morning cadence
Times have definitely changed and I’ve had to reassess how best to approach my mornings. For me, it was easy to get into a groove when on the road and make minor modifications when at home or flexing the weekend. Now that “home” is the daily norm and not having all amenities available - I’ve had to spend some time to figure out what’ll work for me now (also with my “modified work hours”). Here’s where I’m at with my morning cadence:
While in bed…
Stop sleep tracker - I’ve been using Sleep Cycle to track/listen/grade my sleep for various reasons but driving to overall improved sleep quality. I’m seeing progress in my quality but also able to see the REM cycles and time spent in deep sleep. The biggest change I’ve made with this is waking up naturally vs having an alarm wake me up. I also tracking using SleepWatch (automatically w/ Apple Watch) to see the patterns/heart rate throughout the night.
Listen to morning podcasts - I typically go through Up First - NPR, The Journal - The Wall Street Journal, Global News Podcast - BBC, and The Daily - New York Times (and usually in that order). I try to consume at 3x speed (thanks Spotify adding that!) and averages about 30 minutes.
Drink water - I fill my 500 mL s’well bottle with ice/water the night and it usually stays cold throughout the night. I also have a 1.5 L thermos filled up with mint tea just in case I want to drink water the night before or the morning of.
Meditate - I’ve been taking 10 minute meditation classes on Peloton to clear my mind before I get going. I was never really a stressed person but did have a lot going on in my head/thinking through different things. This has helped me to be able to not have my mind racing at all times. The big benefit I’ve seen is taking that minute when I need to focus on a task/activity to clear the random things that pop up.
Journal - I check my bulletjournal to see what I have planned for the day, the top three items I plan to complete that day, update my metrics tracker, and write out my gratitude of the day. And then I spend a little time just writing/typing what’s on my mind.
Out of bed…
Bathroom - I take care of business and weigh myself. I know that the daily weight tracking isn’t advisable and it’s difficult to see progress at that level, but I like to see If there’s any impacts based on daily consumption.
Cardio - I don’t move much during the day now (how many steps can you really do in your house while you’re working) but looking to spend some time on the treadmill to get the steps going. I was trying to figure out if I wanted to do cardio first or strength training… when I was traveling, I would go to the gym in the morning to focus on strength training. But I’m going to switch it up to see if I see any impacts.
Before work…
Coffee - Been stuck on the ease of making an espresso using my Nespresso machine. I do eventually want to get back to making fresh coffee using either my aeropress or phin. No complaints either way.
I’m sure I’ll tweak this a bit as I find things working better/worse for me. I’m contemplating starting up keto again and that may modify my morning coffee. I think the key one that’ll change is the workout and possibly some sort of stretching routine.
Currently watching: Succession via HBO - Thank you for making shows available! I’m burning through the episodes and it’s a well written, well directed, and well acted series. Major props to HBO to consistently roll out great shows. I just hope the AT&T acquisition of Time Warner doesn’t screw them over too much… quality over quantity.
Currently listening: Power Hour on Spotify - Missing Coachella. I know it’s not the same, but this does remind me of finding new artists and great beats. That reminds me that I need to check out the new documentary Coachella released.
Currently reading: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer - I didn’t read yesterday, but about 40% done with the book. Got into a couple of the methods (Memory Palace, Poems) - a lot of breakdown is visualizing to recall content. I need to test out and practice the Memory Palace method and figure out how best to incorporate. The one thing that’s stuck with me so far is the correlation between time and memories - does having more memories slow down time?
