How to Plan, Execute, and Repeat Your Best Day Ever
Routine, in an intelligent man, is a sign of ambition.
—W. H. Auden, poet
Some memories fade with time and others are so real that you can still feel the emotions as intensely as the day they happened. At this moment I can vividly feel the shivering-cold water on my face as my dad aimed a loaded squirt bottle and splashed me into reality.
That was my wake-up call on most days in high school. I had an alarm clock, but I conditioned myself to hit the snooze button and fall back asleep so fast I wouldn’t remember it went off at all. So, my dad used a variety of tactics to wake me up, but the only one that still resonates at my core is that shivering-cold water. That’s one way to bounce out of bed, just not quite the ideal way.
After I was jolted awake, I would make a mad dash to the bathroom, throw on a few wrinkled clothes, and shove a bowl of cereal down my throat as I ran out the door, only to drive well above the speed limit on the race to my first class. It’s as though I thought school wasn’t stressful enough, so I would add an extra dose of crazy to my life by reenacting a surprise hurricane evacuation drill every morning.
Years later I came to the realization that my mornings could be something more—a chance to begin my day with intention. My precious hours at sunrise evolved into a truly ideal scenario. In a short time, I discovered how to design my morning, my evening, and even my week in the best possible way.
So far in The 5 AM Blueprint, you have established your life’s grandest goals, narrowed the list to focus on a select few in the current quarter, and identified the key anchor and complementary habits that will push you toward your goals. Now you are going to schedule the habits you chose by designing your ideal morning and evening routines, as well as your ideal week.
HABITS, RITUALS, AND ROUTINES
Before we dive into the specifics behind your ideal schedule, let’s clear up the difference between three concepts that are commonly mixed up in these kinds of discussions: habits, rituals, and routines.
As we discussed in the previous chapter, a habit is an automated and repeated action. The key to great habits, whether good or bad, is that they are hard to give up. Habits can be formed on purpose but they are not necessarily intentional when carried out. Great habits are at the core of an optimized morning routine because over time, you want your most pivotal actions to flow without a lot of conscious thought.
The more you have to think about what to do, the more likely you are to waste time between activities and even talk yourself out of doing your habits at all. Automation is the key to creating great flow in your mornings.
A ritual is a ceremony that consists of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. Think of a church service, wedding, or funeral.
Typically, these things are true about rituals:
1. They have a religious connotation.
2. The order of actions is consistent and cannot change.
3. There is deep meaning and purpose behind the actions.
Finally, a routine is a sequence of actions that are followed regularly, like a fixed program. For example, think of an old exercise program, driving home from work the same way each day, or buying the same type of clothes every year.
Typically, these things are true about routines:
1. There is no religious connotation.
2. The order of actions can change.
3. There is typically little emotion or meaning behind the actions and the activities can be lifeless or feel disconnected.
For this book, I will refer to your morning activities as a routine because I’m not going to assume any religious affiliation, the order of your morning activities can change, and it’s up to you how much emotion or meaning is in place.
If you are concerned about your habits becoming too boring or lifeless, don’t worry. You can always scrap your entire system and rebuild it from scratch. I do this multiple times per year as my seasons of life and priorities change. Variety is an essential ingredient and you can build that into each morning or simply change up your routine whenever it feels stale.
CREATE YOUR IDEAL WEEK
In order to dig into the specifics of your ideal morning, you need to first clearly outline the bigger picture: your ideal week. I first discovered the concept of an ideal week from Michael Hyatt, who is a master of productivity. An ideal week is based on the theory that a week could unfold nearly flawlessly from beginning to end.
That might sound farfetched, and that’s the point. Your ideal week is the model to shape your life around. If you planned out your best week, including all of your major events, recurring appointments, and consistent habits, you would have a week you could (at least theoretically) repeat over and over again.
This concept is based on the idea that your weeks are fairly consistent from one to the next. If yours are not, I outline a different approach for irregular schedules later in the chapter.
The key to this process is foresight. When you proactively design what your life could look like, you are more likely to take actions that resemble that model. If you know you planned specific boundaries, healthy habits, and productive appointments throughout the week, you will certainly accomplish more of those goals over time than if you hadn’t.
We are going to walk through the process of putting together your ideal week. This is your chance to imagine what your life could look like, at least from the standpoint of an idealized framework. Once again, think of this ideal week as a realistic representation of what you would normally do, but also with a touch of ambition that you may not have lived out otherwise.
1. Get Your Template
On the next page, you’ll find an example of an ideal week spreadsheet based on the template available at The 5 AM Studio (http://jeffsanders.com/studio). This is meant to be altered, changed, and customized for your unique schedule.
2. Choose Your Model
There are two ideal week template models: consistent and irregular. A consistent model represents a schedule that is similar from week to week, and an irregular model represents a schedule that varies considerably from week to week.
If your schedule is fairly consistent, you can use the template above. If your schedule is irregular, you have a few options. First, you can create an ideal week based on large blocks of activity that you can reasonably depend on (sleeping, working, etc.). It would look like the consistent model, but with a lot less detail.
The second option for irregular schedules is to use a list model instead of a graphic or spreadsheet. With a list, you would simply monitor the order of events that typically happen, but without any timeframes associated with them. This model requires much more flexibility and spontaneity, but there is still ample opportunity to accomplish quite a bit each day.
The third option is to build in structure and convert your irregular schedule into a consistent one. Depending on your career and commitments, this could be more challenging, but it may be your best option to create consistency where it never existed before.
Build in artificial boundaries to hold yourself to a more routine schedule. For example, you could set beginning and end times around activities that you previously left unstructured, or schedule meetings with others to reinforce a sense of urgency around your work. Find whatever means you can to make your calendar flow predictably from one week to the next.
3. Add in Your Big Rocks First
As Stephen Covey famously outlined in The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, your blank schedule will fill up first with the big rocks, the nonnegotiable events, projects, and tasks that have specific timeframes. Your big rocks could include your day job, religious services, weekly piano lessons, or any other commitments that you are not giving up any time soon.
4. Fill in the Gaps with Smaller Rocks
Once the big rocks are in place, fill in the smaller rocks, the secondary priorities that typically don’t have time commitments. This might include daily exercise, running errands, or other important habits you don’t want to miss.
At this point, your template should be filled in completely. Any blank spots either need an associated activity or provide for a little margin. Intentionally incorporating flexibility is a great strategy because life doesn’t always go as planned, even during an ideal week.
5. Review the Template Every Week
I will be discussing the weekly review process in detail in Chapter 9 (page 80). For now, plan on reviewing your ideal week template at least once a week. This will be your chance to make any necessary adjustments to keep yourself on track.
YOUR IDEAL WEEK DETERMINES YOUR DAILY ACTIONS
The timeframes that you included in your ideal week template will be your guide for your morning and evening routines. If, for example, you leave for work at 8:30 a.m. and you are planning to wake up at 6:30 a.m., then you have a two-hour window to work with for your morning routine.
Make note of how much time you have provided for your daily routines as we will use those boundaries to decide which habits you will have time for and which ones you will not.
THE FOUR TYPES OF MORNING ROUTINES
I used to operate from one well-designed morning routine that I would customize as my schedule fluctuated. Most of the time it worked out well, but it didn’t take long to realize that this system was far from ideal. I went back to the drawing board and tried to figure out what was inherently wrong with my approach.
I discovered that one routine doesn’t cut it—it’s not flexible enough.
You need more than one routine for each of the variances in your schedule: work days, weekends, holidays, days with early-morning appointments, days when you just want to be spontaneous, and all the other random craziness that shows up in life without notice.
One routine does not account for a variable schedule or changes that pop up at the last minute. For years, on my podcast, I advocated having two different routines, one for your typical workday (when you need to be at the office by a specific time) and one for the weekend (when your schedule is more flexible). The problem is that typical workdays are not typical. Most days are different from every other.
Many people do not have to be at the office at the same time Monday through Friday, and even if they do, their schedules before and after work change all the time. We live in a fluid world, so we need a fluid schedule to bend and mold as we do, as much as we need the structure to hold everything together so life is not just a crazy conglomeration of impulsive choices.
In my attempt to solve this dilemma I created four distinct variations on an ideal morning routine, each distinguished by how much time you have available and what the rest of your day looks like. You may need more than four, depending on how many predictable variations are built into your commitments. I recommend you create a morning routine for each type of day you expect to routinely experience.
I have found that it’s best to decide the night before, during your evening routine, which morning routine is best for the next day. You don’t want to wake up and then decide how your morning should go. Decide ahead of time and then follow the steps you chose.
1. The Hustle
This is the fast-action routine designed for those days when you are lucky if you have time to brush your teeth. My variation of the hustle is one where I only do the bare minimum to get myself out of bed and out the door as fast as possible, which hopefully happens in under an hour. Use this routine sparingly. You don’t want to get into the habit of shortening your morning routine, feeling unnecessarily stressed, and missing out on key habits.
2. The 9 to 5
This routine is the most common. This is likely the one you would use on most mornings before heading into work. My variation of the 9 to 5 lasts two to three hours and includes just enough time for a few key habits that mean the most to my day. That normally includes a few minutes of reading, a quick workout, and my favorite green smoothie.
3. The Saunter
This is a great routine for the weekend (or a non-work day) when you have all the time you want to do all of your favorite habits. You could make time for exercise, meditation, reading, taking a long walk, writing in your journal, or anything else you have missed out on recently. My variation of the saunter lasts three to five hours and this is when I normally make time for my long training runs or spending an hour or two catching up on my latest book.
4. The Custom
You may have a unique situation where your calendar doesn’t match anything like what I just described. Imagine a morning where your normal routine is shaken up by a trip to the airport, sending your kids off for their first day of school, or heading to the dentist before landing at the office. On these unique mornings, create a custom routine to guarantee you are ready for what life throws at you.
DESIGN YOUR IDEAL MORNING ROUTINE
This is it! With these four variations in mind, it is now time to walk through the seven steps to design your ideal morning routine and bring your 5:00 a.m. miracle to life.
1. Get Out Your Favorite Notebook, Calendar, or Task Manager
In its simplest form, a daily routine is just a list of activities. Each morning as you go through this list, you will check off each item as you complete it. When I create my morning routines, I always begin with a list in Evernote. I perfect the list there and then I transfer it to my calendar and task manager.
Whatever system you want to use is fine; just be sure that you can easily make changes and updates to your system as needed.
2. Create Your Ideal Evening Routine
The best morning routines begin the night before. Each evening, list the order of activities you want to complete the next morning. Traditionally, the evening routine is much more flexible than the morning routine, as schedules tend to evolve more dramatically as the day progresses. However, that only makes it even more important to structure your evening routine with solid boundaries to keep your system sustainable for the long term.
Without a solid evening boundary, it’s likely you will stay up later than you intend, which will lead to a lack of sleep or sleeping past your alarm. Either way, you would end up with a flawed morning routine right from the start.
There are a few key guidelines for the best evening routines. Try to incorporate these into your routine as well:
1. Have a solid time boundary to end work for the day and begin preparing for sleep.
2. Review your tasks for the following day in your calendar and task manager.
3. Put everything away, including all work-related materials and personal stuff around your house (this step is part of the Equilibrium Zero process that I will discuss on page 74 in the next chapter).
4. Set your alarm(s) for the following day (I use multiple alarms to guarantee I get up).
5. Turn off any bright visual screens (computers, phones, tablets, etc.) around one hour before bedtime.
6. Read or listen to fiction to allow your mind to transition into a more carefree state.
7. Create an ideal sleeping environment to fall asleep faster and easier (cooler temperatures, dark room, comfortable bed, etc.).
3. Align Your Morning Routine to Your Grandest Goals
In the previous chapter we discussed aligning your daily actions and habits to your grandest goals. It’s likely that the best time of the day to schedule those actions is in the early morning during your routine. When you design your ideal morning routine, be sure to prioritize the habits that lead to the achievement of your grandest goals.
This is the key that makes the system turn. You could wake up early and simply choose random habits that make you feel good, but with long-term grand goals in mind, you could intentionally schedule specific actions that you have predetermined to push you directly toward your current quarterly objectives. This is the glue that holds The 5 AM Blueprint together.
For example, you could schedule an early-morning swim if you are training for a triathlon, or spend an hour studying Portuguese for your upcoming trip to Brazil. During the development of this book I scheduled blocks of time in my morning routine specifically for writing. I aligned my activities in the first few hours of my day to my most important goal.
Intentional, healthy, and productive habits that are aligned to your grandest goals and consistently executed in the early- morning hours paint the quintessential picture of dominating your day before breakfast.
4. Focus on Boosting Your Energy
The number one goal of my morning routine is to increase my energy for the day. I have many strategies to accomplish this goal, including drinking a liter of water and a double espresso, exercising, and having a large green smoothie for breakfast.
My focus on boosting energy has had a greater impact on my productivity than any other single strategy. More energy means more productivity and more productivity means more goal achievement.
5. Model Your Routine After High Achievers
Like we discussed in the previous chapter, there are healthy and productive habits that many successful people utilize. Here are two morning routines you could model yours after, including my own.
Example #1: Dean Karnazes, world-famous ultramarathon runner
1. Wake up at 3:30 a.m.
2. Run a marathon.
3. Eat breakfast with kids.
4. Take kids to school.
No joke. On an ideal day, Dean wakes up and runs a marathon. I couldn’t think of a better example of dominating your day before breakfast.
Example #2: Me, a pretty normal guy
1. Wake up at 5:00 a.m.
2. Take vitamins.
3. Get dressed in my workout clothes.
4. Begin drinking 1 liter of water.
5. Feed and walk my dog Benny.
6. Open blinds in the house to let in a little sunshine.
7. Review daily schedule in my task manager.
8. Put out fires early: Check bank accounts, Inbox Zero (page 75), and website stats.
9. Meditate for 10 minutes.
10. Drink a double espresso.
11. Read for 20 minutes
12. Make a large green smoothie.
13. Focused Block of Time for 30–60 minutes: (e.g. writing, exercising, etc.).
14. Take a shower.
15. Get dressed for work.
16. Begin work on the day’s most important project (around 9:00 a.m.).
Note the length of this list and the level of detail. I recommend you make your list even longer and with more detail to help get you started. Over time, you can scale back the intensity, simplify, and get even better results.
Also, my list is not time bound. This is a list of activities that I work through in order, but since I work for myself, I can schedule my work time on a flexible schedule. If your schedule requires strict time boundaries, include those with each activity.
Here is a short example of my previous morning routine based on time:
5:00 a.m. Wake up.
5:02 a.m. Take vitamins.
5:03 a.m. Get dressed in workout clothes.
5:05: a.m. Begin drinking 1 liter of water.
6. Write It All Down
Now’s the time. Create your routine. You have the information, examples, and guidelines. Now, create your morning miracle.
7. Complete the Checklist
Now that you have completed your routine, put it through the gauntlet. Ask yourself these seven questions to determine if you need to make any changes.
1. Have I thoroughly thought through my morning routine?
2. Is my routine easily accessible and have I written it on paper or in digital form?
3. Is my routine ambitious, yet realistic to my life, meaning that it is not held to perfection?
4. Have I built in buffer time for unexpected events?
5. Does my routine include time for habits, projects, or tasks that are aligned to my highest priorities and grandest goals?
6. Have I structured my routine around the prevention of my common mistakes (like missing workouts late in the day)?
7. Does my routine focus on energy as one of the primary goals so the rest of the day is productive and fantastic?
KILL THE SNOOZE BUTTON
Pitfalls, Mistakes, and Problems to Avoid
Live in your reality.
Designing an ideal schedule is a double-edged sword. On one hand, you are able to put together a well-designed calendar of events, habits, and projects that push you toward your goals. On the other hand, you have a standard of excellence staring you in the face that you may never reach. The bar may seem too high and the fear of failing may paralyze you into inaction.
The goal is to design an ideal schedule on paper that meshes with your reality. Ideally, your schedule will represent the authentic you with all of your strengths, quirks, and mishaps included. Your best schedule will both challenge you to improve and accurately represent what you know you are going to do anyway.
For example, I would never create a schedule that encourages me to wake up any earlier than 5:00 a.m. I know from experience that I won’t get up then. I also know I need much more time to get ready in the morning than the average person, mostly because I have so many healthy and productive habits I want to complete. My average morning routine takes more than three hours, so I will not be creating a 20-minute version any time soon.
Live in your reality. Create a schedule that makes sense to you, works with your current season of life, and encourages you to make the most of your time.
QUICK REVIEW: DESIGN YOUR IDEAL MORNING ROUTINE
1. Your ideal week is the framework for living out your best-case scenario. Take the time you need to create, update, and optimize this template on a regular basis.
2. Aligning the habits of your morning routine to your current grand goals is the definition of dominating your day before breakfast.
3. Design your morning routine with plenty of detail and structure in the beginning. You can always relax the system later as it becomes second nature.
4. Even though you may need more flexibility with your evening routine, design it with as much detail as your morning routine. This will ensure you stay on track each and every night.
5. There are seven questions (page 67) to ask yourself about your ideal morning routine. How did you do?
1. Create an ideal week template. The example provided for download in The 5 AM Studio (http://jeffsanders.com/studio) is meant to be altered, changed, and customized for your schedule. Start with time blocks for your big rocks (work schedule, routine appointments, etc.), then fill in time blocks for your smaller rocks (morning routine, evening routine, meal breaks, etc.).
2. Begin your ideal morning routine with a highly structured and rigid plan. Map out the exact time you wake up and list each activity, in succession, that you plan to do until your workday begins. The more detail you include, the better.
My ideal morning routine:
3. Revisit your evening routine and make sure that it aligns with your new ideal morning and week. Knowing most people, this schedule will be more flexible, but it should be designed with just as much detail.
My ideal evening routine: