I live for peaceful mornings. The quiet time before the rest of the world wakes up is magical. Whether it’s a walk with my dog, a gooey sunny-side-up egg with toast, a hot cup of coffee, feeding the chickens, or a quick yoga session in the backyard, I cherish the tiny moments of joy that a pleasant morning can bring.

An internet search can quickly reveal a plethora of tips for a productive morning routine: Always make your bed. Eat a high protein breakfast. Wake up at the same time every day. Drink a glass of water. Don’t look at your phone right away.

YouTube is chock-full of vloggers sharing their life hacks for the a.m., often claiming their tips to be keys to a productive and satisfying life. “Be more like me and you’ll be happy!” they promise. “Buy this product and it’ll change your life!”

It’s always easier said than done.

Before this year, I didn’t feel like I really needed to hack my morning routine. I was a morning person and I knew what worked for me: exercise, get to work, and fast until noon. Boom, Bam, Done. RoboSam to the rescue.

When I broke my fibula in December 2022, my routine got thrown off. I couldn’t exercise and I started relying on coffee and breakfast more and more to get me going in the morning. I started hating the morning. I felt sluggish and it took me a long time to get started on work. Eventually, coffee brought a big spike of focus for a few hours, and then I would crash in the afternoon.

I want to pause here for a break in our regularly scheduled programming. The point of this post is not to tell you that you are not enough; that you must be productive to be worthy of love and belonging; that you must be efficient; that you must devote all your time and energy to your job; that you must need self-help tips; that you must listen to my advice and always want to improve yourself and your life because it’s not good enough as it is. That is not the point.

The point is to create the life that you want to live.

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blog post.

Background: How I Got Started

I had heard about Dr. Andrew Huberman’s morning routine last year, but was skeptical at first. It seemed like way too much to pack into one morning. It was too much to remember and, even as a person who thrives on lists and routines, the whole formula was overwhelming to consider. But I had heard good things and was curious to try it. All of the tools are meant to jumpstart your circadian rhythm, not only getting you awake but also preparing you for sleep later that night. The tools also release dopamine, making you feel more motivated to take on pursuits.

Earlier this year, I started trying one tip at a time—5 minutes of sunlight in the morning, cold plunges, drinking salt water—and started feeling more energized. One day in June of this year, I had the thrill of doing multiple cold plunges at a river in Colorado where the water—fresh snowmelt from the mountains—was no more than 40 degrees. I could feel the dopamine filling up my brain immediately and I was like, “I need to do this more often!” Coming back from that trip, I was determined to start doing cold plunges more regularly.

Later, I was doing some casual research on YouTube about cold plunges when I stumbled across a video of a dude who had tried Huberman’s morning routine for 30 days straight and reported back on the results. I was inspired. “I have to try this!” was all I could think. At one point in the video (3:56), the vlogger shows his whiteboard with all of the tips. I took a screenshot of his whiteboard and saved it to my phone:

I used that for the next week as a guide for doing the Huberman morning routine.

This last month was the first time that I tried all of the tools every morning. I can say that I definitely feel more energized during the day and sleep better at night as a result. I thrive on routines. I ended up tailoring the tips to my own schedule and needs, which is what I share below. I’m excited that I actually found something that works for me and is sustainable.

The following list of morning routine tips is in a rough order, but your routine does not have to be in this order. It also does not have to be linear. The following list is not in a certain hierarchical or chronological order. You don’t have to do all the tips at once, either. The goal is to not give your brain all the dopamine all at once, but to delay and stagger the dopamine releases so that you can maintain sustained energy, focus and motivation throughout the day.

Ok, here are the details for what works best for me:

The Routine

First and the #1 most important thing you can do for your morning: get 5-15 minutes of sunlight. No sunglasses, no hat. Not through a window in your kitchen or office, not through a window in your car. Just pure, unencumbered sunlight right into your eyeballs. No, don’t stare directly at the sun! But get outside. It’s okay if it’s cloudy or overcast! You’re still getting more sunlight than you could get from a bright lightbulb inside. Take a walk, sit on your front stoop, do some jumping jacks. Just get outside!

Second, drink a glass of water (16-32 oz) with at least 1 teaspoon of salt (or sugar-free electrolyte powder). OK, OK, salt is the one thing you have to buy for this morning routine, but hopefully you already have some of it in your kitchen. You probably just went 6-8 hours without drinking. Your body is dehydrated and this is one of the causes of drowsiness in the morning. Not only do you need to drink some water as soon as possible, but you need some electrolytes as well.

Third, get ~45-60 minutes of exercise that increases your heart rate. I usually do jiujitsu, mountain biking, or weight lifting for this portion. Move your body in a way that feels good for you! Go jogging, do some yoga, dance to music in your room. Just get that heart pumping.

Fourth, take a cold shower. Just do it! Cold plunges have been shown to increase dopamine for up to 3 hours afterwards! It’s painful at first, but you’ll get used to it and you will feel so energized afterward. (The prescription is ~2 minutes a day of cold exposure.)

Fifth, do all of this with NO PHONE. This is the hardest and most useful one for me! When I try to do any of the above with a podcast or audio book in the background, I get lost in the story and my motivation to do work later plummets. Why would my brain seek a dopamine hit from work when I’ve got a steady stream of dopamine coming from my phone? Tell your brain that you’re on a dopamine fast and resist the urge to pull out your phone in the early morning.

Next, I do 90 minutes of deep work with no music, before coffee and before breakfast. For me right now, deep work means challenging work-related tasks for my job. At other points in my life, this might have looked like studying, writing or coding.

FINALLY, I drink some coffee. After my 90 minutes of deep work, I break for food and coffee. My reward! It feels SO good to delay the caffeine! Trust me, I love coffee. But it’s even better when you wait for it. Dr. Huberman is a proponent of caffeine, as long as you take it wisely and at the right time of day (not too early before you have hydrated, and not too late as to affect your sleep—ideally drink your coffee before noon).

After that, the morning routine is complete.

With the rush of fresh caffeine flowing through my system at this point, I usually feel motivated to get back to work and I do another 90 minutes of deep work. After that, I might take another break to stretch and then I get back to work. As my motivation starts to wane as the day continues, I will then turn on background music to keep me motivated.

After work, I reward myself with all the podcasts and audio books that I want.

This morning routine is not a prescription for exactly how it must be done. You can repeat certain things that feel good throughout the day. You can do it out of order and you can skip things that aren’t fitting into your schedule or aren’t working for you that day.

It’s a toolbox, and these are a few of the tools in the toolbox that you can take out and try. I hope they help you to stay energized and motivated, especially at the beginning of your day.

You Do You: Make Time for What You Love

I’d like to conclude by repeating once more the point that I really want to drive home. I know it might seem like I’m an OCD workaholic productivity self-help junkie. And in some ways, I am. I do love structure and routines, I am very internally motivated by work, and I love having concrete goals that I’m always working toward (more on that in the next post).

But at the same time, I resist the capitalistic mentality of grind culture with every fiber of my being. This post is not about sacrificing your body, your energy, your time, your being, and your divinity for the sake of your work. This is not about replacing creativity with productivity. My point for encouraging you to try these tools is just to say: these are some tools that I’ve tried that seem to work for me. I’m not trying to make myself more productive and efficient for the sake of capitalism, but quite the opposite: To make me more efficient so that I have the time and energy for the things I love to do. Right now, I’m privileged and lucky to say that what I love to do includes my work. But the things I love to do also includes spending time with my family and doing the hobbies that bring me joy. And if I’m not productive enough at work, then I don’t have time for those things.

I will have another blog post soon about the importance of rest and naps, and how we can use rest as resistance against the patriarchal, capitalistic, culture of white supremacy that is so harmful to ourselves and others. But in the meantime, I’m using this morning routine so I can carve out some time, energy, and creativity for writing those upcoming blog posts. Keep being you and listen to your body. These tools may or may not work for you. I encourage you to try some of them and find what feels good for you and your body.