Emma Goto
After reading Daily Rituals, I figured I’d stay on the same theme and I also picked up My Morning Routine. I feel like it addressed basically all of the criticisms I had with Daily Rituals - namely the lack of diversity, and doing more of an analysis of the things in common with peoples' routines, instead of just showing one routine after another.
It also touches on what it's like to be a parent with a morning routine (for both genders), even some examples of how Ramadan can affect your morning routine, and also how a partner can affect it (since it's not like we tend to do these in isolation) so overall the information in it felt accessible to more people.
As a brief summary of each of the chapters: - How to wake up in the morning - ideally waking up before your alarm, getting in some sunshine, exercise, not using the snooze button and putting your alarm in another room if need be to make sure that you actually get out of bed - Focus and productivity in the morning - don't check your emails the first thing, try and find one important thing to get out of the way first rather than letting notifications from other people dictate your morning for you - Morning workouts - as we all know, exercise is really, really good for you - Morning meditation - that meditation and mindfulness is quite a good thing. For those that are against the idea, even something like focusing on grinding your coffee beans without multitasking on something else is a way to get a bit of mindfulness in - Evening routines - prepare for the next day by laying out your clothes, making a to-do list, cleaning up your home, meditating or journalling to wind-down - Sleep - consistent wake and sleep times - Parents - a chapter dedicated to how children will inevitably impact your morning routine. Waking up before your kids to get in some personal time is good, staying off of your devices so that you are more present, and reminding yourself that this is only temporary - Self-care - giving yourself me-time in the morning, and how having a morning routine can give you a senes of accomplishment to start off the day and is a form of self-care in itself - Different environments - sticking to a morning routine when you are travelling, but really don't beat yourself up if you find that you can't (especially if you are on holiday) - Adaption - you shouldn't feel bad if you can't stick to your morning routine perfectly (and let that negatively impact the rest of your day). At worst, try and focus on completing one or two things, like exercise
The thing I found the most useful was one interviewee mentioned that they have their router settings set to turn the internet off at a certain time. I decided to do the same thing (my internet now turns off at 8pm) which has been a fairly good way to kick us off the TV / laptops at night. Would recommend.
The book is nothing ground-breaking - it’s just giving a bunch of examples of how having a morning routine works for different people. But it can be useful if you need a kick up the butt to improve your own. And it's good if you can find little things that other successful are doing that might jog inspiration for your own morning routine.
After reading Daily Rituals, I figured I’d stay on the same theme and I also picked up My Morning Routine. I feel like it addressed basically all of the criticisms I had with Daily Rituals - namely the lack of diversity, and doing more of an analysis of the things in common with peoples' routines, instead of just showing one routine after another.
It also touches on what it's like to be a parent with a morning routine (for both genders), even some examples of how Ramadan can affect your morning routine, and also how a partner can affect it (since it's not like we tend to do these in isolation) so overall the information in it felt accessible to more people.
As a brief summary of each of the chapters: - How to wake up in the morning - ideally waking up before your alarm, getting in some sunshine, exercise, not using the snooze button and putting your alarm in another room if need be to make sure that you actually get out of bed - Focus and productivity in the morning - don't check your emails the first thing, try and find one important thing to get out of the way first rather than letting notifications from other people dictate your morning for you - Morning workouts - as we all know, exercise is really, really good for you - Morning meditation - that meditation and mindfulness is quite a good thing. For those that are against the idea, even something like focusing on grinding your coffee beans without multitasking on something else is a way to get a bit of mindfulness in - Evening routines - prepare for the next day by laying out your clothes, making a to-do list, cleaning up your home, meditating or journalling to wind-down - Sleep - consistent wake and sleep times - Parents - a chapter dedicated to how children will inevitably impact your morning routine. Waking up before your kids to get in some personal time is good, staying off of your devices so that you are more present, and reminding yourself that this is only temporary - Self-care - giving yourself me-time in the morning, and how having a morning routine can give you a senes of accomplishment to start off the day and is a form of self-care in itself - Different environments - sticking to a morning routine when you are travelling, but really don't beat yourself up if you find that you can't (especially if you are on holiday) - Adaption - you shouldn't feel bad if you can't stick to your morning routine perfectly (and let that negatively impact the rest of your day). At worst, try and focus on completing one or two things, like exercise
The thing I found the most useful was one interviewee mentioned that they have their router settings set to turn the internet off at a certain time. I decided to do the same thing (my internet now turns off at 8pm) which has been a fairly good way to kick us off the TV / laptops at night. Would recommend.
The book is nothing ground-breaking - it’s just giving a bunch of examples of how having a morning routine works for different people. But it can be useful if you need a kick up the butt to improve your own. And it's good if you can find little things that other successful are doing that might jog inspiration for your own morning routine.
