Are there morning rituals that rev you up for a productive day?

(Note: I wake up a little later than I would normally. Due to COVID and working from home, my commute is effectively eliminated, so I get to sleep in a little bit later.)

Basically, I wake up at about 7:30am (pre-COVID, closer to 6am) and do the snooze thing until about 8am. Then I get out of bed and IMMEDIATELY put on my running gear. Only after I'm wearing my running gear do I go to the bathroom, drink some water, take meds, etc. Somewhere between 8:00-8:15am, I head out for a 5K run. I'm a moderate runner, so it takes me about 30 minutes to complete, in which case I'm back home by 8:45am, give or take a few minutes. I take the dog for a walk, then hop on the shower, and then I'm ready to roll for the day.

My productivity has skyrocketed since I started this routine. I'm no longer sleepily moseying through the morning half of the day. Instead, I'm energized and motivated. It stops becoming a matter of if I will work out and instead a matter of when, and if I do it first thing in the morning, then it's a matter of done and I don't have to think about exercise for the rest of the day. It's a huge weight off my shoulders. My health comes first, so I don't skip this ever.

The reason I put my running gear on first is because it feels really freakin' stupid to put on clothes and then take them off because... because i'm lazy? I always tell myself, "You put on the running gear already. All you have to do is step outside and go. If you decide not to, you have to take these clothes OFF, and how dumb will you feel then?" It never fails.

I don't see this mentioned. Either I'm a weirdo or other just don't admit it. I jack it, then shower.

Wake up 4 AM. If I feel sleepy I go back to sleep and wake at 6. Sounds crazy but it's less crazy than sleeping at 2 AM, where I'm also prone to making dumb decisions like spending another hour on HN. Whatever I was doing late at night, I can do really early morning while the kids are asleep and my brain is awake.

I have a list of things I need to get done every day. It's usually really minor and takes 2 minutes. Like take notes of a book. Watch a technical video at least 2 minutes long. Work on my side project 2 minutes. Do 10 push ups.

All of these are completely doable by 7 AM regardless of when I wake up. But I never do.

Sometimes I'm in the mood for a run, so I end up spending the morning doing that. Sometimes I feel like doing some debugging and I do that. If I'm in the mood for gaming or a movie, I can just rush through all of them and still have a minimally productive day.

There are times I feel lazy and wake up late or miss out on a lot of these. I can do them later in the day - even on a busy day I can still read a book for 2 minutes. Sometimes I miss a lot.

The key is it keeps me from falling into a procrastination loop, where I can't start because it's too much effort to start and I'm in a bad mood because I've been unproductive all week.

I stick to this routine on weekends and rest days too, because it's too much effort to "fix" my schedule on weekdays. Some people like to sleep in on weekend mornings. I prefer to just get a nice cup of tea, do a few pull ups and read a chapter at 0430, and then play CS:GO from 5-8 AM while the kids are asleep.

I have shifted to be more of a night person lately since COVID, but for the last several decades, I've been a morning person. Key things for me are showering and working out.

Wake up. Shower to wake up (critical for me). Get kids off to school. Work out for an hour or so. Maybe a second quick shower. At this point, the office starts to come alive and I can start any collaboration needed for the day.

Now that I've been staying up later, waking up later, and not having to get kids rushed out the door, I find myself moving my workout to lunch or evening. It's terrible. So easy to skip out on at that point.

I've taken to pulling my shades down, turning on the kettle, and reading for 20 minutes... in the same order, every morning. It's odd, but somehow this calms me. Curious to know what others do.

I wake up early at 4AM, make a cup of coffee for myself, play 15 min of chess and study Spanish for another 15-20 min. This routine gets me ready to do intellectually intensive work like reading a hard technical book.

Wake up at 5:30 -> Meditate 15 minutes -> Run with dog -> Shower (last minute cold) -> Coffee -> Learn something new for 1 hour -> Work grind.

drink a cup of coffee and take a shower.

i really cannot function without a shower in the morning, i keep feeling half-sleeping.

Each morning.

1. Take a shower 2. Clean up the kitchen 3. Make coffee 4. Check email while coffee is brewing