Ask HN: What is your morning routine?
What does your morning look like from the time you wake up to the time you get to work?
How do you transition your mental mode from personal/family obligations to work? What do you do in the first 30 minutes of getting to work? Alarm goes off at 6. I hit snooze 12 times until it's about 7. I half doze, half ruminate on why I can't just get out of bed at 6. The hour I steal from myself gives me immeasurable pleasure. Around 7 I make it down into the bathroom, where I check political news for about a half hour. I ruminate on how unhealthy my eating habits are. I take a shower, and get out of the house by 8. On the ride in, I try to use positive thinking to set the tone for the day, but I generally fail and focus on negative thoughts. I obsess about whether living and working on the Internet have caused a reverse personal renaissance. Often I grab a high carb, high fat bagel and cream cheese, and large coffee. Once I'm in, I log onto here for a half hour, check reddit, and try to force myself to "feel motivated". I hop onto Lync, and the underlings tell me about drama from their mid 20s lives. I get jealous of them and all the experiences they could be having, but they're locked up in the same corporation I am. We do fake smiles and get lots of coffee. I do agile meetings and track my own progress in a little web app. Once per week, a chart is mailed based off metrics I self assigned, to my manager and the director. By 11am I start to decide if I am going to write any code for that day. If I haven't started, I get overwhelmed. Lately I have panic attacks, but I have a new doctor who tells me to stop eating carbs and drinking coffee. I lie to her and tell her I am, and then get those items on the way back from the appointment as a reward. Tell me I'm not as alone as that felt I would love to write my intended morning routine. I don't have to write my actual morning routine because you captured its essence perfectly. Fwiw coffee makes an enormous difference for me anxiety wise. The initial boost in energy and mild euphoria is not worth an evening full of anxiety and irritability for me personally. Yes, that's my experience in the evening even if I have coffee at 8am. Anyway just sharing in case anyone is struggling and looking for something to tweak. I love coffee and have lots of it. Because I want more I have started adding a little decaf to the mix to sort of thin it out. Works great and tastes good. I'm mixing the green beans then roasting, but there is no reason that pre-roasted couldn't have some mixed in. There is a lot of good stuff in coffee so don't beat yourself up too much. Take theanine with your coffee. A ratio of 2:1 theanine to caffeine does wonders. Thanks for the tip, I'll look into it and give it a shot. That said, it's nice not relying on coffee everyday for a boost, though there are at least a couple days a week where I could really use it, esp after a night of unpleasant sleep. That sounds incredibly similar, so much so that I've just had a breakfast wrap and I'm partway through a large coffee... But, at the docs the other day because I'm slightly depressed, and my blood tests come back with elevated liver enzymes so from Monday I'm back to walking in (only 2 miles / 30 mins) that will also block my mcd's addiction. Hopefully. That was beautiful. Your morning routine is very similar to mine was last year before the company I was working for 'wasn't able to pay me anymore' -- which is possibly one of the best things that could have happened at that time! Excellent. Some more details? What happened afterwards? Become a writer. Spot on, starting from the snooze part... Why do you think experiences are limited to mid twenties? What kind of experiences are you talking about Probably parties, concerts, impromptu weekend trips, paying to crawl through mud for five miles, side hustles, short term relationships, and the drama involved with any of those. That stuff tends to die way down for most people in their 30s. I personally found (34 here) that this cliche is either a pile of poop, or badly worded for what it actually means. It's not that we don't do these things after 30 or even 40, it's how we do them (hint: more means, wiser/less stupid about it 'cause been there, done that). Now there's a historic truth to the cliche, but let's not pretend this is 1960 still, not even 1990. As we near the 2020's, socially everybody may work (M+F), everybody may change diapers, everybody may get drunk/high even after 40. It's not frowned upon anymore to just live, so what do you know, people just go on about living their lives, whether in their twenties, thirties, eighties... "Living" includes drama, it's just the nature of it, and there's this kid inside all of us --but as you age you're just so much better at handling said drama, and turn it into no less memorable but much more comfortable stories. Most incredible nights of my life? Twenties for sure, even late teens. But best nights? On average it's not even funny to compare: at 34 it's so much easier to feel good with oneself and with the world. Which makes me actually much more daring personally, with work (and outside-the-box thinking), with relationships (and quirks), with my very own self. Just to widen the perspective beyond my own anecdotal experience, I wonder: why this change between 20th century and 21st century societies? You see, when you read people from some 2,000 years ago, you quickly realize that they shared the same thoughts, the same feelings, the same life stories. Funny people back then would probably be funny today, and you could hear Romans complaining about foreigners taking their jobs and changing their culture... The human being part of the equation didn't change. What changed is organization, and that's a long talk but essentially I feel that as we gained freedom on an individual basis, we need less "general principles" to guide otherwise clueless peoples --and this is currently still changing fast as even the perimeter/mission of the state and governments is very much in question, from corporate/money influence over citizenry, to wiki and other leaks, passing by individual rights. On the other hand, we begin to observe what the human race really is like, how it behaves, when given the freedom to set its own way (at least in the western part of the world, but surely these days "social progress" is happening everywhere regardless of political/economic freedom). It's 11:30 and I am now going to resume work after this early morning coffee. :} I apparently struck a nerve, sorry. I'm 35 myself, and I'm more reflecting a job I had a few years ago at a game studio, where I was one of the oldest developers there (besides the manager), with everyone else being in their early to mid-twenties. And I don't mean I didn't do any of the things I mentioned, hell, in just a couple of years of my 30s I've met and befriended more people than in my entire 20s due to an effort I made to go to meetups and become more comfortable in my own skin, and I was going through a phase where I was attending as many performances by stand-up comedians as I could, and I even went to a couple of EDM concerts that didn't even get started until midnight...but there wasn't really any drama. Most shit that a lot of these guys talked about in the studio that they encountered, that seemed like such a BIG DEAL to them OH MY GOD CAN YOU BELIEVE WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT? A lot of posturing and acting like you're great because you talk about all this crazy shit that happened to you this week. I guess what I'm trying to say is this stuff can happen to people at any age, it's just that once you hit your 30s it seems less important. You've seen a lot of it before, you're trying less hard to impress everyone, and you're not going to things just to say you went to them (usually). So you're not as tuned into it, you probably go to less of these things naturally (because you're only doing it if you enjoy it, not so you can have a story to tell), and possibly you have something else in your life that you care about saving up money for instead (like possibly retirement, maybe a much larger trip, maybe starting your own business, maybe finally paying down some of that debt you accumulated throughout your 20s, trying to figure out how the hell you're going to afford a wedding and a honeymoon, how you're going to pay your child's medical bills, etc). And yeah, 2000 years ago a lot of people had the same thoughts as today, not denying that, I've seen it myself, and I wish more people realized we're not actually all that unique and exceptional in history after all, besides some of the cool toys we get to play with. No it wasn't a nerve, sorry if it came that way. I refrain from using smileys on forums but my post should have started with one :). I very much agree with you and see what you mean, went through some of these things myself (the post-30 part). Most vividly I came back to university as a student in my late 20s/early 30s (here in France most students are 18-25, and I was with the 18-20 in class). I know what you mean about the posturing and everything. But that's the beauty of age, I could just hang with the 'normal' ones according to my perception, and ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ the others. Made some very good friends regardless of the decade gap. Currently at 34 in my phase "starting my own business", reigniting a dream I've sorta had since I was 12. Totally agree with your last sentence. In fact I find that the best entrepreunarial wisdom/advice may come from the first century AD, or from 1903, 1937, 2016... Because the toys changed (tools, really), but the function (organizing some process involving value for human beings) is ever the same. On a personal level it's equally true, I am personally an adept of Stoicism, which isn't exactly new, yet incredibly suited to our present time imvho. Easy way to end ALL those: Get married have kids You are far from alone... Likely in the majority. Replace developer with any other type of job. 06:00 - woke up 06:05 - got out of bed 06:10 - dragged a comb across my head 06:15 - Found my way downstairs 06:20 - drank a cup 06:30 - looking up, I noticed I was late 06:32 - found my coat, and grabbed my hat 06:33 - made the bus in seconds flat ... 16:30 - Found my way upstairs and had a smoke 16:50 - Somebody spoke and I went into a dream Have to catch an early train
Got to be to work by nine
And if I had an air-o-plane
I still couldn't make it on time 'Cause it takes me sho long
Just to figure out what I'm gonna wear
Blame it on the train
But the boss is already there A lot of people don't realize who wrote that song; the original album credit said just "Christopher". Wow Prince yet again Similar to mine, tho I usually have my smoke at 16:20 That's put an unexpected smile on my face. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. PS, I read the news today, oh boy. 06:00 - Alarm (wife is up at 5:40) 06:05 - Coffee. Check email/slack/rollbar/etc for anything urgent. 06:15 - Local news for weather/traffic, HN and national/world news check. 06:30 - Shave, shower 06:55 - Eat breakfast with my wife. 07:10 - We leave for work and I drop my wife off at her office. I listen to my daily podcasts in the car. My drive to the local office is 15 minutes so on those days I finish my podcasts at my desk. The head office is 1 hour away, so I can finish them all on the drive. I try to finish all communication tasks and all error/task/planning triage at the start of the day. The rest of the day is for coding and whatever meetings I have to attend. I try to break my coding into 1-1.5 hour chunks so that meetings don't hurt my flow as much. My calendar is pretty free since we are a small team and try to respect each other's time. Lunch time (other than time spent eating) is spent either in meetings or in meditation/on a walk. Back home at 5:30 after picking my wife up and we fix and eat dinner together. We'll both do some work in the evenings if we need to, but not every night. Usually just enough to finish off what was in progress at the end of the day. We are in bed by 9:00, reading until lights out at 10. For me the set schedule helps me transition my mental mode between work and family times. And since we usually commute together, my wife and I are on the same schedule. It helps keep us from being in 2 different modes at the same time. - Wake up at 430-5 (Used to use an alarm, now it is a natural thing. I am also asleep by 930pm and usually catch a couple of naps over the weekend). - Take my dog out, hit the restroom, have breakfast - Train on my bike for 1-1.5 hours - Try real hard to catch my bus at 735. I usually miss nowadays, So I hitch a ride with my wife at 845 to the bus stop. - reach by 915 or so. Coffee and coding. I try to get some coding done in one block in the morning and one more in evening. - lunch at 1130 - HN at this time, and when am waiting for meetings etc. - ride back home by 630 or so. I reach by 730 or so. - couple of hours with the fam RE transition: I have tried many 'methods' and clocks etc. but nothing beats intrinsic motivation: I try to work towards that. (Having goals that matter, finding real work that I love etc). I ride and train hard on my bike because I want to. I work because I want to. There are days / weeks when I get into a slump when there is lower productivity, but C'est la vie. Trying hard to be productive is usually a drain / anxiety inducing thing for me anyway - so I have just come to accept the cycles in my life :) Do you find going to bed at 930pm hurts your social life? That is by far the largest thing keeping me from the "early to bed, early to rise" lifestyle. I like going out with people, or generally engaging with others at night. I'm going to pick that the answer is no, as having kids and sorting them out has the effect (on me and others I know) of hindering night time socialising and at the same time stopping you from wanting to go out at night. I think lost login captured it perfectly. I used to hang out late when I was younger, but nowadays My daughter and dog ensure that I am home for the night:) 07:00 - Philips Hue lights slowly turn on until bright at 07:10 07:10 - iPhone alarm goes off 07:12 - Bedside alarm goes off to make sure I actually got up 07:14 - Shave, long, hot shower 07:40 - Leave for work (either walk to the train station or drive), eat a Banana on the way 08:15 - Arrive at work, make a coffee and fill water bottle 08:20 - Team lead of a small ops / systems engineers, some management style work, lots of puppet coding, keeping an eye on monitoring and tickets, assist my team and developers with any peer review / issues / discussions 10:00 - Sometimes get a morning snack / coffee 12:00 - Lunch, avoid carbs and try to stick to high protein, low sugar foods when possible. 12:15 - Back to work any time between 12:15 and 13:00 Any time between 15:00 and 18:00 - leave work Any time between 17:00 and 20:30 - Order dinner from UberEats, maybe have a wine or two Most evenings - Catch up on comedy shows, read books Some evenings - Perform out of hours scheduled work or finish things I was on a roll with remotely from home, go to gigs, catch up with friends over dinner etc... I like to have a cup of coffee and watch some TV comedy when I get up. It never hurts to start your day off (or end it) in a light-hearted mood. I especially try to pick work- or office-related humor. For a while I was watching The Office, and now I'm onto The IT Crowd. It took me time and reflections for building a decent morning routine, I think the best way was to realize what tended to ruin my day just after waking up: checking social media, checking emails, browsing the internet ... In other words, filling my head with too much different data and information. That was exhausting me and 99% of the time, it was not worth it. I believe it is important for me to start the day by focusing on one thing, whatever it is, whether it's a project, a dream or learning new things. Usually, I take advantage of this time to read great books to reflect upon. I'm a remote worker (developer) with what is probably a terrible morning routine, but I'll mention it here for balance. I wake up roughly 10 minutes before start-time at work. I roll out of bed, put on some clothes, and use the bathroom before I stagger out to the living room. Out there I pour myself a drink and typically move my laptop to my recliner instead of my desk. I find it warmer and far more comfortable in the mornings. My first 30 minutes at work varies based on things like whether or not anyone has requested something from me (we work from a few time zones), how defined my current task is, and what state I left things in the night before. I usually start in on a development task within a few minutes. For me the morning route give me the power and focus for all the day, so it's very important. I wake up at 5:30 and I meditate for 5-10 minutes. After that I eat, I check the Slack to see if I have any important request from the team during the day (we are in three different timezones, Spain, Japan, SF). I prioritize and add to the calendar my day tasks (if I have to do a task, it means that is important and it has to be schedule in a proper time to put focus on it). After that I do sport from 7 to 8. Sometimes I go to the gym for some cardio exercise and another times just for a 30-45min run. I arrive to the office at 08:15. Eh, most responses are idealistic here. I am not sure how many are speaking truth. I work for one of the FANG. Workload is 60 hrs per week. 8:30 am- get up and get ready 9-30 am- start for office 10 am- in office 12-15 pm- lunch. No eating at desk 1-15 pm- tea 5-30 pm - leave office 6- 7-30 pm- go to a coffee shop and see any girl is worth talking.lol. I am single. 8 pm - Gym 9-30 - Dinner 9-30 pm to 11 pm - again work 11 pm - midnight - reddit/hn Midnight - 2 am - Can't sleep. Looks like I am forever single and no women likes me. That's life. Sad way to look at things. Have you ever had luck with women? Are you in shape? I'm guessing you might be because you go to the gym. If not, work on packing on some muscle. Then, focus on having fun, interesting hobbies and going out and meeting people. Build an interesting life first and it will be easier to find someone to share it with. My best days have me getting out of bed in the wee hours for a brisk ride or run. A close second is knowing that I've penciled in some exercise time later in the day. Once I've showered, I usually get the kids to school then either head back to the home office or head to work. My morning is infested with quick email/slack replies to urgent issues on my iPhone to answer questions, coordinate and get meetings setup for when my day actually starts. I block out my calendar from 7-8AM and only accept the most urgent calls/meetings begrudgingly. I can often join a meeting in co-pilot mode (someone else is driving and just needs my inputs) while on my commute. All of this is powered by wrapup activity the night before (30m @ 9 or 10PM) so I've set expectations for the next day - if that doesn't happen, I'm a bit more stressed in the morning. Context: 27 y/o, fiance, no dependants 4:45 - alarm goes off, start getting ready 5:05 - go down to garage and prep bike 5:10 - meet those that I am riding with 5:15 to 7.15 - Ride and then coffee(s) 7:30 get home and shower and take already prepared bag 8:00 take train to work === On the days where I do not ride it is essentially the same but replaced with gym. Cycling changed my life; would not be the person I am today without it. Wake up at five something, take a piss, shower and dress yourself. No time for breakfast, throw intra and post-workout shakes into the bag and head to the gym with SO. After training, we may sit down to eat something in a bakery depending on the time. Go to work. Upon arriving fetch some decaff and prepare that stupid daily meeting. Middle manager crack. Lunch break. Walk in the park for one hour while drinking a litre of milk, phoning relatives and listening to podcasts. I get paid for browsing HN. After work it's all me and SO time. We love cooking elaborated dinners and gossiping about our colleagues. Videogames and technical books are the only computer related things I still do. I despise them so much I had to buy a PlayStation for gaming as touching a keyboard makes me anxious. GitHub is your resume now. Alarm at 6:30 snooze couple times, stare at the ceiling and having a 3 minutes existential crisis, drink water (amazing for waking up your brain and body) shower, dress leave for coffee . Take the bus to college while reading news and HN.. Day starts - When I first open my eyes on the morning I usually get most of my intellectual work done from my bed. I call it half sleepy / half awake. This is when my brain is at %200. Sometimes I resolve yesterday's issues or get new ideas. It's amazing how fast and clear my brain is, right when I wake up. It only lasts for 5 minutes unfortunately. I try to take notes because everything disappears pretty quickly. - Then I pull out my phone and check out my emails + news. It's usually 7am so the west coast is still sleeping. - Then the food routine kicks off. Shower, breakfast, water, coffee then more water. - Check out my emails again, it's about 8:30am. Now the day really starts. -Alarm goes off at 5:30. Hit snooze once. -Alarm goes off at 5:35. Depending on how sleepy I am I may lay in bed for 1-10 minutes, usually petting the cat. -Put on clothes in dark. -Get out of bed, fill up a large jar of water and sit in living room. One pillow behind back, one pillow on lap, laptop on lap pillow. -Put computer on airplane mode, open word doc of current novel manuscript. -Write at least 500 words in manuscript (generally finish by 6:15). -Get back in bed until partner's alarm goes off at 6:35. -Get up, put on hot water. Eat cereal and read Harper's. -Off to work at 7am. -Spend first 30-45 minutes at work reading HN, ArsTechnica. What do you do with the large jar of water? Obviously drink it. It's one of the best health advice to drink a couple glasses of water when you wake up. I agree it's a good idea to drink water in the morning, it just seemed funny that filling it was mentioned and then nothing more. I guess I expected it to show up in the final step, like Chekhov's Gun. I currently live with a really good friend of mine who is studying, therefore I prefer to do personal things in the morning. It's not only because of him, but I find myself much more productive in the morning as well. 06:30-06:45 - Alarm goes off + max 1 snooze. After that I prepare a cup of tea and sometimes a breakfast 06:45-07:45 - I look into my personal projects and todo list, try to sort out as much stuff as possible. 06:45-08:00 - Prepare for work and take a shower 08:00-08:15 - Leave home Alarm 7:15. Snooze. Snooze. Snooze. Snooze. Make espresso, add some milk, drink in bed while reading Facebook. Resolve to quit Facebook and contact friends directly instead. Shower. Pack rucksack, get dressed. Cycle to work, between 15 and 45 minutes depending on location. Check emails and flag those I should action that day. Change out of cycling clothes. Do something productive, then duck out for coffee and buttered toast at 10:30am. Wake up naturally, no alarm clock. 7ish in winter, 6ish in summer. Shower and think about the work days problems. Drive to work, picking breakfast up on way. In the summer, I bike to work a few days a week. Work on mentally challenging stuff and try to ignore email until lunch. Eat lunch in my office (takeout) or go out to lunch with a friend. After lunch, read email, write clients back, sometimes take a nap. Then work until dinner time and go home. (I'm a software developer, consultant/contractor.) I wake up around 5am, have a cup of English breakfast, and read the news or whatever code I'm interested in at the moment. From 7am - 8am I work out, then head into work all happy and full of endorphins, prepare second cup of tea, and write a list of three specific micro-tasks I want to accomplish that day. I usually fizzle out by 3pm, so I like to tackle my most complex tasks before then! I typically don't need an alarm and wake up anywhere from 6:30 AM - 7:30 AM without a problem. Sometimes I'm impatiently waiting for the sun to rise so I can get up. Been doing a quick 5 minute meditation, then go to brush my teeth.
If I'm lazy, I might browse online on my smartphone. Eat breakfast at 8, send my daughter to nursery if needed, and then head to work by 9 AM. When I was working I would be up at 3:40am head to the gym, workout for an hour, home by 5:10am shower, make breakfast for the husband and myself. Eat, read and journal then out the door to head to the office. Work until 5:00pm.
Home by 6:30pm cook, read and write in bed not later then 9:30pm. Now up at 5:30am gym, home, job search, read and write. - Alarm 6am - Grab my bag (prepared the night before) and cycle to the gym for 630 - Gym 630 -> 730 - Cycle to work for 815 - Drink loads of water and eat breakfast - Shower and get to my desk for 9 - Work, read, and tick off things on my todo list until my colleagues arrive (anytime until 10am) I find if I skip the gym I can be in a terrible mood. Seems like I don't even consider riding my bike exercise anymore, just transport! Always in bed by 10-11pm. EDIT: Formatting. Woke up, fell out of bed. Dragged a comb across my head. Found my way downstairs and drank a cup. And looking up I noticed I was late. Found my coat and grabbed my hat. Made the bus in seconds flat. Found my way upstairs and had a smoke. Somebody spoke and I went into a dream. Wake up, go downstairs, make coffee and toasts, play with my son for 20-30 minutes, shower, clothes, work. That usually happens between 9am and 10.30am. Lunch at 11.30am :-) usually wake around 8:00. breakfast in bed with partner. shower, stagger in to office. Take morning ritalin. check morning cartoons (xkcd smbc, frazz), read HN (18 minutes noprocrast). Check sites for jobs (_still_ no Python contracts. It's been nearly a year). Start work on whatever little job there is, or on my never ending side project. snack more than I should. Eat a couple of apples. Wish there were some interesting paid work in the offing, or even some interesting lighting work (the live music scene here is almost as dead as the Python contract market). Try to understand the next new bit of technology for the side project: currently how to write a mobile app and how to structure code for embedded ARM devices and port code from AVR to that.