
My Morning Routine
How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired
byBenjamin Spall, Michael Xander
Book Edition Details
Summary
"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."
Introduction
Have you ever jolted awake at 8:00 AM in a panic, heart racing as you realize you've overslept again? You stumble through the chaos of grabbing whatever clothes are closest, downing scalding coffee while simultaneously checking your phone for overnight emergencies, and rushing out the door feeling like you're already behind before the day has even begun. This frantic morning dance has become the soundtrack of modern life for millions of people worldwide. Yet there's a profound secret hiding in plain sight: the most successful and fulfilled individuals rarely experience this morning mayhem. Instead, they've discovered that how you spend your first hour awake determines whether you'll navigate your day with clarity and purpose, or struggle through it in reactive mode. The morning hours offer us something precious that no other time can provide – a clean slate, untouched by the demands and distractions that will inevitably follow. This exploration of morning routines reveals how transforming your early hours can fundamentally shift your entire life experience. You'll discover how creating intentional morning practices can reduce stress and anxiety while boosting creativity and productivity. Most importantly, you'll learn that building a sustainable morning routine isn't about becoming someone you're not – it's about creating the conditions for your best self to emerge naturally, day after day.
The Power of Early Rising: From Panic to Purpose
Caroline Paul, a former firefighter turned acclaimed author, discovered her morning transformation through one of life's most demanding professions. For years, her nights were unpredictable – emergency calls could shatter her sleep at any hour, sending her racing through San Francisco streets toward blazing buildings or medical emergencies. The unpredictability meant she could never rely on consistent sleep patterns, and mornings became a blur of exhaustion and coffee. Everything changed when Caroline transitioned from firefighting to full-time writing. Suddenly freed from the tyranny of emergency calls, she found herself facing a different kind of challenge: the blank page. Without the external structure of shift schedules and station house routines, she realized she needed to create her own framework for productivity. This led her to establish what she calls her "sacred reading time" – a period each morning where she sits with a real book, not a screen, accompanied by strong coffee and the gentle companionship of her pets. What makes Caroline's routine remarkable isn't its complexity, but its unwavering consistency. For thirty years, she's begun each day with the exact same breakfast and coffee ritual. This might sound monotonous to some, but Caroline views it differently. She describes this consistency as grounding – it creates a stable foundation that allows her to handle whatever unpredictability the day might bring. The routine serves as her anchor, a reliable constant in an often chaotic world. The power of early rising extends far beyond simply waking up before others. It's about claiming ownership of your day before external demands begin their relentless pull on your attention. When you rise early with intention, you're making a statement: that your needs, your goals, and your peace of mind matter enough to protect. This isn't selfishness – it's self-preservation and wisdom rolled into one. Creating this protected morning time doesn't require becoming an extreme early riser. The key is finding your natural rhythm and then consistently honoring it. Whether you wake at 5 AM or 8 AM matters less than ensuring those first precious minutes belong entirely to you.
Building Focus Through Morning Rituals and Productivity
Ryan Holiday, author of "The Obstacle Is the Way," exemplifies how morning routines can serve as productivity catalysts. His transformation began during his early career when he was juggling a demanding day job while pursuing his writing dreams on the side. The challenge seemed insurmountable – how could he possibly find time to write meaningful work while maintaining his professional responsibilities? The breakthrough came through a simple but powerful realization: mornings offered him a unique cognitive advantage. Holiday discovered that his mind was sharpest and most creative in those early hours, before the day's decisions and distractions had depleted his mental energy. He began waking at 4 AM, not out of masochistic dedication, but because those pre-dawn hours became his most productive and fulfilling time. Holiday's routine centers around one non-negotiable principle: accomplish one meaningful thing before checking email. This might be writing, journaling, or simply taking a shower mindfully, but it must come before opening his digital inbox. This practice protects his morning mental clarity from the reactive spiral that email inevitably triggers. By starting with wins rather than responses to other people's priorities, he sets a tone of proactivity that carries throughout his day. The genius of focusing your morning hours lies in working with your natural cognitive rhythms rather than against them. Most people experience their peak mental clarity in the first few hours after waking, before decision fatigue begins to set in. This is when your brain is most capable of creative thinking, problem-solving, and sustained attention – exactly the conditions needed for your most important work. Building productive morning rituals doesn't require complicated systems or expensive tools. It requires something much more valuable and harder to come by: the discipline to protect your peak mental hours from the urgent but often unimportant demands that will gladly consume them. When you reserve your sharpest thinking for your most meaningful work, you're not just being productive – you're being strategic about your life's direction.
Finding Balance: Exercise, Meditation, and Self-Care Stories
General Stanley McChrystal's morning routine reads like a masterclass in physical and mental preparation under extreme circumstances. As a retired four-star general who commanded forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, McChrystal's mornings had to accommodate the unique demands of leading in life-or-death situations. His routine began at 4 AM, not by choice, but by necessity – it was the only time guaranteed to be his own. In the combat zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, McChrystal's schedule was utterly unpredictable. Crises could erupt at any moment, requiring immediate attention and split-second decisions that affected countless lives. Yet even in these extreme circumstances, he maintained his morning exercise routine with religious devotion. Some days this meant running before dawn in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees, other days it involved lifting weights in makeshift gyms constructed from shipping containers. What's remarkable about McChrystal's approach is how he adapted his routine to drastically different environments while maintaining its core elements. When deployed, he would often split his workout – running in the morning and returning to the gym at the end of his 22-hour workdays for additional training. The routine became his psychological anchor, providing structure and personal control in situations where almost everything else was unpredictable. McChrystal learned something profound about the relationship between physical preparation and mental resilience. He discovered that missing his morning routine didn't just affect his physical condition – it altered his entire psychological state. Without his morning workout, he found himself constantly checking the clock, waiting for the next opportunity to exercise, his body and mind restless and unsettled. The integration of exercise, meditation, and self-care into morning routines isn't about optimizing performance metrics – it's about creating the conditions for sustained excellence under pressure. When you start your day by caring for your physical and mental well-being, you're building reserves of energy and resilience that will serve you when challenges arise. This isn't luxury or vanity; it's preparation for life's inevitable difficulties.
Summary
The most transformative insight from examining morning routines is elegantly simple: how you begin shapes everything that follows, and small, consistent actions compound into extraordinary results over time. Start by identifying your natural wake-up time and claiming the first 30-60 minutes exclusively for yourself, before external demands intrude. Choose 2-3 meaningful activities that align with your goals – whether that's writing, exercising, meditating, or simply enjoying coffee in peace – and protect this time fiercely. Remember that consistency matters more than perfection; a simple routine followed regularly beats an elaborate plan abandoned after a week. The morning hours offer us something irreplaceable: a daily opportunity to invest in our future selves while the world sleeps. When you transform your mornings from reactive chaos into intentional preparation, you're not just changing your schedule – you're fundamentally altering the trajectory of your life, one sunrise at a time.

By Benjamin Spall