Adjusting my morning routine
Three months ago, I’ve decided to wake up earlier, set up a routine and blog about it.
If you haven’t done so, you can read the previous post about it before we go on about the current status.
The early bird catches the worm
I’ve always knew that 6h30 was only a beginning, 30 minutes was not enough to do all I wanted to do in the morning, so I’ve now set the alarm clock to 6h. I’m not planning to go below in a near future unless I find a way to go to bed much earlier (23h30 is the best I could achieved, midnight is common and sometimes I leave my computer at 2AM) This 30min bonus are a real plus, and with some perspective from the ‘Miracle Morning’ book from Hal Elrod I managed to even improve the sleep aspect.
Cold shower improved
I’ve been taking a cold shower everyday for more than one year now. It was a way to muscle my willpower, boost my energy and improve my health.
The in essence ritual was simple: set up the water temperature to the minimum, and shower for at least 2 min.
Reading about morning routine, I realized that this habit could be a good way to anchor other ones. So I now used this shower to recall my goals, this go like this:
- Water left leg (recalling why I want to improve personnaly)
- Water right leg (recalling why I want to improve profesionnaly)
- Water left torso (recalling my personnal goals)
- Water left arm (recalling my personal short term/tactical objectives)
- Water right torso (recalling my professional goals)
- Water right arm (recalling my profesionnal short term/tactical objectives)
- Pour water upon my head / back (recalling my spiritual/philosophical values)
When I say recalling, I actually mean reciting carefully crafted sentences while trying to feel/visualize the outcome/goals. The structure of the ritual might seems rigid, but it’s only an help to prevent me from forgetting some parts.