The One Hour Morning Routine
- This video is sponsored by CuriosityStream.
Get access to my streaming video service, Nebula,
when you sign up for CuriosityStream
using the link in the description.
I have a confession to make.
I am fascinated by morning routine videos.
It's just interesting to see the habits
that successful people pack
into the first parts of their day.
But there's a slight problem with most of these videos.
Most of these routines take entirely too long,
and replicating them yourself is just not practical.
You simply don't have time
for an hour of meditation in the morning,
or a long session at the gym,
or writing eight pages in your gratitude journal.
By the time you wake up in the morning,
you've probably got an hour tops
before you need to be doing
the first thing on your calendar.
So, here is my proposition.
Let's put that hour to good use.
Let's build a morning routine that only takes an hour,
but, that is still comprehensive,
and that covers six major areas.
Nutrition.
Hydration.
A bit of exercise.
Hygiene, of course.
Some learning.
And finally, number six, sunlight exposure.
And sure, you won't have time
to mindfully pour water over your teapot for 30 minutes
to build up a patina, or log 20 miles on Strava.
But, hitting these six areas
will give you a great start to the day.
And with some good planning and timing,
I do think that it's doable in under an hour.
And here's one way that you could do it.
(muted jazz music)
First, throw yourself out of bed
the moment your alarm goes off.
Don't let the snooze button waste any of your precious time.
If you can avoid that,
this should only take about 30 seconds.
Once you're up, do all the basics.
Brush your teeth, shave if you need to,
and take a shower.
Now you could also shower at night to save time,
but I like to shower in the morning,
and I've found that it only takes about four minutes anyway.
To save some time while you're getting dressed,
you can lay out all your clothes the night before,
so that they're waiting for you right when you wake up,
and so that you don't have to spend time
deciding what to wear.
All told, this part should take you about 15 minutes tops,
as long as you don't find yourself
staring at a styrofoam head.
With hygiene taken care of,
the next item on your list is hydration.
I find the three most important things
for feeling fully awake in the morning
are sunlight, movement, and hydration.
So, right after showering, I'll drink a full glass of water.
Now, this is probably the quickest step in the routine,
unless you're like me and have plants
that also need hydration.
Even so, after two or three minutes,
you'll be moving on to the next step,
which is my favorite, making coffee.
Now with only an hour to spare,
my brewing method of choice is gonna be drips,
as you can just set it and forget it.
And since your cuppa Joe
is gonna take about five minutes to brew,
you've got some time to get a bit of exercise in.
Now like I said before,
you don't have time for a lengthy gym session.
But, with an inexpensive pull-up bar on the door,
you can do some pull-ups.
And most people, other than those who live here,
have access to the ground,
which is great for crunches, push-ups,
and lots of other things.
Breakfast is one area that can eat up a lot of your time.
But, if you choose the right foods,
you'll make prep, eating, and cleanup
all go really, really quickly.
I like to start with a piece of toast, and here's a trick.
Put some frozen spinach in a bowl
with olive oil, chopped garlic, and salt.
Microwave that for 90 seconds
and you've got a serving of vegetables
to go with your toast.
Finally, hard-boiled eggs
are a great way to round things out.
You can make them in bulk on the weekends,
or just buy them boiled and peeled from the store,
like I do.
As an alternative to all of this,
you could also make a smoothie,
and I'll link to my smoothie recipe
in the description down below.
Either way, prep should only take six to eight minutes.
Now, you could bundle nutrition with learning
by reading while you eat.
But with the time limit that you're on,
you probably don't have time to get deep into a book,
so instead you might want to opt for an article.
In this case, the book that I'm reading right now
has chapters with several article-length subsections,
so it's easy to read one in about 15 minutes.
After that, cleanup is also really quick,
since we didn't use that many dishes.
Now the last thing that we mentioned wanting
was some sunlight exposure.
And normally, you would go outside for a walk, to get that.
But, perhaps, like me,
you currently have 18 inches of snow outside your window.
And it's freezing cold outside.
In which case we're not doing that.
Instead, open up a window
and then maybe use the rest of the time for extra reading.
Or meditation.
Or really anything else that you're trying to learn.
Starting your day
with a bit of progress on a goal feels great.
But, whatever you decide to do,
try to keep the 20 second rule in mind.
Set things up so that it takes less than 20 seconds
to start using them.
This will save you time, but more importantly,
it'll remove friction
that could prevent the formation of good habits.
Of course, you could also just use this extra time
to pack up your bag, so that way once your hour's up,
you can easily roll into whatever it is
that you need to do next.
Which, in this case, is filming a video.
Now, this routine is just a suggestion,
and there are definitely changes that you could make.
For instance, if your commute involves walking or biking,
then sunlight exposure is already taken care of.
And, if you wanted even more time
for exercise or for learning,
you could just skip breakfast altogether.
A lotta people practice what's called intermittent fasting,
where they restrict their mealtimes
to an eight-hour window during the day,
and then fast for the other 16.
Plus, all that stuff about breakfast
being the most important meal of the day
is just marketing by cereal companies.
Though, while we're talking about breakfast,
I do wanna note that reading
isn't the only way to bundle learning with it.
In fact, maybe you're watching this very video
while you eat breakfast.
That's something that I do all the time,
I love watching videos in the morning.
But, what I don't like,
is sitting through ads before they even start.
Which is why I got together
with a bunch of other educational creators and built Nebula.
If you haven't heard about it,
Nebula is a completely self-funded streaming service
that lets you avoid ads,
and allows us to create what we want
without worrying about YouTube's algorithm.
You'll find my content there,
alongside people like CDP Gray, Wendover Productions,
Kurzgesagt, and more.
Plus, originals that we're creating, like Working Titles,
which breaks down the intro sequences to iconic TV shows.
But here's the best part.
We've teamed up with CuriosityStream
so that when you subscribe to their service
for just $2.99 per month,
you get access to Nebula for free.
Which means that you get ad-free videos.
You get to support independent creators,
and you also get access
to thousands of high-quality documentaries
on CuriosityStream.
If you use my link in the description to sign up,
you can get a 30-day trial for free,
and start watching documentaries like The Science of Sleep.
Or David Attenborough's Light On Earth.
As always, thanks for watching,
and huge thanks if you choose to support
what we're building over on Nebula.
You can get subscribed right there
if you haven't done so already,
and I'll see you in my next video.
(soothing electronic music)
