I often lack self-control when I’m deep in a project or scrolling. Downtime on my phone and laptop helps by forcibly booting me off and nudging me toward rest.

Altogether, my routine looks like this:

21:30 Dim the lights
22:00 Get kicked out of my phone and laptop
22:15 Capture any important items in my my “Tomorrow” note
22:30 Take a quick shower
Open the bedroom window
Put on comfy pyjamas
Play some relaxing music – lately I’ve been enjoying Nala Sinephro
23:00 Read for a few minutes
Put on my eye mask and ear-plugs
23:30 Lights out!

My porridge is basically an excuse to eat fruit.

The morning routine

If I’ve followed my evening routine, it’s easier to follow the morning one. Times vary a bit with the seasons, school calendars, etc.

Wake before the gentle alarm on my phone
Turn off the alarm but don’t look at the phone (this one is tough)
Breathe, stretch, & sit up
Drink some water (I keep a bottle by the bed)
Visit the toilet
Put on a comfy jumper/sweater (in winter)
Meditate for 10 minutes with this beautifully simple app
Do some sun salutations
Spend a few minutes in shavansana
Make & eat porridge with fruit & two fried eggs
Spend 5-10 minutes reading
Shower & get dressed
Open the “Tomorrow” note that I updated previously
Dig in to the first task and carpé that diem!

These routines are slightly aspirational and things don’t always go to plan but I find it helpful to have them written down for reference when things go sideways.

Life without routines

Without strong positive routines & habits my routine looks like this:

Stay up late binge watching TV or scrolling Instragram or the news
Fill my head with scary news stories
Worry about my job, my family, my health, my friends, the world
Go to bed with my mind racing (see above)
Toss and turn all night worrying about things outside my control
Wake up in a panic after the alarm has been going off for several minutes
Immediately start looking at my phone and stressing about the same things that kept me awake the night before
Be easily distracted, snappy, and slow most of the day
Self soothe (actually stimulate & stress) by doom-scrolling and binge watching
Repeat the cycle…

Habits

For me, routines are a way to create positive habits.

When I need more accountability and reminding to follow my routines, I use the “Don’t break the chain” technique with a physical wall chart like this: