I Tried 7 Different Morning Routines — Here’s What Made Me Happiest
Of all the themes that constantly resurface in self-improvement writing, the ever-elusive “optimal morning routine” is certainly high on the list. We seem to love (or hate?) reading about CEOs who rise at 4 a.m. to drink chia smoothies and get a jump-start on running their empires. But so often the conversation revolves around sheer productivity, as though we’re machines whose ultimate goal is to become perfectly calibrated for success. I reject this view for the same reason I embrace taking real weekends — because, frankly, the thought of reducing my existence to output is thoroughly depressing.
However, I do like the idea of viewing mornings as more than harried periods of preparation. And though I am pretty good about going to bed at a reasonable hour, I recently realized that I often wasn’t enjoying my mornings. Even with sufficient sleep, I was still leaving for work in a frenzy—keys flying, my mind a cyclone of mundane worries. If I was going to sacrifice the late-night vices I once loved, I might as well make the most of those extra hours. So I decided to do an experiment: I’d spend my morning seven different ways and gauge them by how happy they made me.
