My Morning Routine by Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired
What's it about?
Based on the authors’ interviews with 64 of today’s most successful people, My Morning Routine (2018) is a practical guide for would-be early birds. Yes, it’s easy to live in fear of your alarm clock and worship at the altar of your phone’s slumber function, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Mornings don’t need to be traumatic at all. What’s more, finding the right routine for the early hours will change your whole day for the better.
Let me ask you something: How did you feel this morning when your alarm went off? If you're like most people, you probably groaned, hit snooze, and dragged yourself out of bed feeling like you'd already lost the first battle of the day. But here's what I want you to consider: What if the most successful people in the world, Olympic athletes, CEOs, bestselling authors, don't just tolerate their mornings? They've actually designed them to be the most powerful part of their day.
And they're not following some rigid formula. They've each crafted something unique. That's exactly what we're going to explore together. Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander interviewed 64 extraordinary people and discovered something fascinating: while each person's morning routine is completely different, they've all stopped letting mornings just happen to them.
I'm not here to tell you to wake up at 4:00 am and run a marathon. What I am going to do is walk you through real experiments in morning design. Think of it as a buffet of possibilities. Picture this: It's 5:30 in the morning.
The room is still dark. What do you do? Well, most of us likely roll over, close our eyes and sleep until a less ungodly hour. But not Leo Rafael Reif, the president of MIT.
At 5. 30 AM, he is already awake, not because his alarm went off, but because he chose to be. Now, before you think, "Well, of course he's up early, he's running one of the world's top universities," let me tell you what's really happening here. Reif doesn't drag himself out of bed through sheer discipline. He's not gritting his teeth and forcing himself to be productive. He's up because MIT is a global institution, and while he's been sleeping, colleagues and students on the other side of the world have been working, sending emails, making decisions.
If he waits until 7:00 a. m. to check in, he's already behind. The stakes are real, and that pulls him out of bed more effectively than any alarm ever could. Here's what I want you to remember: Reif has given himself a compelling reason to get up. It's not about willpower.
It's about purpose. Now let me introduce you to someone completely different. Caroline Paul is an author, and she also wakes up around 6:00 a. m. But she's not checking emails or managing a global institution. She's doing something much simpler, she's reading.
Just sitting quietly with a book and a cup of coffee, completely absorbed in someone else's story. Why does this get her out of bed? Because reading isn't just her job, it's her joy. Those early morning hours are sacred to her. It's the only time of day when the world is still quiet, before the phone starts buzzing and the demands start piling up. She's not sacrificing sleep; she's claiming something precious.
And then there's Andre Wagner, a street photographer in New York City. He's out the door by 7:00 or 7:30 a. m. , camera in hand, walking the city streets. He's chasing something specific: that particular quality of early morning light, the way it hits the buildings, the way the city looks before it fully wakes up. For him, mornings aren't about productivity in the traditional sense.
They're about capturing something beautiful that only exists in those fleeting hours. Do you see the pattern forming here? These aren't people who've mastered some superhuman ability to ignore their body's desire for sleep. They've simply found something that matters more than those extra 20 minutes under the covers. Now, let's talk about what doesn't work, and this is where it gets interesting. When the authors interviewed dozens of successful early risers, they found that 71 percent used an alarm clock.
No surprise there. But here's the kicker: only 34 percent used the snooze button. Think about what the snooze button actually does. You're telling your body, "Okay, we're waking up now. . .
just kidding! Back to sleep. . . wait, no, now we're really waking up. .
. actually, five more minutes. . . " It's like revving a car engine without putting it in gear. You're burning energy, but you're not going anywhere.
And worse, you end up feeling more tired than if you'd just gotten up the first time. So here's the next important insight I want you to take away from this: The secret to getting out of bed isn't found in alarm strategies or sleep hacks. It's found in the answer to one simple question: What's waiting for you when you wake up? Okay, let’s move on to the next chapter.
I want you to imagine an all too common scenario. You have this project, maybe it's a book you want to write, or a business idea you've been thinking about, or even just something personal that matters to you. And every single day, you tell yourself, "I'll get to it later. " But later never comes, does it?
By the time you've dealt with work emails, meetings, errands, and everything else life throws at you, you're exhausted. The thing that actually matters to you gets pushed to tomorrow. Again. Now let me introduce you to Sheena Brady. She wakes up early, really early, and dedicates the hours between 7:00 and 11:00 a. m.
exclusively to her own company, Tease Tea. Only after those four hours does she head to her other job at Shopify, where she spends the rest of her working day. Think about what's happening here. She's not trying to squeeze her passion project into the leftover scraps of her day. She's claiming the best hours, the freshest, most energetic part of her morning, for the work that matters most to her. By the time most people are just getting started, she's already put in a solid morning's work on building her own future.
Todd Henry, an author and public speaker, discovered something similar. For years, he tried to cram everything into the first part of his day – all his tasks, all his obligations, everything at once. It was chaos. But then he made a change. He stopped trying to do it all and instead created dedicated time and space in his mornings for what he calls his most important work: studying and writing. And here's what he realized: Mornings aren't just a time to work.
They're often when you'll do your best work. There's something about those early hours: your mind is clearer, the world is quieter, and you haven't yet been pulled in a dozen different directions. So how do you protect that precious morning time? Well, here's a trick that might sound radical: don't check your email first thing. Why does this work? Shane Parrish, who founded the Farnam Street blog, explains it perfectly.
He stopped checking emails in the morning after he noticed something troubling: his inbox was dictating the entire course of his day. Other people's priorities were becoming his priorities. Other people's urgencies were becoming his urgencies. And that's the thing about email, isn't it? It's fundamentally reactive. You're responding to what other people need from you.
But your morning should be proactive. It's your time to take care of your own needs, to set your own agenda, to move your own life forward. Geoff Colvin, a senior editor at Fortune magazine, takes this idea even further. Every single morning, he sits down and writes out a list of what he wants to accomplish that day. Once he's got his itinerary down on paper, he starts working through the tasks, beginning with the most important ones. He's literally deciding what his day will be about before anyone else gets a chance to tell him.
Now, before you think this is some kind of universal law, let me tell you about Chris Guillebeau. He's an author, and guess what? He finds that starting his day by reading his emails suits him perfectly. It works for him. And that's completely fine. Remember what I said in our first chapter?
This is your experiment. The point isn't to follow someone else's rules religiously. The point is to figure out what actually works for you.
Let's not dance around this: Exercise is good for you. You already know that. The authors interviewed 64 highly successful people for this book, and 79 percent of them work out every day. But when you dig into why they're exercising, something fascinating emerges.
It's not primarily about toning abs or losing weight. It's about what happens in their minds. Take Caroline Burckle, an American Olympic swimmer and bronze medalist. She gets up at 5:30 every morning and hits the gym first thing. Now, you might think, "Well, of course; she's an athlete. " But listen to how she describes it.
Getting her body moving, she says, is her way of meditating. The workout isn't just physical training. It's mental preparation. Sherry Lansing, former president of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, puts it even more directly. She admits that sometimes she skips her workout, life happens. But here's what she's noticed: when she makes working out the most important part of her morning routine, she feels on top of the world for the rest of the day.
That's not about muscle tone. That's about mindset. Now, here's what not to do: Don't overexert yourself. One of the best strategies is alternating exercises from day to day. This prevents injuries and keeps you interested. Look at Lansing's routine.
Mondays and Wednesdays are for Pilates. Tuesdays and Thursdays? Treadmill running for an hour and a half, followed by weightlifting. She's mixing it up, keeping engaged. But maybe you're thinking, "An hour and a half? I don't have that kind of time.
" Here's the beautiful part: you can start small. It's easy to set wildly ambitious targets and then feel crushing guilt when you don't meet them. Don't do that to yourself. Build exercise into your preexisting routine. Do jumping jacks while your coffee brews. Seriously.
Julie Zhuo, vice president of product design at Facebook, spends just ten to 15 minutes on her cross-trainer each day. Because it's not a massive time commitment, the stakes stay low. And when stakes are low, you actually do it. For her, working out has become as natural as brushing her teeth. Kevin Cleary, CEO of Clif Bar & Company, takes another approach. Every Sunday, he plans his workout routine around his work and family commitments.
He's not forcing his life to fit around exercise, he's being pragmatic. And that flexibility means he's less likely to cancel. Here's the key insight: Morning exercise isn't about punishing your body. It's about setting yourself up, mentally and physically, to feel capable and energized for whatever comes next.
It's easy to dismiss meditation as a fad, especially if you've never tried it. Maybe it sounds too "woo-woo" or too Californian or just not for you. But here's something worth paying attention to: over half of the people interviewed for this book meditate regularly. So what's going on here?
Why are so many successful people making time for this practice? Let me introduce you to Michael Acton Smith, the CEO of the meditation app Calm. Every morning, he heads a group meditation session at the company's headquarters. He admits it sounds dreadfully "Californian," but here's what he's discovered: it's actually a brilliant way to kick off the working day. Aiste Gazdar, founder of the London-based Wild Food Cafe, agrees completely. For her, early morning meditation sessions are the most important part of her day.
They're moments of calm where she can confront her concerns about what lies ahead. And once she's done that? The rest of the day just falls into place. Now, some people are so devoted to this practice that they never miss a single session. Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, meditates for 30 to 60 minutes every day and hasn't skipped a day in years. Think about that commitment.
Why would someone running two of the world's most creative companies dedicate that much time to sitting still? Here's his answer: Slowing down and focusing his mind sets him up to respond calmly to unexpected events. And if you know anything about running a creative studio, you know unexpected events happen constantly. Ruth Ozeki, a novelist and teacher, places a similar premium on meditation, though in her case, it makes sense. She's a Zen Buddhist priest, after all. But here's what's interesting: her schedule changes dramatically throughout the year depending on whether she's teaching or writing.
Yet no matter what, she always makes time to meditate. Whether she has a hectic day of teaching ahead or a more relaxed writing day, she meditates before doing anything else. Well, almost anything. There is time to enjoy a cup of coffee in bed first. So maybe this sounds appealing to you, but you're wondering: Where do I even start? Here's the good news: Meditation is all about being mindful of your surroundings and being in the moment.
So a great place to begin is by focusing your mind on mundane moments, like making yourself coffee or tea in the morning. That's it. No special cushion required. No app subscription. No guru. Just you, fully present, paying attention to what you're doing.
Notice the steam rising from your cup. Feel the warmth in your hands. Hear the sound of water pouring. That's meditation. It's not about emptying your mind or achieving some mystical state. It's about being exactly where you are, doing exactly what you're doing, without your thoughts racing ahead to everything else on your list.
Try it tomorrow morning. Make your coffee with complete attention. See what happens. So far, we've been talking a lot about productivity, getting more done, tackling important work, optimizing your morning.
And all of that matters. But here's what we can't forget: the person doing all of this. You. Carving out some genuine me time in the morning isn't just nice to have.
It's actually one of the most powerful ways to set yourself up for the day ahead. Think about it this way: When you take a moment to do things that are important to you before the world starts making demands, you give yourself a head start. And when things inevitably get hectic later, because they will, you'll already be in your groove, better positioned to take everything in stride. That's exactly what Melody McCloskey, CEO of StyleSeat, discovered. After getting up at 5:45 a. m.
, she spends the next hour or so tidying up or dealing with personal and work-related issues. These aren't glamorous tasks. But here's what matters: by the time everyone else is up and about, she's already firmly in her groove. And that makes her both more productive and happier for the rest of the day. But ‘me’ time doesn't have to mean chores. Taking a moment to focus on anything you genuinely value can boost your creative output in surprising ways.
Take the artist Elle Luna. The very first thing she does upon waking is record her dreams using a dictaphone. Why? Because dreams provide her with insight into her subconscious mind and serve as a source of creative inspiration. She often uses these recordings to help her paint her dreams later. She's literally capturing the raw material of her art before it evaporates.
These people aren't diving straight into work. They're not immediately checking what everyone else needs from them. They're slowing down their morning routine, and that has a calming influence on the rest of the day. It prevents them from becoming swamped before they've even really started. Think about your typical morning. How much of it is spent reacting to other people's needs?
Your boss's emails. Your family's demands. The news screaming for your attention. All of that is valid and important, but if you never claim any time for yourself, you're starting every single day already depleted. What would it look like to give yourself just 15 minutes, maybe 30, where you're not available to anyone else? Where you're doing something that feeds you, whether that's reading, journaling, sitting quietly with your coffee, or recording your dreams like Elle Luna?
This isn't selfish; it's foundational. You can't pour from an empty cup, as the saying goes. And if you wait until the end of the day to take care of yourself, you'll be too exhausted to do it. The morning is your chance to fill your own cup first. Whatever it is you want to do with that time, the key is not to skip it. Don't tell yourself you'll get to it later.
Later never comes. Start tomorrow. Claim even just ten minutes that belong to nobody but you. See how it changes everything that follows. Here's something that might surprise you: Your morning routine doesn't actually start in the morning. It starts the night before.
If you want to set yourself up for a great start to the day, you need to think about what you're doing in the hours before you go to sleep. And the foundation of everything is a good night's sleep. So how do you make sure you're getting enough rest to wake up feeling ready to tackle the day? In a word: disconnecting.
That means switching off your technological connections to the world as early as you can each evening. And some people take this very seriously. Take bestselling author and entrepreneur Nir Eyal. He installed a special router that automatically cuts off his internet connection at around ten each evening. No willpower required. No negotiating with himself.
The internet just. . . stops. And that means he's usually tucked up in bed no later than eleven. Author and podcast host David Kadavy has a similar approach.
He turns off the screens in his home at ten and actually sleeps with blue-blocker goggles to prevent LCD screens from interfering with his sleep. If he's not quite ready for bed yet, he avoids social media and instead does something quiet, like reading a book. Notice what both of these people are doing: they're creating boundaries between themselves and the always-on digital world. Emails are another major culprit. Author and public speaker Jenny Blake simply doesn't check her inbox after 5:00 p. m.
That's it. Hard stop. And this technique makes for a relaxing evening that leaves her feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the world the next morning. But disconnecting isn't just about turning things off. It's also about what you turn toward. Reflection and quietly mulling over the course of your day can help you decompress.
When Jenny Blake hits the sack, she asks herself what the highlights and low points of her day were. She thinks about what she can be proud of or grateful for. This simple practice helps her unwind and clear her mind. And once she's done that? She falls asleep in the lesson of an eye. Now, I know truly disconnecting is sometimes easier said than done.
We live in a world that demands constant availability. But here's the thing: little details can make all the difference. Take Bob Moore, founder of the health-food company Bob's Red Mill. Every evening, he lays out the clothes he plans on wearing the next day. That's it. But think about what this does: it makes his mornings a whole lot less complicated.
One fewer decision to make when he's still groggy. One fewer thing to think about. These might seem like small things, turning off your router, laying out your clothes, reflecting on your day. But they add up.
They create a buffer between the chaos of your day and the rest you need. They signal to your brain: We're done now. It's time to let go. If you're having a tough time getting out of bed and making a start on the day ahead, there's usually a pretty obvious culprit: a bad night's sleep.
The amount of rest you've had has a greater effect on your mornings than anything else. In fact, adequate sleep is vital to your whole sense of well-being. Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, learned this the hard way. At one point in her life, she became so sleep-deprived that she actually fainted and broke her cheekbone on a desk.
Just imagine that moment, collapsing from sheer exhaustion, waking up injured, realizing something has to change. That was her wake-up call, literally. She decided to make some much-needed changes to her lifestyle. Today, she tries to always get eight hours of sleep, and to achieve that target, she heads to bed at 11:00 every night. No exceptions. And here's the remarkable part: she manages her sleep so well now that she doesn't even need an alarm anymore.
Her body just knows when it's had enough rest. Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic, also built his entire day around getting the right amount of sleep. For him, that meant getting up as early as he can, because mornings are when he was most productive, and making sure he was tucked up in bed by 11:00 p. m. And was very clear about why this mattered. Sleep deprivation, he said, slows your mind down.
By his estimation, tiredness can knock a good ten points off your IQ score. Ten points. Think about that. You could be making decisions and doing work while operating significantly below your actual capacity, simply because you're tired. This brings us to a radical idea: maybe it's time to stop using an alarm to drag yourself out of sleep. At least, that's what venture capitalist Brad Feld decided.
For years, he forced himself to get up at 5:00 a. m. on weekdays, no matter where he was in the world. Then he'd spend his weekends trying to "catch up" on all the sleep he'd missed. Unfortunately, this less-than-healthy routine resulted in a major depressive episode. After hitting that low point, he completely changed his approach.
Now he makes sure he's getting the sleep he needs by simply sleeping until his body is ready to wake up. That might be as early as 5:30 a. m. or as late as 9:00 a. m. And he's okay with that variation because he's listening to what his body actually needs rather than what some arbitrary schedule demands.
Arianna Huffington puts it perfectly: "An alarm, in most situations, is a signal that something is not right. " Let that sink in for a moment. If you need an alarm to wake you up, it might mean you're not getting enough sleep. Your body isn't finished resting yet, but you're forcing it awake anyway.
Now, I understand that not everyone can simply abandon their alarm and sleep until whenever. You might have kids, or a job with fixed hours, or other commitments. That's reality. But even if you can't sleep as late as you'd like, you can still work toward getting the right amount of sleep by going to bed earlier or developing a more consistent pattern.
If you've already found your perfect morning routine before having children, I have some news for you: you're in for a rude awakening. Literally. Once you become a parent, that beautiful routine you spent months perfecting? It probably won't fit your life anymore.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Children thrive on routine just as much as adults do. The key is making changes to your regimen so that it works for your kids too. Here's the first thing you need to accept: Your children are your alarm clock now. They'll determine when you wake up with greater precision than your phone ever could. Nick Bilton, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, used to wake up around 6:00 a.
m. to get some work done. Now? He's awakened by his toddler every morning at 5:30. That's the new pattern. And even if the kids sleep later than usual, his dog is always on hand to make sure he's up.
There's no snooze button when you're a parent. Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, reports a similar experience. His five-year-old wakes him between 6:30 and 7:00 a. m. each morning. That's a cannily chosen time, it leaves exactly an hour for playtime before the day really gets going.
So if you're a parent who still wants to get something done in the morning, some work, some exercise, some quiet time for yourself, you'll need to be up and about before your kids wake up. Washington State attorney general Bob Ferguson wakes up between 5:00 and 6:30 a. m. That gives him anywhere between one and two and a half hours of personal time before his twins wake up at 7:30 a. m. He's essentially racing the clock, trying to claim a little space for himself before the chaos begins.
Whatever routine you end up choosing, the most important thing is to enjoy your family time once you're all awake. That's especially crucial if, like Ferguson, you're likely to be working late in the evenings. Those morning moments with your kids might be the best quality time you get all day. Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this: Parenting disrupts everything. Your sleep schedule, your workout routine, your quiet morning coffee, your ability to plan literally anything. It's chaotic and exhausting and unpredictable.
But it's also temporary. Your kids won't always wake you at 5:30 a. m. They won't always need you the moment they open their eyes. Someday, probably sooner than you'd like, they'll sleep in, and you'll find yourself missing those early morning interruptions. So yes, adapt your routine.
Wake up earlier if you need personal time. Build in flexibility. Lower your expectations on the hard days. But also? Embrace the chaos. Let your toddler be your alarm clock.
Let playtime be your meditation. Because here's the truth: The perfect morning routine isn't the one that looks impressive on paper. It's the one that actually fits your life as it is right now, kids and all.
Whether you're on holiday or a business trip, travel means being in new surroundings that probably lack all the little creature comforts that help define your usual morning routine. And that can quickly undo even the most carefully crafted patterns. But the good news is, there are steps you can take to keep some control over your mornings, even when everything else is unfamiliar. The first tip is to try to maintain at least some elements of your routine.
Notice I said some, not all. This is important. Take model and activist Cameron Russell. She's constantly on the road due to her work, and that's completely changed the way she thinks about "routine. " For her, it's become more like an improvised attempt to fit the things she values into a hectic travel schedule. It requires a lot of adaptation and improvisation.
But wherever she finds herself, she always makes time to do a little reading. That might mean skimming a few pages in the back of a cab or while sitting in the makeup chair. No matter her surroundings, though, she can't do without this inspiring start to her day. It's her anchor, the one thing that stays constant even when everything else is in flux. There are also more minimalistic solutions. Venture capitalist M.
G. Siegler simply has a bottled Starbucks Frappuccino every morning. Because the chain is nearly everywhere, he can do that whether he's at home in San Francisco or abroad in Tokyo. It's not fancy, but it's consistent. And sometimes consistency is what you need when everything else feels disorienting. But you don't need to rely on replicating your routine in every setting.
In fact, there's a lot to be said for adapting your morning ritual to wherever you currently are. That's what Peter Balyta, president of education technology at Texas Instruments Inc. , does. Using his scientific and mathematical skills, he devises special workout routines tailored to his local surroundings. Whether it's a jog along the Great Wall of China, applying physics know-how to leverage himself around a barbell, or doing plyometric exercises using his hotel-room furniture, he's constantly adapting to what's around him. Travel can have an adverse effect on morning routines.
Jet lag, different time zones, unfamiliar beds, work obligations that start earlier than usual, it all conspires against you. Your goal is to find a routine that works for you in that location. Maybe you can't do your full hour-long workout, but you can do ten minutes of stretching in your hotel room. Maybe you can't sit down with your usual breakfast and book, but you can read a few pages while waiting for your coffee. And if travel does end up knocking you completely off kilter, if you have one of those trips where everything falls apart and you don't maintain any routine at all, don't beat yourself up. Just try to pick up where you left off once you're back home.
The world is an unpredictable place. That means there'll always be some mornings where forces beyond your control end up throwing you off course and upsetting your tried-and-true morning routine. But that doesn't have to ruin your whole day. Forewarned is forearmed.
If you're prepared for disruption, you'll be in a much better position to go with the flow and keep your eye on the prize. Take junior doctor Rumana Lasker Dawood. Her routine is literally built around disruptions. Being disrupted, after all, is what working in a hospital inevitably involves. Shifts change on a daily basis. Relocations to new specialist wards occur every half year or so.
She can't establish a regular wake-up time or plan around a definite set of daily tasks. For her, these things vary constantly. But she doesn't let that throw her off course. Her demanding job has taught her to expect the unexpected and prepare accordingly. Taking events in her stride and making rapid readjustments – that's her routine. Flexibility isn't a backup plan; it's the plan itself.
And here's something worth considering: There's actually a good case to be made that embracing adaptability and flexibility can help you, even if your life isn't as unpredictable as a doctor's. Look at author Austin Kleon. He's learned to actually enjoy the days when his routine is disturbed. He regards such disturbances as an interesting break from his habitual schedule. Instead of resenting them, he's curious about them. What will today bring?
How will I adapt? Every day is different. Even when you try to make every day the same, life has other plans. Kids get sick. Pipes burst. You sleep through your alarm.
A crisis at work demands your immediate attention. The car won't start. You can fight against that reality, or you can work with it. But here's the thing, and this is crucial, you can't diverge from or do away with your routine unless you establish one first. You need to know what your baseline is before you can adapt from it. You need to understand what works for you under normal circumstances before you can figure out what to do when circumstances aren't normal.
And when you're developing your routine, the most important thing to remember is that it should suit your needs. Not your colleague's needs. Not some productivity guru's ideal. Yours. Your goal isn't to please anyone else or end up feeling guilty because you fell short of some arbitrary target you set. Your goal is to design a morning routine that helps you start the day well and achieve your own ambitions, whatever those look like for you, on this particular day, in this particular season of your life.
Be kind to yourself. Experiment. Adapt. And remember: every morning is a fresh start.
So there we are. We've walked through the morning routines of 64 of today's most successful people – Olympic athletes, CEOs, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, parents. And if there's one thing that should be crystal clear by now, it's this: there is no one-size-fits-all formula. What do all these people have in common?
They've developed a solid morning routine that sets them up for the day ahead. But that's where the similarities end. Every single person has a unique morning regimen. Some write. Some work out. Some meditate.
Some check their emails first thing, while others avoid their inbox like the plague. Some wake up at 4:00 a. m. , others sleep until 9:00. The key to developing your own morning routine isn't copying any one technique or activity. It's figuring out what works best for you.
Based on the authors’ interviews with 64 of today’s most successful people, My Morning Routine (2018) is a practical guide for would-be early birds. Yes, it’s easy to live in fear of your alarm clock and worship at the altar of your phone’s slumber function, but it doesn’t have to be this way. Mornings don’t need to be traumatic at all. What’s more, finding the right routine for the early hours will change your whole day for the better.
Let me ask you something: How did you feel this morning when your alarm went off? If you're like most people, you probably groaned, hit snooze, and dragged yourself out of bed feeling like you'd already lost the first battle of the day. But here's what I want you to consider: What if the most successful people in the world, Olympic athletes, CEOs, bestselling authors, don't just tolerate their mornings? They've actually designed them to be the most powerful part of their day.
And they're not following some rigid formula. They've each crafted something unique. That's exactly what we're going to explore together. Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander interviewed 64 extraordinary people and discovered something fascinating: while each person's morning routine is completely different, they've all stopped letting mornings just happen to them.
I'm not here to tell you to wake up at 4:00 am and run a marathon. What I am going to do is walk you through real experiments in morning design. Think of it as a buffet of possibilities. Picture this: It's 5:30 in the morning.
The room is still dark. What do you do? Well, most of us likely roll over, close our eyes and sleep until a less ungodly hour. But not Leo Rafael Reif, the president of MIT.
At 5. 30 AM, he is already awake, not because his alarm went off, but because he chose to be. Now, before you think, "Well, of course he's up early, he's running one of the world's top universities," let me tell you what's really happening here. Reif doesn't drag himself out of bed through sheer discipline. He's not gritting his teeth and forcing himself to be productive. He's up because MIT is a global institution, and while he's been sleeping, colleagues and students on the other side of the world have been working, sending emails, making decisions.
If he waits until 7:00 a. m. to check in, he's already behind. The stakes are real, and that pulls him out of bed more effectively than any alarm ever could. Here's what I want you to remember: Reif has given himself a compelling reason to get up. It's not about willpower.
It's about purpose. Now let me introduce you to someone completely different. Caroline Paul is an author, and she also wakes up around 6:00 a. m. But she's not checking emails or managing a global institution. She's doing something much simpler, she's reading.
Just sitting quietly with a book and a cup of coffee, completely absorbed in someone else's story. Why does this get her out of bed? Because reading isn't just her job, it's her joy. Those early morning hours are sacred to her. It's the only time of day when the world is still quiet, before the phone starts buzzing and the demands start piling up. She's not sacrificing sleep; she's claiming something precious.
And then there's Andre Wagner, a street photographer in New York City. He's out the door by 7:00 or 7:30 a. m. , camera in hand, walking the city streets. He's chasing something specific: that particular quality of early morning light, the way it hits the buildings, the way the city looks before it fully wakes up. For him, mornings aren't about productivity in the traditional sense.
They're about capturing something beautiful that only exists in those fleeting hours. Do you see the pattern forming here? These aren't people who've mastered some superhuman ability to ignore their body's desire for sleep. They've simply found something that matters more than those extra 20 minutes under the covers. Now, let's talk about what doesn't work, and this is where it gets interesting. When the authors interviewed dozens of successful early risers, they found that 71 percent used an alarm clock.
No surprise there. But here's the kicker: only 34 percent used the snooze button. Think about what the snooze button actually does. You're telling your body, "Okay, we're waking up now. . .
just kidding! Back to sleep. . . wait, no, now we're really waking up. .
. actually, five more minutes. . . " It's like revving a car engine without putting it in gear. You're burning energy, but you're not going anywhere.
And worse, you end up feeling more tired than if you'd just gotten up the first time. So here's the next important insight I want you to take away from this: The secret to getting out of bed isn't found in alarm strategies or sleep hacks. It's found in the answer to one simple question: What's waiting for you when you wake up? Okay, let’s move on to the next chapter.
I want you to imagine an all too common scenario. You have this project, maybe it's a book you want to write, or a business idea you've been thinking about, or even just something personal that matters to you. And every single day, you tell yourself, "I'll get to it later. " But later never comes, does it?
By the time you've dealt with work emails, meetings, errands, and everything else life throws at you, you're exhausted. The thing that actually matters to you gets pushed to tomorrow. Again. Now let me introduce you to Sheena Brady. She wakes up early, really early, and dedicates the hours between 7:00 and 11:00 a. m.
exclusively to her own company, Tease Tea. Only after those four hours does she head to her other job at Shopify, where she spends the rest of her working day. Think about what's happening here. She's not trying to squeeze her passion project into the leftover scraps of her day. She's claiming the best hours, the freshest, most energetic part of her morning, for the work that matters most to her. By the time most people are just getting started, she's already put in a solid morning's work on building her own future.
Todd Henry, an author and public speaker, discovered something similar. For years, he tried to cram everything into the first part of his day – all his tasks, all his obligations, everything at once. It was chaos. But then he made a change. He stopped trying to do it all and instead created dedicated time and space in his mornings for what he calls his most important work: studying and writing. And here's what he realized: Mornings aren't just a time to work.
They're often when you'll do your best work. There's something about those early hours: your mind is clearer, the world is quieter, and you haven't yet been pulled in a dozen different directions. So how do you protect that precious morning time? Well, here's a trick that might sound radical: don't check your email first thing. Why does this work? Shane Parrish, who founded the Farnam Street blog, explains it perfectly.
He stopped checking emails in the morning after he noticed something troubling: his inbox was dictating the entire course of his day. Other people's priorities were becoming his priorities. Other people's urgencies were becoming his urgencies. And that's the thing about email, isn't it? It's fundamentally reactive. You're responding to what other people need from you.
But your morning should be proactive. It's your time to take care of your own needs, to set your own agenda, to move your own life forward. Geoff Colvin, a senior editor at Fortune magazine, takes this idea even further. Every single morning, he sits down and writes out a list of what he wants to accomplish that day. Once he's got his itinerary down on paper, he starts working through the tasks, beginning with the most important ones. He's literally deciding what his day will be about before anyone else gets a chance to tell him.
Now, before you think this is some kind of universal law, let me tell you about Chris Guillebeau. He's an author, and guess what? He finds that starting his day by reading his emails suits him perfectly. It works for him. And that's completely fine. Remember what I said in our first chapter?
This is your experiment. The point isn't to follow someone else's rules religiously. The point is to figure out what actually works for you.
Let's not dance around this: Exercise is good for you. You already know that. The authors interviewed 64 highly successful people for this book, and 79 percent of them work out every day. But when you dig into why they're exercising, something fascinating emerges.
It's not primarily about toning abs or losing weight. It's about what happens in their minds. Take Caroline Burckle, an American Olympic swimmer and bronze medalist. She gets up at 5:30 every morning and hits the gym first thing. Now, you might think, "Well, of course; she's an athlete. " But listen to how she describes it.
Getting her body moving, she says, is her way of meditating. The workout isn't just physical training. It's mental preparation. Sherry Lansing, former president of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, puts it even more directly. She admits that sometimes she skips her workout, life happens. But here's what she's noticed: when she makes working out the most important part of her morning routine, she feels on top of the world for the rest of the day.
That's not about muscle tone. That's about mindset. Now, here's what not to do: Don't overexert yourself. One of the best strategies is alternating exercises from day to day. This prevents injuries and keeps you interested. Look at Lansing's routine.
Mondays and Wednesdays are for Pilates. Tuesdays and Thursdays? Treadmill running for an hour and a half, followed by weightlifting. She's mixing it up, keeping engaged. But maybe you're thinking, "An hour and a half? I don't have that kind of time.
" Here's the beautiful part: you can start small. It's easy to set wildly ambitious targets and then feel crushing guilt when you don't meet them. Don't do that to yourself. Build exercise into your preexisting routine. Do jumping jacks while your coffee brews. Seriously.
Julie Zhuo, vice president of product design at Facebook, spends just ten to 15 minutes on her cross-trainer each day. Because it's not a massive time commitment, the stakes stay low. And when stakes are low, you actually do it. For her, working out has become as natural as brushing her teeth. Kevin Cleary, CEO of Clif Bar & Company, takes another approach. Every Sunday, he plans his workout routine around his work and family commitments.
He's not forcing his life to fit around exercise, he's being pragmatic. And that flexibility means he's less likely to cancel. Here's the key insight: Morning exercise isn't about punishing your body. It's about setting yourself up, mentally and physically, to feel capable and energized for whatever comes next.
It's easy to dismiss meditation as a fad, especially if you've never tried it. Maybe it sounds too "woo-woo" or too Californian or just not for you. But here's something worth paying attention to: over half of the people interviewed for this book meditate regularly. So what's going on here?
Why are so many successful people making time for this practice? Let me introduce you to Michael Acton Smith, the CEO of the meditation app Calm. Every morning, he heads a group meditation session at the company's headquarters. He admits it sounds dreadfully "Californian," but here's what he's discovered: it's actually a brilliant way to kick off the working day. Aiste Gazdar, founder of the London-based Wild Food Cafe, agrees completely. For her, early morning meditation sessions are the most important part of her day.
They're moments of calm where she can confront her concerns about what lies ahead. And once she's done that? The rest of the day just falls into place. Now, some people are so devoted to this practice that they never miss a single session. Ed Catmull, president of Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios, meditates for 30 to 60 minutes every day and hasn't skipped a day in years. Think about that commitment.
Why would someone running two of the world's most creative companies dedicate that much time to sitting still? Here's his answer: Slowing down and focusing his mind sets him up to respond calmly to unexpected events. And if you know anything about running a creative studio, you know unexpected events happen constantly. Ruth Ozeki, a novelist and teacher, places a similar premium on meditation, though in her case, it makes sense. She's a Zen Buddhist priest, after all. But here's what's interesting: her schedule changes dramatically throughout the year depending on whether she's teaching or writing.
Yet no matter what, she always makes time to meditate. Whether she has a hectic day of teaching ahead or a more relaxed writing day, she meditates before doing anything else. Well, almost anything. There is time to enjoy a cup of coffee in bed first. So maybe this sounds appealing to you, but you're wondering: Where do I even start? Here's the good news: Meditation is all about being mindful of your surroundings and being in the moment.
So a great place to begin is by focusing your mind on mundane moments, like making yourself coffee or tea in the morning. That's it. No special cushion required. No app subscription. No guru. Just you, fully present, paying attention to what you're doing.
Notice the steam rising from your cup. Feel the warmth in your hands. Hear the sound of water pouring. That's meditation. It's not about emptying your mind or achieving some mystical state. It's about being exactly where you are, doing exactly what you're doing, without your thoughts racing ahead to everything else on your list.
Try it tomorrow morning. Make your coffee with complete attention. See what happens. So far, we've been talking a lot about productivity, getting more done, tackling important work, optimizing your morning.
And all of that matters. But here's what we can't forget: the person doing all of this. You. Carving out some genuine me time in the morning isn't just nice to have.
It's actually one of the most powerful ways to set yourself up for the day ahead. Think about it this way: When you take a moment to do things that are important to you before the world starts making demands, you give yourself a head start. And when things inevitably get hectic later, because they will, you'll already be in your groove, better positioned to take everything in stride. That's exactly what Melody McCloskey, CEO of StyleSeat, discovered. After getting up at 5:45 a. m.
, she spends the next hour or so tidying up or dealing with personal and work-related issues. These aren't glamorous tasks. But here's what matters: by the time everyone else is up and about, she's already firmly in her groove. And that makes her both more productive and happier for the rest of the day. But ‘me’ time doesn't have to mean chores. Taking a moment to focus on anything you genuinely value can boost your creative output in surprising ways.
Take the artist Elle Luna. The very first thing she does upon waking is record her dreams using a dictaphone. Why? Because dreams provide her with insight into her subconscious mind and serve as a source of creative inspiration. She often uses these recordings to help her paint her dreams later. She's literally capturing the raw material of her art before it evaporates.
These people aren't diving straight into work. They're not immediately checking what everyone else needs from them. They're slowing down their morning routine, and that has a calming influence on the rest of the day. It prevents them from becoming swamped before they've even really started. Think about your typical morning. How much of it is spent reacting to other people's needs?
Your boss's emails. Your family's demands. The news screaming for your attention. All of that is valid and important, but if you never claim any time for yourself, you're starting every single day already depleted. What would it look like to give yourself just 15 minutes, maybe 30, where you're not available to anyone else? Where you're doing something that feeds you, whether that's reading, journaling, sitting quietly with your coffee, or recording your dreams like Elle Luna?
This isn't selfish; it's foundational. You can't pour from an empty cup, as the saying goes. And if you wait until the end of the day to take care of yourself, you'll be too exhausted to do it. The morning is your chance to fill your own cup first. Whatever it is you want to do with that time, the key is not to skip it. Don't tell yourself you'll get to it later.
Later never comes. Start tomorrow. Claim even just ten minutes that belong to nobody but you. See how it changes everything that follows. Here's something that might surprise you: Your morning routine doesn't actually start in the morning. It starts the night before.
If you want to set yourself up for a great start to the day, you need to think about what you're doing in the hours before you go to sleep. And the foundation of everything is a good night's sleep. So how do you make sure you're getting enough rest to wake up feeling ready to tackle the day? In a word: disconnecting.
That means switching off your technological connections to the world as early as you can each evening. And some people take this very seriously. Take bestselling author and entrepreneur Nir Eyal. He installed a special router that automatically cuts off his internet connection at around ten each evening. No willpower required. No negotiating with himself.
The internet just. . . stops. And that means he's usually tucked up in bed no later than eleven. Author and podcast host David Kadavy has a similar approach.
He turns off the screens in his home at ten and actually sleeps with blue-blocker goggles to prevent LCD screens from interfering with his sleep. If he's not quite ready for bed yet, he avoids social media and instead does something quiet, like reading a book. Notice what both of these people are doing: they're creating boundaries between themselves and the always-on digital world. Emails are another major culprit. Author and public speaker Jenny Blake simply doesn't check her inbox after 5:00 p. m.
That's it. Hard stop. And this technique makes for a relaxing evening that leaves her feeling refreshed and ready to conquer the world the next morning. But disconnecting isn't just about turning things off. It's also about what you turn toward. Reflection and quietly mulling over the course of your day can help you decompress.
When Jenny Blake hits the sack, she asks herself what the highlights and low points of her day were. She thinks about what she can be proud of or grateful for. This simple practice helps her unwind and clear her mind. And once she's done that? She falls asleep in the lesson of an eye. Now, I know truly disconnecting is sometimes easier said than done.
We live in a world that demands constant availability. But here's the thing: little details can make all the difference. Take Bob Moore, founder of the health-food company Bob's Red Mill. Every evening, he lays out the clothes he plans on wearing the next day. That's it. But think about what this does: it makes his mornings a whole lot less complicated.
One fewer decision to make when he's still groggy. One fewer thing to think about. These might seem like small things, turning off your router, laying out your clothes, reflecting on your day. But they add up.
They create a buffer between the chaos of your day and the rest you need. They signal to your brain: We're done now. It's time to let go. If you're having a tough time getting out of bed and making a start on the day ahead, there's usually a pretty obvious culprit: a bad night's sleep.
The amount of rest you've had has a greater effect on your mornings than anything else. In fact, adequate sleep is vital to your whole sense of well-being. Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, learned this the hard way. At one point in her life, she became so sleep-deprived that she actually fainted and broke her cheekbone on a desk.
Just imagine that moment, collapsing from sheer exhaustion, waking up injured, realizing something has to change. That was her wake-up call, literally. She decided to make some much-needed changes to her lifestyle. Today, she tries to always get eight hours of sleep, and to achieve that target, she heads to bed at 11:00 every night. No exceptions. And here's the remarkable part: she manages her sleep so well now that she doesn't even need an alarm anymore.
Her body just knows when it's had enough rest. Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic, also built his entire day around getting the right amount of sleep. For him, that meant getting up as early as he can, because mornings are when he was most productive, and making sure he was tucked up in bed by 11:00 p. m. And was very clear about why this mattered. Sleep deprivation, he said, slows your mind down.
By his estimation, tiredness can knock a good ten points off your IQ score. Ten points. Think about that. You could be making decisions and doing work while operating significantly below your actual capacity, simply because you're tired. This brings us to a radical idea: maybe it's time to stop using an alarm to drag yourself out of sleep. At least, that's what venture capitalist Brad Feld decided.
For years, he forced himself to get up at 5:00 a. m. on weekdays, no matter where he was in the world. Then he'd spend his weekends trying to "catch up" on all the sleep he'd missed. Unfortunately, this less-than-healthy routine resulted in a major depressive episode. After hitting that low point, he completely changed his approach.
Now he makes sure he's getting the sleep he needs by simply sleeping until his body is ready to wake up. That might be as early as 5:30 a. m. or as late as 9:00 a. m. And he's okay with that variation because he's listening to what his body actually needs rather than what some arbitrary schedule demands.
Arianna Huffington puts it perfectly: "An alarm, in most situations, is a signal that something is not right. " Let that sink in for a moment. If you need an alarm to wake you up, it might mean you're not getting enough sleep. Your body isn't finished resting yet, but you're forcing it awake anyway.
Now, I understand that not everyone can simply abandon their alarm and sleep until whenever. You might have kids, or a job with fixed hours, or other commitments. That's reality. But even if you can't sleep as late as you'd like, you can still work toward getting the right amount of sleep by going to bed earlier or developing a more consistent pattern.
If you've already found your perfect morning routine before having children, I have some news for you: you're in for a rude awakening. Literally. Once you become a parent, that beautiful routine you spent months perfecting? It probably won't fit your life anymore.
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Children thrive on routine just as much as adults do. The key is making changes to your regimen so that it works for your kids too. Here's the first thing you need to accept: Your children are your alarm clock now. They'll determine when you wake up with greater precision than your phone ever could. Nick Bilton, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair, used to wake up around 6:00 a.
m. to get some work done. Now? He's awakened by his toddler every morning at 5:30. That's the new pattern. And even if the kids sleep later than usual, his dog is always on hand to make sure he's up.
There's no snooze button when you're a parent. Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder, reports a similar experience. His five-year-old wakes him between 6:30 and 7:00 a. m. each morning. That's a cannily chosen time, it leaves exactly an hour for playtime before the day really gets going.
So if you're a parent who still wants to get something done in the morning, some work, some exercise, some quiet time for yourself, you'll need to be up and about before your kids wake up. Washington State attorney general Bob Ferguson wakes up between 5:00 and 6:30 a. m. That gives him anywhere between one and two and a half hours of personal time before his twins wake up at 7:30 a. m. He's essentially racing the clock, trying to claim a little space for himself before the chaos begins.
Whatever routine you end up choosing, the most important thing is to enjoy your family time once you're all awake. That's especially crucial if, like Ferguson, you're likely to be working late in the evenings. Those morning moments with your kids might be the best quality time you get all day. Look, I'm not going to sugarcoat this: Parenting disrupts everything. Your sleep schedule, your workout routine, your quiet morning coffee, your ability to plan literally anything. It's chaotic and exhausting and unpredictable.
But it's also temporary. Your kids won't always wake you at 5:30 a. m. They won't always need you the moment they open their eyes. Someday, probably sooner than you'd like, they'll sleep in, and you'll find yourself missing those early morning interruptions. So yes, adapt your routine.
Wake up earlier if you need personal time. Build in flexibility. Lower your expectations on the hard days. But also? Embrace the chaos. Let your toddler be your alarm clock.
Let playtime be your meditation. Because here's the truth: The perfect morning routine isn't the one that looks impressive on paper. It's the one that actually fits your life as it is right now, kids and all.
Whether you're on holiday or a business trip, travel means being in new surroundings that probably lack all the little creature comforts that help define your usual morning routine. And that can quickly undo even the most carefully crafted patterns. But the good news is, there are steps you can take to keep some control over your mornings, even when everything else is unfamiliar. The first tip is to try to maintain at least some elements of your routine.
Notice I said some, not all. This is important. Take model and activist Cameron Russell. She's constantly on the road due to her work, and that's completely changed the way she thinks about "routine. " For her, it's become more like an improvised attempt to fit the things she values into a hectic travel schedule. It requires a lot of adaptation and improvisation.
But wherever she finds herself, she always makes time to do a little reading. That might mean skimming a few pages in the back of a cab or while sitting in the makeup chair. No matter her surroundings, though, she can't do without this inspiring start to her day. It's her anchor, the one thing that stays constant even when everything else is in flux. There are also more minimalistic solutions. Venture capitalist M.
G. Siegler simply has a bottled Starbucks Frappuccino every morning. Because the chain is nearly everywhere, he can do that whether he's at home in San Francisco or abroad in Tokyo. It's not fancy, but it's consistent. And sometimes consistency is what you need when everything else feels disorienting. But you don't need to rely on replicating your routine in every setting.
In fact, there's a lot to be said for adapting your morning ritual to wherever you currently are. That's what Peter Balyta, president of education technology at Texas Instruments Inc. , does. Using his scientific and mathematical skills, he devises special workout routines tailored to his local surroundings. Whether it's a jog along the Great Wall of China, applying physics know-how to leverage himself around a barbell, or doing plyometric exercises using his hotel-room furniture, he's constantly adapting to what's around him. Travel can have an adverse effect on morning routines.
Jet lag, different time zones, unfamiliar beds, work obligations that start earlier than usual, it all conspires against you. Your goal is to find a routine that works for you in that location. Maybe you can't do your full hour-long workout, but you can do ten minutes of stretching in your hotel room. Maybe you can't sit down with your usual breakfast and book, but you can read a few pages while waiting for your coffee. And if travel does end up knocking you completely off kilter, if you have one of those trips where everything falls apart and you don't maintain any routine at all, don't beat yourself up. Just try to pick up where you left off once you're back home.
The world is an unpredictable place. That means there'll always be some mornings where forces beyond your control end up throwing you off course and upsetting your tried-and-true morning routine. But that doesn't have to ruin your whole day. Forewarned is forearmed.
If you're prepared for disruption, you'll be in a much better position to go with the flow and keep your eye on the prize. Take junior doctor Rumana Lasker Dawood. Her routine is literally built around disruptions. Being disrupted, after all, is what working in a hospital inevitably involves. Shifts change on a daily basis. Relocations to new specialist wards occur every half year or so.
She can't establish a regular wake-up time or plan around a definite set of daily tasks. For her, these things vary constantly. But she doesn't let that throw her off course. Her demanding job has taught her to expect the unexpected and prepare accordingly. Taking events in her stride and making rapid readjustments – that's her routine. Flexibility isn't a backup plan; it's the plan itself.
And here's something worth considering: There's actually a good case to be made that embracing adaptability and flexibility can help you, even if your life isn't as unpredictable as a doctor's. Look at author Austin Kleon. He's learned to actually enjoy the days when his routine is disturbed. He regards such disturbances as an interesting break from his habitual schedule. Instead of resenting them, he's curious about them. What will today bring?
How will I adapt? Every day is different. Even when you try to make every day the same, life has other plans. Kids get sick. Pipes burst. You sleep through your alarm.
A crisis at work demands your immediate attention. The car won't start. You can fight against that reality, or you can work with it. But here's the thing, and this is crucial, you can't diverge from or do away with your routine unless you establish one first. You need to know what your baseline is before you can adapt from it. You need to understand what works for you under normal circumstances before you can figure out what to do when circumstances aren't normal.
And when you're developing your routine, the most important thing to remember is that it should suit your needs. Not your colleague's needs. Not some productivity guru's ideal. Yours. Your goal isn't to please anyone else or end up feeling guilty because you fell short of some arbitrary target you set. Your goal is to design a morning routine that helps you start the day well and achieve your own ambitions, whatever those look like for you, on this particular day, in this particular season of your life.
Be kind to yourself. Experiment. Adapt. And remember: every morning is a fresh start.
So there we are. We've walked through the morning routines of 64 of today's most successful people – Olympic athletes, CEOs, artists, writers, entrepreneurs, parents. And if there's one thing that should be crystal clear by now, it's this: there is no one-size-fits-all formula. What do all these people have in common?
They've developed a solid morning routine that sets them up for the day ahead. But that's where the similarities end. Every single person has a unique morning regimen. Some write. Some work out. Some meditate.
Some check their emails first thing, while others avoid their inbox like the plague. Some wake up at 4:00 a. m. , others sleep until 9:00. The key to developing your own morning routine isn't copying any one technique or activity. It's figuring out what works best for you.
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