I have noticed of late that the days where I feel most accomplished and most satisfied with myself 99% of the time correlate when I have a productive morning. For me, this involves getting the following done:
- Waking up before dawn
- Brush my teeth
- Go for a run for <1 hour
- Foam roll pre- and post-run
- Meditate for 10-15 minutes
- Journal for 30 minutes
- Shower
- Prepping lunch & dinner
If it all goes to plan, I wake up around 5-5:30am and tie the morning up with a nice bow by 8:30-9am and it never fails to leave me oozing with energy for the day ahead. It is a feeling I find hard to describe because people are incredulous when I say I feel so jazzed up after waking up at 5 in the morning and going for a 10km run (and fair enough).
The closest analogy I can think of is if a gambler is feeling like they are playing with house money. If my day ended at 9am, and I became a sloth for the rest of the day just dangling off a branch, I would still feel like I had a good and productive day. This, however, has never transpired (at least not yet). The reason is because going through this morning routine maxes out my energy reserves to the point of overflowing, I have so much of it that sitting on it is NOT an option.
My solution is then to dive straight into anything I would consider deep work. For me, it often happens to be writing. So I just write, write, and write. By mid-morning, I get into filming my video for the day and being the editing process immediately. By around 1pm, I save my progress and read for an hour or so before lunch at 2pm. This tops up my energy reserves again and I often find myself working or otherwise doing some productive work until 7 or 8, at which point I’ll start winding down so that I can sleep early enough to be able to wake up at 5 the next morning.
These days have happened so often now that I am convinced it was my focus on getting my morning routine right that was the critical element. I know that if I focus on waking up at 5am, then I will hit my morning out-of-the-park which will overflow my energy reserves and basically guarantee me a great day whether I am working or doing recreational activities.