I’ve noticed a lot of commentary about morning routines jetting around the Internet recently.  

There’s strong direction on how to structure the first fifteen minutes to two hours after you wake.  I believe strongly in planning out your day (especially in business) but we may have lost the point of structure.

Losing Poise

There’s something to be said for adaptability.  There’s also plenty of talk about “soft” skills out there.  I believe the “hard”, technical skills, are a baseline for entry into many fields but you have to understand emotions, people, and communication to advance.  

It’s hard to effectively simulate crisis.  

Do you remember fire drills (or tornado drills where I grew up in South Florida)?  They were basically a waste of time.  I think it may have been better to do a “chalk-talk” style coaching session that described “play” before a walk through.  Ringing the bell at random and giving everyone a break from class seemed ineffective.  

The way you learn to keep your poise in crisis is to prepare well for something and experience the unexpected despite your preparation.

Practice Makes Perfect, Sorta

See the September 29, 2020 E-Impact Blog entry for my commentary and appreciation for Vince Lombardi (the Hall of Fame Green Bay Packer coach).

He talks about practice not making perfect, but perfect practice making perfect.  

I think this has something to do with being as well prepared as you possibly can but understanding that sport, especially at the highest level, is reactive.

The perfect practice is one where you simulate game situations as best as possible and allow the brain and body to react.

They say perfection is the enemy of good.  I get it.  But, they also say that second place is the first loser and no National Football League (NFL) team is truly pleased unless they win the Super Bowl.  

Interestingly, the recent story about ex-Miami Dolphins coach suing the NFL and accusing Donald Ross (the team owner) of offering him $100,000 per loss has brought the competitive nature into question.  I would still argue a team that is “tanking” has simply come to grips that they are bound to fail that season and are looking for future benefits.  

Losing is never successful.  Okay, there are exceptions to every rule.  Read about the Black Sox Scandal.  But, that was over a hundred years ago!

Read about the Flores story here.

The Point of Practice

I love reactionary sports.  I seemed to excel there.

Nothing against swimming, diving, track & field (which I happen to love) but there is something special about the ability to respond in an instant to another athlete’s action.

They say hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports.  Listen to Derek Jeter (New York Yankees Legend) talk about it on the Knuckleheads Podcast.

You have to react to the pitch in three quarters of a second.  Sportsrec tells us how to How to Calculate Fastball Reaction Time.

Jeter also talks about being prepared in regards to the “flip play”.  But, there are some plays you just can’t simulate in practice.  

The point of practice is to minimize questions as much as possible.  Baseball players like Jeter anticipate what to do in various scenarios prior to a play when they are in the field.  Defensive football players do the same thing. 

All of that anticipation can’t “structure” the unexpected plays.  It does however, allow for the most “reactionary energy” to be used on those “special occasions” that happen during a game.

Those special moments are like the flip play or the “helmet catch” by David Tyree (a somewhat spiritual moment for a Giants fan).

Habits

James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, talks about a concept called the “plateau of latent potential”.  I referenced it in my book, Personal Finance in a Public World.  

The plateau is the point at which you realize the work that you have been putting in has been effective.  You don’t realize it for a period of time and many people will quit prior to that.  

I experienced the plateau in practicing the drums.  It took me months to reach a point at which I felt I had bad progress.  I felt relief, accomplishment, and like I could suddenly do a lot of the things I researched about drumming.  Now years later, I still practice, but I can work on specific techniques and see immediate results.  I have a baseline of skill that is needed to be a “drummer”. 

You can’t give up a new habit you are trying to develop prior to your potential showing itself.  You have it.  It’s just latent.

For some more commentary on Clear’s book, check out my friend Samantha Demers’ Twitter Space Book Club mentioned in this thread.  There are recordings you can listen to there.

Another habit related concept I wrote about in the book is decision fatigue.  

Medical News Today provides a nice answer to the question,  “What is Decision Fatigue?”.

You want to avoid making decisions (especially important ones) when your brain is not fully effective (or fatigued).

There are two ways to avoid decision fatigue:

1. Plan the things that can be planned - like the baseball defender anticipating where the ball is hit and the speed of the baserunners. Most people do this whether they know it or not.

2. Know your peak thought hours. This is often not considered because our schedules are dictated by our families, our employers, and a bunch of other things.

Easing into Thought but Producing Immediately

I love to jump up in the morning and get after it.

Attack the day!

I would never discourage someone for having energy in the morning.    Yet, I’m not some productivity elitist but there is something attractive about taking action when you first get up.  There is a caveat though.  I think the type of action you take is important.

I haven’t met anyone who’s peak productive hours start the moment they wake up.  It doesn’t matter how effective your sleep was or how excited about the day you are.

You must understand though that peak thought hours are not the only time you can and should be productive.  

Effective action can be task oriented or innovative.  It takes a lot more thought to innovate but there are always tasks that must get done.

Reactions are not advisable when you first wake up.  It’s a time for simple, yet productive tasks.

Jump up but ease into “mind-bending”.

The Reactive Morning

Reactive decision-making when you are not at peak thought hours drain your mental energy faster.  It brings you closer to decision fatigue more rapidly.

The reactive morning is a big culprit of accelerated decision fatigue.  I mentioned I don’t know anyone who is at peak time when they first wake up.  I’ll take it a step further and say I don’t know anyone who is not in their least effective time when they first wake up.

You wouldn’t want to be at work the moment you wake-up no matter how much you hate your job and how early you want your shifts to be over.  You also wouldn’t want to be running around the backyard with your kids.  Therefore, it’s not just unenjoyable things that you want to avoid.  It’s spontaneity.  

Make your morning a routine not a test.

Building a Routine

Part of building a routine is actually a routine.  It takes time.  That time is the beginning of the system.

Habits are built, not discovered. 

Here’s framework for a morning routine (could be used for any routine though):

Identify what you want to do and write it down.  

• Avoid the need to react

Determine what will make that happen. 

• limit stimulation

• planned actions (progressively more physically active)

Then, be intentional about executing.  

Limiting stimulation-

• Remove your phone from the bedside, use a different alarm

• Train your pet to wait a few minutes before going out

• Stay in bed (if nature doesn’t call, or lay back down or sit)

• Don’t look outside (unpopular suggestion maybe)

• Don’t check the weather

• Don’t turn on the TV

• Don’t read blogs (haha)

Actions-

• Prayer

• Gratitude time

• Stretching

• Deep breathing

• Preparing breakfast

• Walking the patient pet

• Exercise (as long as the workout is already determined)

Notice how journaling, one of my most encouraged practices, is not on the list.  It’s something that could be done as the bridge task between the planned morning and reactionary day.  It’s a nice gentle stimulus.

Trusting the Time

None of the tasks above are that challenging in isolation.  However, I think you’d be surprised how hard it might be to avoid all of them at once.

Consider though that I am not asking you to do nothing.  You may start with absolutely nothing but listening - a practice my friends and I from Spoke Folk like to call “5 Minutes” (it lasts as long as the name suggests but could also be any other length of time that you are comfortable with,  E-Impact 62 has a story from Spoke Folk).   But ultimately, you want to be productive so your morning routine will include more than just silence.  

The planned actions serve two purposes.  They are an activity that help to avoid outside stimulation and they are productive.  You are getting something done.

All of the above actions are good for spiritual, mental, or physical health.  You should be doing them anyway.  In fact, most would agree that they should be prioritized in your day.  Why not do them first thing when the timing is not good for other reactionary things (as explained above)?

It may seem like you are forcing yourself to do things and counterproductive.  Trust the time and the timing.  Mornings can be very productive before you “start” your day.  Build the habits patiently. 

You Can Do It! 

Avoid the reactive morning by avoiding the need to be active and filling the time with productive planned tasks.

Managing your morning is self-care.