Dial in a morning routine not just with the necessities, but with things you love
Having things you love to do in the morning makes getting up easier and more wakeful
This one is a threefer. These are three things that I love about my mornings that ease that tough transition into the harsh day from the delightful comfort of our used mattress. Disclaimer is that these things might not all be for you, but finding something special for the morning to look forward to when you hear your alarm can really make the day start better. Look for your own things too! There’s tons of stuff you could add to your morning routine besides getting ready for work.
It might be 8:30 but these boys do not want to get up.
I’m going to sound like a health influencer here, but the first thing I try to do in the morning is drink water. I know a lot of people wake up with water, but I want to emphasize two things here. The first is temperature. I like fridge temp cold. No added ice, but fully chilled from the fridge water filter hits so good. And the second thing is we're not talking about a sip of water here. I’m talking like 32 ounces of cold water. Nothing, including coffee, wakes me up like a big glass of cold water. Coffee sustains me through the morning into the early afternoon, but the water actually wakes me up. It gets things moving, the hydration is noticeable and I feel better throughout the entire day.
The next thing I love is listening to public radio in the morning. I know the perspective a lot of people have is that too much news is a bad thing, and if we’re listening to the news all the time we’re never going to relax. I totally understand what people are getting at when they advise this, but it just isn’t this way for me.
I listen to KCRW, the Los Angeles based NPR station. I love KCRW so, so much. It’s my comfort food in the morning. I could and still maybe should write a whole post on why you should listen to and donate to KCRW. I know the structure and format and the hosts of Morning Edition and the local news anchors say the same things all the time and I live for it. I will go out of my way to listen to the radio at 8:04 am so I can hear Cherry Glaser say, “It’s 8:04, I’m Cherry Glaser and this is KCRW news.” She takes over from the national broadcast right then and she hits that same cadence every time. I stayed in my car before my 8 am meeting TODAY at time of writing so that I could hear that line. Some people have made jokes about my love for pattern recognition, but I can’t help it. The way they transition and say “Paaaaallmm Springs” scratches that nice part of my brain. Easiest endorphins I can get that early in the morning.
An audio based part of the routine is great because I can do other parts of my routine while this one happens. And on the note of the content, I do love being updated going into my day. I try to keep this my one source of daily news, so I am not scrolling through updates on the latest things happening all day long, but for a regular source, I think they do a great job keeping me updated, keeping a variety of opinions, and introducing plenty of positivity. This isn’t your doom scrolling TV news that seems to live for the “If it bleeds it leads” bit from the excellent Jake Gyllenhall flick Nightcrawler. There’s stories about all kinds of cool things happening in California and beyond. If I’m up early enough for the California report from 6:50 - 7 am, it’s a good day, and often I decide I finally need to actually get up so I can listen to the Marketplace Morning Report from 7:50 - 8 am, and I’ll already be listening at 8:04.
I feel like I am greeted by my friends in the morning and they have been preparing to hang out with me all night. There’s a lot that’s been going on, so they have to catch me up and we’re all going to have a nice time together. It’s also not that uncommon for them to hit me in the feels in the morning. I have absolutely cried while getting ready for work because of a story on the radio, but that is a good thing. Connecting to the world in a way the keeps it personal and real and without losing empathy reminds me what’s important. A good cry is cathartic as hell and if I get that combination of feelings for free from public radio, that is a good way to spend my time.
And finally, I like to play the NYT games. Maybe I’m a bit of a hypocrite after espousing the value of NPR that I only play the free games from NYT. I’ll consider supporting, but truly these three games are what get me going. Wordle of course, but it’s no longer the highlight. I start with Wordle and try to crack it quickly. If I hit a roadblock on that, I move to the real king, Connections. Connections came out last year and was quite the hit. I don’t think it ever had the impact that Wordle did, spawning a million different clones and taking over the zeitgeist for a bit there, but it is an incredible game. This is another one that I could dive deeper into, but I think this all ties well into my morning routine combo. I finish with the mini crossword. The goal is always under a minute, but the faster the better. Connections can sometimes be brutally tough, but the mini is always doable, even if 60 seconds doesn’t happen.
This all comes together, usually on the couch, listening to the radio and drinking my cold water while playing the games. If the games go too quickly, then I have to look at something else, but if I can get this all done and spend 15 minutes getting my brain going, I feel so much better going into work and getting through my day. I don’t know how exactly this translates to you, but if you take one thing from this, try the cold water, it made such a positive difference in my life.
After this little routine and waking up a little always comes coffee. Don’t think I’m trying to get you to not drink coffee in the mornings. I think you should drink more coffee. My problem is actually which way do I want to make coffee. I have five favorite ways to make coffee at home, and there are still runners up, but that is actually going to have to wait for another post or five.