Ask HN: What is your morning ritual?

Jump out from bed when the alarm rings, call my old parents to wish them a good day, play with my cat, coffe + croissant, shower and go.

I am trying to rush some things more and go to work a bit later so I can give more time to what I think is more important in my life, like playing with the cat and talking with my old parents.

Wow so many examples of a great morning routine. cold sea simming, meditation, calling parents with cat and croissant... I'm envious :)

My morning "ritual" is the following:

I wake up between 5 or 8 either by my alarm or one of my child. If I'm the first to rise then depending on my mood I get up and browse mindlessly some website(eg. HN) or if I have the upper hand on my concious that day I resist the temptation and just stare till my mind begins to turn. I continoue to do this until I'm nudged by family or work obligations to dress up and go downstairs. I either go early before everyone wakes or a little later after everyone woke up or very late so I can help dressing them up, help make breakfast and drink a coffee with wife. By then I realize I will be very late so I reculantly start my one hour commute to work. When my back starts to ache every night I start again my morning exercises which I am able to get up or not, and do it until the pain goes away then stop it as I want to sleep more and fantasizing about how good my shape would be if I would continue morning exercises instead of sleeping.

Meh :(

I typically do my morning reading through HN fo 30min or more. Take a shower to actually wake up. I see the kids off to the school bus, then use the home gym with my wife for 60 to 90 minutes (CrossFit style workouts). I rinse off in the shower and walk across the hall to my home office and start my day.

To give some background: Me and my fiancee live together in major city in eastern Europe. We do not have children. We both work for the same company. Me as a software engineer. She as a QA manager.

I wouldn't say our morning ritual is healthy or great. But it's just how we like it.

* Wake up when we wake up. No alarms. Usually around 9.

* Make a cup of coffee.

* Smoke a ciggarete while I catch up on HN and the news.

* Take a shower

* Do some dishes

* Head out

This isn't a particularly healthy morning ritual (smoking, no breakfast, coffee etc). Fortunately, we do get plenty of sleep. We are fortunate enough to have a very flexible employer who cares more about results than about when you show up.

A (quick, 60 second) swim in the cold sea. You would not believe how good this makes you feel, both immediately and for longer when done consistently. A rare, genuine game changer.

Wake up by 6am, 20 minute meditation, 15 minutes of back stretches/light body weight exercises. Do some sort of stoicism practice, usually negative visualisation to realise how lucky I am. Make breakfast for the family, either head to work (3 days a week), work on my own projects or plan my day with my kid. Evenings there's usually some sort of physical activity - sport/yoga followed by dinner/kids bedtime routine and veg in front of the tv.

Waking up a 07:15, taking the kid out of bed and put her on the couch.

Dress myself. Start dressing her while she's still sleeping, so she'll slowly wake up through the dressing movements. Wait until the sitter of the day for the other child arrives and then the kid and I walk to kindergarden.

After that, I'll take a walk of ~30 minutes to the office with a cup of coffee, most of the time listening to some podcasts.

Been doing this routine for just over a year now. I wake up at 4:45am, head the gym and do an hour workout. When I get home I make breakfast and eat. Then I catch up on news/tech articles for 20 minutes while drinking a coffee, followed by doing the dishes. Once that's done I get ready for work and head to my 9 to 5. Rinse repeat Mon-fri.

Wake 90 minutes before work. Snooze the alarm repeatedly until an hour before work. Quick shower and dress. Leave the house 40 minutes before work. Either listen to a podcast or contemplate life as I walk my two mile commute. Get to work and drink a glass of water. First coffee of the day about half an hour after I get to work.

- Wake up at 6:20am

- Start coffee.

- Shower.

- Eat small breakfast.

- Get kids ready.

- See kids off on the school bus.

- Drive to work.

No meditation, journaling, or moments for gratitude, sorry.

Snooze the alarm at 7, cancel the alarm at 7.09, get woken up by wife at 7.40, glass of orange juice, toilet pt.1, shower, toilet pt.2, dress up, get lunch from wife, drive to work.