The Minimal Guide to a Successful Creative Morning

The key lies outside the door.

Martin Uhnak
Sep 3, 2018 · 4 min read
Photo by John Westrock

Since I last wrote about my mornings, I experimented with various nighttime regimes and morning routines. I tried waking up at 5 AM, 6 AM and sleeping with no alarm at all. I tried eating almond butter four hours before sleep, getting hydrated, and cooling the room to a rather low temperature. Some of these worked out, and some didn’t. Some require willpower, and some are quite easy to pick up. Steps mentioned in this post are the essentials.

After a while of trying different things, I’m approaching a perfect routine that works for me every time. I wrote it down in my journal so I can jump back in if I relapse. I thought you might like to know, too. Let me know down in the responses if there is something specific that works exceptionally well for you.

Self-improvement is not a sprint, it’s a marathon best run with a team. Accountability helps.

I realized that the last time I wrote about this, I wasn’t precise. Recently, I went back to it, and I didn’t find the granular structure I needed to get back on track. I’ll try to do that today.

0. Prepare

A successful day starts the night before. I like to prepare what I’m wearing, and any food I might take to the office. That way I’m not looking for it, nor I am making any decisions when I need to move. I’ve found it quite helpful to remove any resistance to getting out of the house quickly.

Yes, this will be a theme of this post.

1. Sit Up

If it’s after 4:30 AM, get up from the bed. If it’s difficult to get up that early, try sitting up in a vertical position right after waking. Your heart knows what to do, after a few seconds you won’t want to go back to sleep.

2. Walk to the bathroom

Mini heart boost.

3. B&W

Brush and wash up. Cold water in the face. It feels good after you’ve done it. You shouldn’t feel like going back to bed at this time.

4. Short workout in your pyjamas

Source

Major heart boost. Use the Seven app for a quick workout or do 30 seconds of jumping jacks, 30 seconds of pushups, 30 seconds of squats, 30 seconds of plank, and 30 seconds of high knees running in place. Do these with no breaks.

You’re definitely up after this.

5. Super hydrate

Drink half a liter of water. It’s all the nutrition you need at this point. Check here for your optimal daily water intake.

6. Take your bag & prepared food

Don’t make anything, don’t look for anything. Get ready to GTFO of the house.

7. Get out of the house!

Now, this list might seem overly elaborate, but I still read it out loud sometimes. Get out.

Control your environment

The environment has a massive effect on our behavior. Benjamin P. Hardy talks about this all the time; different spaces are primed for different activities. Home is for family, the car is for thinking, the office is for working.

Danny Kahneman with his research has been discussing how our brains receive information and make decisions. At a point in his book he asserts that our brains are inherently lazy, they are constantly looking for patterns that they could delegate to the habitual part of the brain.

We can use this to our advantage, and many people do. Writers pick a specific spot at a coffee shop or a library where they are most productive. Businessmen and women minimizing their clothing decisions to essentials. The list goes on.

“There’s just one way to radically change your behavior: radically change your environment.”

— Dr. B.J. Fogg of Stanford Persuasive Lab

If you’re not in control of your environment, your environment controls you.

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Martin Uhnak

Written by

thinker ✕ maker @ martinuhnak.com

The Startup

Medium's largest active publication, followed by +527K people. Follow to join our community.

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