The ultimate morning routine for entrepreneurs and business owners

https://youtu.be/C4J83FohSE0

My evening routine consists of preparing for 2 things: Good sleep and my morning routine. There are enough people who preach the importance of sleep so I’ll talk about my morning and how important that is to my life.

For me the morning is the only time of day where I getuninterrupted time to myself. Its when I work on quadrant 2 stuff that isn’timportant or urgent but adds massive value to my life. Its when I do myreflecting. My planning. My thinking. My exercise. All of the stuff that leadsto long term growth and having a better life 5 years from now than I do rightnow.

As a father, a social person and a business owner the time after 10am is up in the air. You never know what could throw a wrench into your day. So the things that are important to me get done before 9am.

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So lets start the evening before and talk about how Iprepare for my morning routine. This might seem over complicated and I don’trecommend mimicking it verbatim. I have been doing a lot of different thingsand this has been an evolution. It still changes often. Take the things from thisthat might work for you and ignore everything else.

At 5pm I drink 32 oz water and take multivitamins. I have a daily reminder at this time because I’m never thirsty.

There are two main reasons for this aside from the obviousbenefits of drinking more water. It fills me up slightly and keeps me fromovereating at dinner and it also keeps me from chugging water at 8pm when Iusually get very thirsty. If I drink water after about 6pm I have to get up inthe night multiple times.

At around 5pm I also fill a 60oz vacuum flask with ice andwater. This keeps it cold for about 24 hours. I take this up to my office andmy goal is to drink it before lunch and on my cycling days I use It to mix mypre-workout and my protein shake. We’ll get to that later.

While I’m drinking the water I do a brain dump on a notepadon my kitchen island. This ranges from 3 minutes to 10 minutes and involves mebrainstorming things that are currently worrying me or that I need to make sureto get done first thing tomorrow morning. What is stressing me out? Just abullet point list. This really lets me clear my head and relax and not hold onto worrisome thoughts that may keep me awake. Note that this is not a to-dolist. I already made a to do list while at work before I left or at thebeginning of the week and what I need to do is clear.

At 7pm my phone goes in the guest bedroom on do not disturbmode. I wish I could use my phone and have balance but I just can’t. Familymembers know to call my wife after hours to reach us. Its too hard for me notto check email for new customers or negotiation responses on property or newlikes or downloads of the podcast.

5-7 pm we have family time – cooking, dinner, cleanup,playing with my son, talking with my wife.

After dinner and cleanup I prepare for my morning routine. The goal here is to take every bit of friction out of the morning routine so I can do it on complete autopilot with no busywork or setup.

On Monday and Thursday I do weight training. On Tuesdays andFriday mornings I ride my bike. On Wednesday I just write first thing and thengo for a walk with my son when he wakes up.

On cycling days I put the vacuum flask that I filled with water right next to the bathroom sink. Next to it I put an empty shaker bottle with pre-workout in the bottom so in the morning I can just pour the water into the bottle and have my pre-workout right away right after I take my morning leak. I even put my protein shake in the bathroom next to my office so I can put water in it and drink it while I shower after the workout. I only use the pre-workout for the cycling workouts because they are higher intensity. Coffee after the weight training and shower is generally my go-to.

On non-cycling days I grind coffee beans and set my coffeemaker to brew at 5:30am. Its not a hot plate but a thermal carafe so by thetime I sit down to write its cooled off just enough to drink.

The night before weight days I put my gym clothes on thefloor next to my bed so I can wake up and put the clothes on the second my feethit the ground. Including my sneakers.

The night before bike days I get my office ready for my morning ride. I get the bike ready to be plugged in and my fan setup. I adjust my desk to the right height. I get my computer put in the right spot with the app launched and my workout selected so I can easily just click in and start my workout. I put my cycling shoes right next to my bike. I put my towels on my handle bars and a cliff bar on the desk next to my bike. In my bedroom I put my full cycling kit on the floor by my bed.

Everything is ready for me to simply wake up and takeaction. When my feet touch the ground I step right into my cycling shorts,heart rate monitor, and socks. walk into the bathroom and drink my pre-workoutand then get on my bike. 5 minutes after I wake up I’m warming up and 30minutes after I wake up my morning workout is done.

It sound silly but I also pick out my clothing and hang themin my bathroom so I can put them on without thought right after my post-workoutshower. This also makes a difference.

The goal here is to reduce friction. I can go on autopilot and not think about anything or do any busywork. Every morning decision is made for me. Its all a process that is already laid out before me. James Clear in Atomic Habits talks a lot about reducing friction and it works. It’s a lot easier to make yourself do something that isn’t fun if its all laid out right before you before you even step out of bed.

I also have a morning writing routine which I prepare forthe night before. I chose the topics in advance. I keep a running list ofpodcast ideas, personal goals or business problems that I want to contemplateand brainstorm on.

I write the topic on the top of a Google Doc. Usually just afew words. I put the computer in offline mode and set it on the kitchen table downstairswhere I do my writing while my son plays in the morning and before my wife andbaby son wake up. I put a cliff bar (nut butter filled) on top of the computer.I love these things and they are my early morning snack most days.

Now I’m ready for bed. All of this prep generally only takesabout 15 minutes.

I give my son a bath and put him down for bed around 8:15pm.

At about 8:30 I do my posture exercises and foam rolling.This takes 10 minutes or less. Right after that I take a very quick shower (<5minutes) and try to meditate through it. Taking deep breaths and lettingthoughts pass through my head without focusing on them.

When I get out of the shower I do a 10 minute stretching routine followed by about 5 minutes with a Thera cane to loosen up my back and relax my muscles. I have a notepad near my bed in case any additional stressful thoughts come up that need attention when I get into work mode the next day.

My wife and I often do massage on our massage table. LatelyI’ve been taking a shift with the new baby from 7pm-10pm while she gets a headstart on sleep. I try to adapt and adjust and do as much winding down aspossible. When my wife is awake we generally spend time together while windingdown.

In an ideal world I try to be down with the lights out by9:30pm. When my head hits the pillow I do everything in my power to totallyrelax my thoughts. When a thought pops up I just try to let it pass as if itwere a cloud floating along. I don’t take action on that thought and let ittake me down a long thought hole running from one thing to the other and likelyleading to stress or worry or anxiety about what needs to be done tomorrow.Just try to clear my head and let the thoughts pass on while breathingintentionally. Its not an intense form of meditation but it really works for me.

I still fall into the thought traps that keep me awakeoften. It takes a lot of practice clearing the mind. No phone and the routinereally help but it takes work. I’m still practicing!

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My son wakes up between 6:30 and 7am so my alarm goes off at5:30. When I wake up step 1 is to workout. I go through that routine explainedearlier. I do this 4 days a week.

A quick note on workouts. It shouldn’t take you an hour todo a workout. Leave your phone in the car if you go to the gym. Get your heartrate up even if you’re lifting weights. It works for me and is much moreefficient than what I see a lot of other people doing at the gym. They getabout 15 minutes of work in for each 1 hour session. Get there and get done.Superset your workouts. Do the 80/20 of workouts. The 20% that gets you 80% ofthe results. Be efficient.

After the workout and shower (generally about 45 minutesafter I’ve woken up) I go downstairs and open my computer. I’m usually here by6:20am. I pour myself a cup of coffee that was automatically brewed and whileits cooling I drink a 32oz glass of water and eat my cliff bar. These nutbutter cliff bars are amazing and the wife and I go through several boxes aweek. They’re perfect for putting off meals or spacing out calories through theday so you can keep your mood great and your metabolism kicking.

Notice my phone is still on airplane mode in the guestbedroom. I don’t have any input. No emails. No social media. No texts. Nostress. Just an open mind ready to be creative and solve problems. This hasbeen huge for me. Getting constantly flooded with input in the form oftechnology or social media or emails puts the brain in a reactive mode. Yourmind is on defense.

I usually write for 20-40 minutes. This is enough to create the content for an article on SweatyStartup.com and corresponding podcast episode and video for my YouTube channel.

Sometimes I just don’t feel like writing. I don’t feelcreative. I don’t feel energized. I just make myself write anyway. Even if itis really crappy writing. Even if I end up having to erase it all. I start withbullet points. I work through it. Sometimes I don’t hit the flow state at allbut other times I snap into it and have a super creative session.

I do a lot of my little business run downs on how to startdifferent services at this time.

Sometimes I’m ultra efficient and split what I write intotwo podcast topics or articles. I generally get about 1000 words in a 30 minutesession. Its rough stuff. I don’t edit it before you see it right here on thewebsite. Some articles take multiple days or I end up writing for an hour ortwo hours until 9am. Those are good days.

Many times I’m working on business problems andbrainstorming solutions. I’m doing fear setting and outlining the absoluteworst case scenario if I make a decision and it ends up going wrong. A lot ofthese sessions bleed right into work and I end up flipping on my internet andhaving a super productive few hours before I get overloaded with emails or getimportant phone calls that interrupt my work.

Sometimes I do a to-do list revamp and brainstorm all of theimportant-but-not-urgent things that I could be doing that are above and beyondbut will likely produce awesome results. These type things include reaching outto high profile people to get them on the podcast. Sending a thank you note toinvestors. Prospecting new deals. Stuff like that that its easy to push off andnever do but can pay huge dividends if you do it.

This has been the most effective habit I’ve ever had. Inabout 5 hours work a week I feed this entire blog, the subreddit, the youtubechannel and the podcast with content. I feel like I’m a lot more clear on myobjectives and what I need to do each day. Its an amazing feeling and I’m onlygetting better at writing. After all I’m nearly 200,000 words deep already.

Try some variation of this routine and see if it works foryou. Stick with it for a few weeks and enjoy the awesome results. It sounds intensebut it really doesn’t have that many moving parts. Here are the basics:

1. Put phone away, prepare for the next day and getyour mind ready for sleep
2. Wake up and work out. Set it up so you can gothrough the motions with no friction.
3. Write or journal on your problems or goals
4. Turn on phone and go about your normal day

A few notes: I don’t watch TV. The average American watchesthat 5 hours per day. I don’t waste time on social media after 7pm.

Those two things right there give me more than enough timeto run this blog, exercise and do a lot of important things that help me out inthe long term.