Welcome to My Brain

I truly believe few things will change your life more than having a morning routine. I think every single human being can benefit from a morning routine, but if you want to be successful you must have a rigid process after stepping out of bed.

Ten years ago I started getting up early. I got up at 6:30am and after a few days my body adjusted and my productivity exploded. So I started getting up at 6am, then 5am, and for the past 10 years I’ve been getting up at 4am.

This allowed me to work on my fledgling consulting business while having a day job. The early hours I hustled then lifted, showered, ate and went off to work. By the time I punched in for the day job I’d been up for several hours, exercised, and was wired for the day. My coworkers would stagger in five minutes before the shift sipping coffee to wake up and eating greasy breakfast sandwiches. They would hide on the back of the sales floor because it was “too early” and they were still waking up while I greeted everyone that came in.

I outperformed and outsold them every day.

My favorite response — and the one I always get — when I tell people I get up at 4am is “Oh my God, what time to do you go to bed??” Getting up at 4am willfully is so alien to people.

But even more important than productivity to me is starting the day on my terms. The first instinct for everyone when they wake is to grab their phone and check messages or email. If you do this, it’s over. You’ve lost your day. You will now spend the rest of your day in reactionary mode. You’re not the one in control.

I start the day on my terms and then the day reacts to me. I put off email and messages as long as I can — which, if you get up at 4am, means around 7am — and when I send them out it’s usually before people are up so I get all my correspondence out in one swoop and I can move on to the next thing. If you’re sending emails and messages while getting emails and messages it becomes a never ending loop. I like to say what I need to and move on to something else and pick up the conversation in a few hours.

Now, the routine part. Getting up early gives you the time to do the routine. The routine ensures productivity and training your brain in the way you want to use it. My productivity increases ten fold easily with a morning routine; by the time I’m running out of steam in the afternoon or my kids are wearing me out, I don’t fret because I’ve already been hyper productive early in the day. Make your routine around things that important to you or challenge you. The best part? You can always add/remove stuff and change it up. Want to try adding something new like meditation or Yoga? Find a spot for it.

My current daily morning routine:

1. I mix one scoop of fruit punch flavored AdvoCare Spark into an ice cold glass of water that’s spent the night in the fridge.
2. Do as many pushups as I can without stopping then immediately splash cold water on my face and neck (wakes me up instantly! No more “slowly waking up” that burns an hour of time)
3. Write down 10 ideas in a journal (This is hard! But it unlocks my creativity and some really interesting things have come out). I borrowed the idea from James Altucher and loved it.
4. 15 minutes of non-fiction (I read later in the day too, but I like to read something biographical or inspiring after writing down 10 ideas because by this point my brain is going full bore)
5. 1 hour of learning (I’m taking courses on Coursera every morning 1 hour a day)
6. 1 hour of exercise (Lifting weights or walking before the sun’s up)

This is about 3 hours blocked off every single morning. I start at 4am and by 7am my kids are up and the daily routine takes over. Notice that for those first three hours there’s no email, no messages or phone calls. The day can do whatever it wants to me afterwards but I’ve already conquered it. No matter what happens the rest of the day, I’ve put 3 hours of productivity, creative thinking, learning, and exercise in.

Want to change your life? Have a morning routine.

August 8, 2025