- One of the most important lessons
that I've learned about productivity
is that the way you start your day really matters.
Waking up on time and going through a sequence
of healthy habits can give you the momentum
that you need to roll right into your work.
While waking up late or waking up without a plan
can easily lead to procrastination and wasted time.
So, today I wanna share the morning routine
that I've been using recently.
It's pretty simple, but it does involve
one pretty big change from the way that I used to do things.
Though we're gonna get to that later
because well, first things first,
I just have to get out of bed.
And these days I'm waking up at about 6:30 in the morning.
And I do this using a pretty simple trick.
So, if you saw my video that I put out a few years ago
about how I used to force myself to get up early.
I actually used to use a social media scheduler
to schedule a tweet that would go out
and tell people that I was being lazy.
So, to prevent this from going out,
I would have to get up before the tweet's scheduled time,
turn my computer on, and either move it to the next day
or delete it.
And for a really long time
this was an incredibly effective way to get up
at the time I wanted to get up
and go through my morning routine.
But when I tried to use it again earlier this year
I found that it no longer works for me
because it led to me actually waking up
in the middle of the night worrying
that I had slept through my alarm
or that something else had gone wrong
and the tweet had gone out.
So, this method was literally giving me anxiety
and negatively affecting the quality of my sleep.
So, what I'm doing now is a lot simpler,
but it's just as effective.
I just have a second alarm on an iPad downstairs.
So, I have to actually go downstairs from my room
and turn it off.
And that alarm is set for about five minutes
after my main one, which virtually guarantees
that I'm never going to hit snooze
and I'm always going to go downstairs
and get both alarms turned off and then get into my routine.
Next I feed my cat, I water my plants,
and I do some pull-ups.
I'm trying to gradually increase the number
that I do in the morning,
but right now I'm doing just about 10.
This is a good way to actually make sure I feel fully awake,
but it's also just another good way
to make sure that I stay in shape for rock climbing.
And quick tip,
if you're gonna use one of these door frame pull-up bars,
when you get one take an old towel
and wrap it around the contact points
with either a rubber band or some tape.
That way it doesn't damage your door frame.
Because these things can definitely do that
if you don't pad out those contact points.
So, once I've done those pull-ups I will go outside
for about a 10 to 15-minute walk.
And this is really casual, I'm not power-walking.
I'm not out there jogging.
I'm just going to get a walk because this was a habit
that I used to do every single morning
after I graduated from college
and I was living back in Iowa.
And I really just wanted to add it back in.
And while I'm walking, I'll usually listen to a podcast
or an audiobook.
Right now I'm listening to Wondery's excellent
Business Wars podcasts, specifically the biker wars series
about Harley Davidson,
along with Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
And both of these I highly recommend.
Though with Tchaikovsky, you're probably gonna wanna start
with Children of Time,
which is the first book in that series.
Once I'm back from the walk it is time for breakfast.
But before I get to cooking,
I first activate a little routine
that I created on my Echo speaker.
Alexa, start my morning.
- [Alexa] Today, there are two events remaining.
At 2 PM, there's podcast interview with the Rock
and at 3 PM, there's call Matt to brag.
- This lets me know what's on my calendar for the day,
it tells me the weather,
and then it starts a little morning routine playlist
that I created on Spotify,
which I'll share down in the description below
in case you're interested.
For breakfast, I will sometimes make a smoothie,
which I made a video all about a couple of months ago
and you can check that out in case you're interested.
But recently, I've just been sticking to a very simple wrap.
Eggs, cheese, bacon, and salsa.
And I'll also slice up an apple and, of course,
make coffee.
And funny little side note about that coffee.
A few months ago, I actually decided
to do a blind taste test pitting the craft-roasted,
expensive beans in a local grocery store
with regular, old Caribou coffee dark roast beans.
And when I did that, I was surprised to find
that I actually like the Caribou beans better,
which was interesting because they were literally
half the price.
So, doing that test actually showed me
that it's a good idea to do these kinds of tests
on a regular basis to make sure
that you're making logical choices
instead of just following mere signifiers of quality,
like price.
After breakfast, it is time to do some learning,
which usually takes the form of reading
though I don't always just read books.
Sometimes I do, but other times
I'll dig into a really long article.
For example, one that I read recently
was Ray Dalio's article on paradigm shifts,
which I found pretty difficult to read, personally.
But it actually led to me making some changes
in the way that I'm investing my money.
So, I'll have that link in the description below, as well,
for anyone who's interested.
I do think it is a pretty good read.
Anyway, once that's done, it is time to shower.
And in my bathroom, I actually keep
a small Bluetooth speaker and I use my shower time
as time for vocal practice.
About a year ago, I started actual vocal lessons
and I found that singing in the shower
is actually a great way to get some real daily practice in.
And in addition to that, I've also created
several different playlists on Spotify
that each target a specific type of practice in singing,
like high-range training, low-range training, et cetera.
So, it's really easy to build up a queue
and get about 20 minutes of real, deliberate practice in.
And this is a great compliment to the more lengthy sessions
I do when I have time and the actual lessons, as well.
And that's it.
When I'm done with all this, I'll usually start work at home
or if I'm doing writing or research I'll usually head out
to a coffee shop to do it there.
Now, one thing that you might have noticed is missing
from this morning routine is working out
or going to the gym.
And that's actually the big change
that I alluded to earlier.
After stubbornly telling myself
that I needed to work out in the mornings
for a really long time, I've learned through experimentation
that it's actually better for me
to work out in the afternoons.
This is a pretty big improvement to my routine
for a few key reasons.
Number one, I just get to work earlier
because I'm not going to the gym
for an hour or 90 minutes beforehand.
Number two, and this is actually more important.
This neatly solves the problem of the afternoon slump.
Now, I don't know if you get this,
but personally when it gets around three or four PM
in the afternoon, I usually get this wave of brain fog
and it becomes hard to focus.
And in the mornings, I don't have this problem.
I'm alert, I'm easily able to do my work.
But again, when it gets to late afternoon
that ability really starts to diminish.
So, by going to the gym in the afternoon,
I'm able to use more of my morning on work
and then going to the gym is actually a great way
to get rid of that brain fog
because I'm getting some exercise.
Finally, number three, I'm much more consistent
about putting in that learning time in the mornings.
When I was working out in the mornings,
I would often feel pressure to get right to work
after I got back from the gym
and I've learned from personal experience
that I'm much less likely to read during the evenings.
And I mention this because even though it's easy to skip
since it doesn't seem urgent,
I think having this habit of reading or learning
every single day is incredibly important.
For me, doing this keeps me from stagnating
since I'm no longer in school,
and no longer being forced to learn new things
by teachers and professors.
But it also often leads me to making connections
and getting ideas that I wouldn't have otherwise had.
And a lot of times this improves the quality of my work
and helps me grow my business.
That's why I think you should be making time
for this habit, as well.
And one resource that I'd recommend you check out
during this time is Brilliant.
Brilliant is a learning website
that takes an incredibly active, problem-centric approach
to teaching math, science, and computer science.
And because they take this active approach to designing
all their courses and their challenges,
when you're going through the material,
you're actually stretching
your brain's problem-solving capabilities,
becoming a more capable, creative problem solver.
Brilliant's library includes over 50 in-depth courses,
and they also have a feature called daily challenges
where every single day you can log in
and get a new problem in a different area
which can expand your horizons and your interests
and again, build that daily learning habit
and build your problem-solving skills.
So, if you wanna get started for free,
go over to brilliant.org/thomasfrank
and you're gonna get free access to those daily challenges.
And if you'd like to upgrade your account
and get access to their entire course library,
be one of the first 200 people to use that link and sign up
and you'll get 20% off your annual premium subscription.
Big thanks, as always, to Brilliant
for sponsoring this video and being a big supporter
of my channel.
And thank you for watching, as well.
If you haven't subscribed yet,
you can do so right there to get new videos
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You can also click right there to get a free copy
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Thanks again for watching
and I will see you in the next video.