6 ms·

Ask HN: What is your morning routine?

33 points by andyreed 7y ago

When do you wake up and what do you do to start your day?

rasengan 7y ago
Wake up. Review calendar. Check messages and emails. Workout 5 days per week including cardio and HIIT. Shower. Take pills. Work day starts.
- luckman212 7y ago
  What pills?
Weryj 7y ago
Wake up. Toilet. Weight Self. Shower. Get Dressed. Eat. Walk to work.
codingdave 7y ago
Wake up at 4 AM. Go directly to my home office and code until 6 AM. Have breakfast with family. Code until 8:30 AM. Sends kids to school. Go on walk with wife, then get showered and dressed for the day, then start all the work that requires communication with everyone else. It gets me 4 hours of quiet coding in before anyone else is even online and talking, and makes the rest of the work day relaxing because I've usually already accomplished my goals for the day by 9 AM.
- usaphp 7y ago
  What time do you go to sleep?
  - codingdave 7y ago
    Around 8 PM. I know both my waking and sleeping times seem crazy early to some people, but it works for me.
- codegeek 7y ago
  I want to be you but so far, I am missing the 4-6 AM coding part :). Rest is same as you already.
qzx_pierri 7y ago
Wake up. Take a big gulp of water from my bedside table. Toilet. Wash face. Brush teeth. Journal. Stretch for 15 minutes. Get dressed. Walk to class. (Eat an apple while walking to class)
raptorraver 7y ago
My kids wake us up around 6.30 - 7.00. Wake, make some coffee, give breakfast to the kids, bring coffee to my wife who is still in bed, hurry the older kid to eat, dress up and not to look social media while doing those things, dress my younger kid and prepare him for the kindergarten while he does everything to make us late (2,5 yo), walk to the kindergarten (10 minutes walk), then walk to the office (25 minutes). No productivity tips here ;)
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
laken 7y ago
Wake up at 7AM or so, shower, dress, drive 1hr to work.
zer0sand0nes 7y ago
I have either of the 3: 1. Wake up super early (5:45), get a workout in, eat some breakfast. Cuddle. Shower. Drive to work around 9:30. 2. Wake up around 7, read something positive. Eat some breakfast. Head to work around 9:30. 3. Wake up at 9, shower. Head to work at 9:30.
kevinherron 7y ago
M/W/F: Wake up 4:30, coffee, bathroom, gym by 5:30, office by 8:00. T/Th: Wake up naturally between 4:30 and 5:30, coffee, breakfast, email, forums, run 5k or 10k at ~7:00, transition into working from home.
seanrrwilkins 7y ago
7 AM: wake up, no alarm most days thank to one very persistent and hungry cat that likes to jump on my head or scratch doors to make noise. 7:02, feed the cats. 7:15, make a cup of coffee at home and have a light breakfast of yogurt, fruit and granola. 7:15-8: is breakfast, coffee and listening to The Daily and UpFirst podcasts 8-10: writing. I need to get writing done in the AM while I'm fresh and other distractions don't leak in. 10-11: shower and work email check-in, get rolling on projects and client check-ins. 11-3: deep client work and/or business development, depending on deadlines.
- justhw 7y ago
  If you don't mind, What kind of writing? Business oriented? A journal? Or any type of writing?
  - seanrrwilkins 7y ago
    Both journaling and business writing these days. Trying to be more intentional with writing to get in better practice, refine my skills and work through shaping clearer points of view.
- CameronBarre 7y ago
  One time we managed to trick our cat for about a month by using a combination of scheduling our brown noise generator to go off and scheduling some holiday lights to come on at the same time, for a noiseless alarm. Cat would still be sleeping when we woke up and didn't remember she was supposed to be starving to death. Trick your cat every chance you get, really.
  - seanrrwilkins 7y ago
    Hahah. We’ve used lightly electrified mat a couple times. Now if we put it at the door the cat just sits quietly across the hall. Don’t even need to turn it on now.
glua 7y ago
Wake up Check plans in Calendar Take a shower Take a breakfast Prepare meals for office (healthy lifestyle :-) ) Pack & go to the office
natalyarostova 7y ago
Wake up at 1:30AM. I then do deep coding (Lisp, obviously) for 15 hours. At this point my kids are getting home from school, and I spend 8 hours with them and my wife engaging in wholesome physical activities, finishing off with some exercise and a healthy meal (I only eat one meal a day for IF). Then following this I spend 7 hours carefully studying the latest CS theory, and software. I end with working on my ML side project (I'm making a custom neural network in Rust that automates my day job).
- schappim 7y ago
  What do you do with all your down time (assuming you're living on Mercury with a day length of 58 Earth Days 15h 30m)?
- 943_924 7y ago
  What do you normally eat? And do you drink any beverages throughout the day?
- theworld572 7y ago
  But when do you find time to meditate?
- srijanshetty 7y ago
  I do the same but I also mix it up by running 10 miles every other day during which I reflect on the emptiness of the cosmos and our purpose as a tiny speck of imbued with consciousness but without an essence.
  - natalyarostova 7y ago
    I really admire your effort, I've always been a slacker.
- person_of_color 7y ago
  This is a joke, right?
  - 7y ago
laurieg 7y ago
Get up around 7.30am. Practice the piano for 30 minutes. Quick shower and a shave and then out of the house to get on with my work day. I started skipping breakfast a while back for diet purposes but I was surprised by how much simpler it made my mornings.
freediver 7y ago
wake up and stretch 6am watch netflix to 7am (halt and catch fire currently) respond to email to 8am get kids to school by 9am do stuff to warm up brain to noon (chess or axis&allies) idle brain, lunch, then cappuccino and tiramisu to 1pm be very productive to 6pm
cm2012 7y ago
Wake up 11, work until 5 or 6, repeat.
tenzo77 7y ago
6am: brisk 30-minute walk 6:30: pushups After breakfast for family and they’re out the door: 8am: journal and review goal systems and my ‘identity’ notes 8:30: set top 3 ‘must dos’ for day and prioritize other tasks 8:45am: work (I work at home) 10am: eat yogurt (I practice intermittent fasting and eat 10am-6pm) I prioritize and do tasks using a mix of the Eisenhower matrix and GTD. All writing, tasks, etc. is done in Emacs, three columns full screen. My ‘identity ‘ notes are a concise summary of the person I am trying to be to get the results I want, loosely based on an article I read by James Clear. Getting clear about values and how to live them plays a central role.
CameronBarre 7y ago
Wake up between 5:30 and 7:30, it's harder to wake up on the earlier end when the sun starts coming up later. I might read a bit while my other half gets ready to walk to get coffee, currently reading "The Worldy Philosophers" on a first generation surface pro. This whole time my phone is muted, laptop closed. Now it's hopefully between 7:30 and 8:30 and I have coffee, also I've been experimenting with nicotine gum as a mental stimulant, but I'm not insane - I don't chew the gum and drink my coffee at the same time, it would ruin the coffee. Depending on what sort of day it is I will either not work and do whatever I want, currently learning about economics, or I will work - most days I work. If I am working I work a minimum of 5 hours and try to be done by 3PM, but as of this week I'm going to try to keep my hours around 8 on the days I'm working for at least a couple of months. Usually I try to begin my work day with Slack notifications snoozed for the first two hours, because 90% of my responsibility is communication at the moment, so distractions are the norm for me if I don't keep them in check. Someone else mentioned LISP, when I am writing code it's Clojure :)
wreath 7y ago
Wake up somewhere between 6:30AM and 7AM w/o an alarm clock. Bathroom trip, weight myself while the water is boiling in the kettle for my hand-brewed coffee. Depending on the day of the week, I had to the gym for strength training. Come home for a shower and a quick breakfast before I head to the office at around 10AM.
- 2rsf 7y ago
  > weight myself every day ?
gls2ro 7y ago
05:30 AM - wake up & press button to make coffee 05:35 AM - open laptop and browse TODO list + important communication to be done 06:00 AM - finished coffee 06:05 AM - shower and change of clothes 06:30 AM - work for ~2 hours on side projects 08:30 AM - family wakes up and we start daily activities
jugjug 7y ago
I go to the park nearby for two to three hours the first thing in the morning, where I exercise [1] and meditate. It's been three months. It has changed my life: I get a boost of highest-quality time every morning. I sleep better, I move better, I am in mostly great mood all day because of such a start. I had troubles keeping a habit of exercise and meditation and the switch to this morning routine solved it greatly. The first 28 days of forming the habit were a bit of a struggle, but together with my wife, we supported each other and eventually went through the whole month. After that I cannot imagine my morning without at least an hour in the park. The time of waking up varies and depends on the morning temperature and amount of light. In summer we woke at 5-6am (it was warm and light), now it's ~7am (it's getting colder and darker outside). The book The Willpower instinct [2] influenced me a lot regarding willpower in the morning. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJDz7qHBGQg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJDz7qHBGQg [2] https://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Instinct-Self-Control-Works-Matters/dp/1583335080?tag=duckduckgo-d-20 https://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Instinct-Self-Control-Works...
- CameronBarre 7y ago
  Yeah it gets way harder to wake up 'early' as the sun starts coming out later. Especially in the PNW when it's straight gray outside in the morning during those seasons. How do you manage 3 hours at the park?
  - jugjug 7y ago
    What do you mean by "manage"?
cfj 7y ago
04:30 AM: Wake up, realize I don't have to get up for another 75 minutes 05:45 AM: Wake up, get out of bed 05:48 AM: Try to find a pair of running socks without holes in them 05:50 AM: Put on running clothes 06:00 AM: Start my run 07:00 AM: Finish my run 07:10 AM: Shower, shave and all that stuff 07:30 AM: Practise piano 07:55 AM: Leave apartment to catch my train 08:00 AM: Hop on train
theflyinghorse 7y ago
7:15 - wake up 7:45 - stop cuddling my cat and reading reddit and attempt to get up 8:15 - actually get up 8:20 - shower/brush teeth, try to decide if I messed up my beard lines 8:30 - leave for work Now, I want to change that to something more productive and add some solo jiu-jitsu and mobility work in the morning.
muffa 7y ago
Usually: 07:00 - Alarm goes off 07:15 - If I exercised the night before I go get dressed(Got very little hair on my head, benefit: No more morning hair) 07:30 - Leave for work I stopped eating breakfast, I just drink coffee when I feel hungry until lunch around 11:30, doing this I actually feel more energetic. 2-3 times a week I head to the gym before heading to work, this actually is the best routine, you get to work all pumped up, full of energy and your brain feels like it is running on steroids!
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

33 points by andyreed 7y ago

When do you wake up and what do you do to start your day?

Wake up. Review calendar. Check messages and emails. Workout 5 days per week including cardio and HIIT. Shower. Take pills. Work day starts.

luckman212 7y ago
What pills?

Weryj 7y ago

Wake up. Toilet. Weight Self. Shower. Get Dressed. Eat. Walk to work.

codingdave 7y ago

Wake up at 4 AM. Go directly to my home office and code until 6 AM. Have breakfast with family. Code until 8:30 AM. Sends kids to school. Go on walk with wife, then get showered and dressed for the day, then start all the work that requires communication with everyone else. It gets me 4 hours of quiet coding in before anyone else is even online and talking, and makes the rest of the work day relaxing because I've usually already accomplished my goals for the day by 9 AM.

usaphp 7y ago
What time do you go to sleep?
- codingdave 7y ago
  Around 8 PM. I know both my waking and sleeping times seem crazy early to some people, but it works for me.
codegeek 7y ago
I want to be you but so far, I am missing the 4-6 AM coding part :). Rest is same as you already.

qzx_pierri 7y ago

Wake up. Take a big gulp of water from my bedside table. Toilet. Wash face. Brush teeth. Journal. Stretch for 15 minutes. Get dressed. Walk to class. (Eat an apple while walking to class)

raptorraver 7y ago

My kids wake us up around 6.30 - 7.00. Wake, make some coffee, give breakfast to the kids, bring coffee to my wife who is still in bed, hurry the older kid to eat, dress up and not to look social media while doing those things, dress my younger kid and prepare him for the kindergarten while he does everything to make us late (2,5 yo), walk to the kindergarten (10 minutes walk), then walk to the office (25 minutes). No productivity tips here ;)

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

laken 7y ago

Wake up at 7AM or so, shower, dress, drive 1hr to work.

zer0sand0nes 7y ago

I have either of the 3: 1. Wake up super early (5:45), get a workout in, eat some breakfast. Cuddle. Shower. Drive to work around 9:30. 2. Wake up around 7, read something positive. Eat some breakfast. Head to work around 9:30. 3. Wake up at 9, shower. Head to work at 9:30.

kevinherron 7y ago

M/W/F: Wake up 4:30, coffee, bathroom, gym by 5:30, office by 8:00. T/Th: Wake up naturally between 4:30 and 5:30, coffee, breakfast, email, forums, run 5k or 10k at ~7:00, transition into working from home.

seanrrwilkins 7y ago

7 AM: wake up, no alarm most days thank to one very persistent and hungry cat that likes to jump on my head or scratch doors to make noise. 7:02, feed the cats. 7:15, make a cup of coffee at home and have a light breakfast of yogurt, fruit and granola. 7:15-8: is breakfast, coffee and listening to The Daily and UpFirst podcasts 8-10: writing. I need to get writing done in the AM while I'm fresh and other distractions don't leak in. 10-11: shower and work email check-in, get rolling on projects and client check-ins. 11-3: deep client work and/or business development, depending on deadlines.

justhw 7y ago
If you don't mind, What kind of writing? Business oriented? A journal? Or any type of writing?
- seanrrwilkins 7y ago
  Both journaling and business writing these days. Trying to be more intentional with writing to get in better practice, refine my skills and work through shaping clearer points of view.
CameronBarre 7y ago
One time we managed to trick our cat for about a month by using a combination of scheduling our brown noise generator to go off and scheduling some holiday lights to come on at the same time, for a noiseless alarm. Cat would still be sleeping when we woke up and didn't remember she was supposed to be starving to death. Trick your cat every chance you get, really.
- seanrrwilkins 7y ago
  Hahah. We’ve used lightly electrified mat a couple times. Now if we put it at the door the cat just sits quietly across the hall. Don’t even need to turn it on now.

glua 7y ago

Wake up Check plans in Calendar Take a shower Take a breakfast Prepare meals for office (healthy lifestyle :-) ) Pack & go to the office

natalyarostova 7y ago

Wake up at 1:30AM. I then do deep coding (Lisp, obviously) for 15 hours. At this point my kids are getting home from school, and I spend 8 hours with them and my wife engaging in wholesome physical activities, finishing off with some exercise and a healthy meal (I only eat one meal a day for IF). Then following this I spend 7 hours carefully studying the latest CS theory, and software. I end with working on my ML side project (I'm making a custom neural network in Rust that automates my day job).

schappim 7y ago
What do you do with all your down time (assuming you're living on Mercury with a day length of 58 Earth Days 15h 30m)?
943_924 7y ago
What do you normally eat? And do you drink any beverages throughout the day?
theworld572 7y ago
But when do you find time to meditate?
srijanshetty 7y ago
I do the same but I also mix it up by running 10 miles every other day during which I reflect on the emptiness of the cosmos and our purpose as a tiny speck of imbued with consciousness but without an essence.
- natalyarostova 7y ago
  I really admire your effort, I've always been a slacker.
person_of_color 7y ago
This is a joke, right?
- 7y ago

laurieg 7y ago

Get up around 7.30am. Practice the piano for 30 minutes. Quick shower and a shave and then out of the house to get on with my work day. I started skipping breakfast a while back for diet purposes but I was surprised by how much simpler it made my mornings.

freediver 7y ago

wake up and stretch 6am watch netflix to 7am (halt and catch fire currently) respond to email to 8am get kids to school by 9am do stuff to warm up brain to noon (chess or axis&allies) idle brain, lunch, then cappuccino and tiramisu to 1pm be very productive to 6pm

cm2012 7y ago

Wake up 11, work until 5 or 6, repeat.

tenzo77 7y ago

6am: brisk 30-minute walk 6:30: pushups After breakfast for family and they’re out the door: 8am: journal and review goal systems and my ‘identity’ notes 8:30: set top 3 ‘must dos’ for day and prioritize other tasks 8:45am: work (I work at home) 10am: eat yogurt (I practice intermittent fasting and eat 10am-6pm) I prioritize and do tasks using a mix of the Eisenhower matrix and GTD. All writing, tasks, etc. is done in Emacs, three columns full screen. My ‘identity ‘ notes are a concise summary of the person I am trying to be to get the results I want, loosely based on an article I read by James Clear. Getting clear about values and how to live them plays a central role.

CameronBarre 7y ago

Wake up between 5:30 and 7:30, it's harder to wake up on the earlier end when the sun starts coming up later. I might read a bit while my other half gets ready to walk to get coffee, currently reading "The Worldy Philosophers" on a first generation surface pro. This whole time my phone is muted, laptop closed. Now it's hopefully between 7:30 and 8:30 and I have coffee, also I've been experimenting with nicotine gum as a mental stimulant, but I'm not insane - I don't chew the gum and drink my coffee at the same time, it would ruin the coffee. Depending on what sort of day it is I will either not work and do whatever I want, currently learning about economics, or I will work - most days I work. If I am working I work a minimum of 5 hours and try to be done by 3PM, but as of this week I'm going to try to keep my hours around 8 on the days I'm working for at least a couple of months. Usually I try to begin my work day with Slack notifications snoozed for the first two hours, because 90% of my responsibility is communication at the moment, so distractions are the norm for me if I don't keep them in check. Someone else mentioned LISP, when I am writing code it's Clojure :)

wreath 7y ago

Wake up somewhere between 6:30AM and 7AM w/o an alarm clock. Bathroom trip, weight myself while the water is boiling in the kettle for my hand-brewed coffee. Depending on the day of the week, I had to the gym for strength training. Come home for a shower and a quick breakfast before I head to the office at around 10AM.

2rsf 7y ago
> weight myself every day ?

gls2ro 7y ago

05:30 AM - wake up & press button to make coffee 05:35 AM - open laptop and browse TODO list + important communication to be done 06:00 AM - finished coffee 06:05 AM - shower and change of clothes 06:30 AM - work for ~2 hours on side projects 08:30 AM - family wakes up and we start daily activities

jugjug 7y ago

I go to the park nearby for two to three hours the first thing in the morning, where I exercise [1] and meditate. It's been three months. It has changed my life: I get a boost of highest-quality time every morning. I sleep better, I move better, I am in mostly great mood all day because of such a start. I had troubles keeping a habit of exercise and meditation and the switch to this morning routine solved it greatly. The first 28 days of forming the habit were a bit of a struggle, but together with my wife, we supported each other and eventually went through the whole month. After that I cannot imagine my morning without at least an hour in the park. The time of waking up varies and depends on the morning temperature and amount of light. In summer we woke at 5-6am (it was warm and light), now it's ~7am (it's getting colder and darker outside). The book The Willpower instinct [2] influenced me a lot regarding willpower in the morning. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJDz7qHBGQg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJDz7qHBGQg [2] https://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Instinct-Self-Control-Works-Matters/dp/1583335080?tag=duckduckgo-d-20 https://www.amazon.com/Willpower-Instinct-Self-Control-Works...

CameronBarre 7y ago
Yeah it gets way harder to wake up 'early' as the sun starts coming out later. Especially in the PNW when it's straight gray outside in the morning during those seasons. How do you manage 3 hours at the park?
- jugjug 7y ago
  What do you mean by "manage"?

cfj 7y ago

04:30 AM: Wake up, realize I don't have to get up for another 75 minutes 05:45 AM: Wake up, get out of bed 05:48 AM: Try to find a pair of running socks without holes in them 05:50 AM: Put on running clothes 06:00 AM: Start my run 07:00 AM: Finish my run 07:10 AM: Shower, shave and all that stuff 07:30 AM: Practise piano 07:55 AM: Leave apartment to catch my train 08:00 AM: Hop on train

theflyinghorse 7y ago

7:15 - wake up 7:45 - stop cuddling my cat and reading reddit and attempt to get up 8:15 - actually get up 8:20 - shower/brush teeth, try to decide if I messed up my beard lines 8:30 - leave for work Now, I want to change that to something more productive and add some solo jiu-jitsu and mobility work in the morning.

muffa 7y ago

Usually: 07:00 - Alarm goes off 07:15 - If I exercised the night before I go get dressed(Got very little hair on my head, benefit: No more morning hair) 07:30 - Leave for work I stopped eating breakfast, I just drink coffee when I feel hungry until lunch around 11:30, doing this I actually feel more energetic. 2-3 times a week I head to the gym before heading to work, this actually is the best routine, you get to work all pumped up, full of energy and your brain feels like it is running on steroids!

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]