Morning is wonderful. Its only drawback is that it comes at such an inconvenient time of day.
― Glen Cook, Sweet Silver Blues

Morning is an important time of day, because how you spend your morning can often tell you what kind of day you are going to have.
― Lemony Snicket, The Blank Book

I love waking up early.

It hasn’t always been like this, only the last 6 years. I Started waking early back in 2011, before that almost every morning was chaotic & stressful. I dreaded mornings.

On average I now rise @ 0430 each weekday morning, 0700 weekend mornings. Been logging my wake up time since mid 2011, as part of my journaling habit.

…I’ve found, is putting a little emphasis on making the first hour of your day the most powerful hour. Treating that first hour as sacred, not to be wasted on trivial things, but to be filled with only the most essential, most life-changing actions.
-Leo Babauta (zenhabits.net)

My current morning routine (2,5h)

Even though it´s tempting.. I never open up my MacBook during the first hour in the morning, I try to stay analog, but I need to quickly check Google calendar, Outlook calendar & Things on my iPhone.

1. (optional) Cold shower
2. Glass of water (with squeezed lemon)
3. Physical exercise – 10 min
   • push-ups
   • squats
   • Deep Bodyweight Squat
   • Yoga – Tree Pose
   • Kettlebell
4. Take the dog outside – 5 min
5. Mindful meditation – 5-10 min
6. Journaling – 20 min
   • plan the day with my “SELF Journal”
     • Sync with Calendars (Google Calendar & Outlook Calendar) & Things (tasks & projects)
     • Goals / MIT’s (todays Most Important Tasks)
     • 3 things I am grateful for this morning
7. Read poetry – 5/10 min
8. Study (reading/reviewing) – 60 min
9. Play guitar – 10 min (and waking up my oldest son in the process)
10. Walk the dog – 20 min

–

If you really think about it, hitting the snooze button in the morning doesn’t even make sense. It’s like saying “I hate getting up in the morning, so I do it over, and over, and over again”
-Demetri Martin

Your first ritual that you do during the day is the highest leveraged ritual, by far,  because it has the effect of setting your mind, and setting the context, for the rest of your day.

—Eben Pagan

Recommended reading

• The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) by Hal Elrod
• The First Hour: Creating Powerful Mornings (zenhabits.net)
• Why Creating A Meaningful Morning Routine Will Make You More Successful (Huffington post)

-Egil