My Morning Routine: How I Stay Zen & Sane While Running a Content Marketing Agency 🧘

Hey you! 

I hope you had an awesome week! 

Today, I will share my morning routine with you. 

Why? 

Having a regular morning routine is something that I started this year, and I have really felt its positive impact. In all honesty, more than I had expected. 

So, I want to share mine with you. LFG!

My Morning Routine: 7 Early Wins in the Day

4:00 am: I wake up an hour before all the losers who read the ‘The 5 AM Club’ to get a head start on them. 

My first win of the day. 

4:05 am: I go on my first run of the day. 10 miles. Because momma didn’t raise no b*tch. 

The average runner takes 1hr 22 minutes to complete a 10-mile run. It takes me 55 minutes. 

Second win of the day. 

5:00 am: I take an ice bath while listening to binaural beats to enter a peak meditative state. 

The recommended time to take ice baths is 15 minutes. I do 30 just to prove them wrong. 

Third win of the day. 

5:30 am: I sit on the sundeck and start my daily manifestation practice. I visualize and write down everything I want. 

Within minutes, a brand new Telsa, a PS5, and a Brazilian supermodel appear at my doorstep… 

…because manifestation REALLY works. 😏

Fourth win of the day. 

5:45 am: I drink my first cup of artisanal coffee, which I paid double the price for because it comes in fancy packaging. 

Black. No sugar. 

Because I am obviously intermittent fasting. It’s what Joe Rogan does.

Fifth win of the day. 

6:00 am: I go on my second run of the morning. A breezy 5 miles just to unwind and warm down from my first run. 

I run through a nearby forest. 

If I get lucky, I have to fight off a bear. The bear stands no chance.

Sixth win of the day.  

6:30 am: I take a cold shower. Get dressed. And get ready for my commute. 

Just kidding. Commuting is for suits. I work from home. 

Seventh win of the day. 

7:00 am: I sit down at my desk, knowing I am better than everyone else because I have already been up for 3 hours. 

I am sure you realized very quickly that this is satire.

I started today’s newsletter like this because I see so many unrealistic morning routines on social media that the people posting them can clearly not keep up with. 

Don’t get me wrong, reading about how CEOs of large companies start their morning or go about their days is interesting, but when social media influencers post 2-hr morning routines that they very obviously cannot do on a regular basis (especially when traveling or running a successful business), it just gets a bit ridiculous. 

So, I wanted to poke fun at that. 

Now, here’s what my actual morning routine looks like. 

My Actual Morning Routine​​

Sometime between 6:30 am and 7:30 am, I wake up and crawl out of bed. 

7:30 am to 8:00 am: I sit down on my porch with the Headspace meditation app and Ryan Holiday’s The Daily Stoic Journal.

I do 10 minutes of mindfulness meditation (with varying success). 

Then, I respond to the daily question (sometimes more) in the journal to help center myself and focus on what’s important in life in general and on that specific day. 

8:00 am: I drink my first cup of coffee.

I actually drink my black and without sugar, because I try to do intermittent fasting on as many days of the week as possible. Usually, I manage to do around 4 days a week.  

While drinking my coffee, I will watch the daily Headspace video about mindfulness and then spend a little too much time laughing at funny Reels on Instagram. 

8:15 am: I get ready and start working at around 8.30. 

That’s it! 

I meditate for 10 minutes. 

Do some journaling with prompts to help me stay aligned with my goals.

I drink coffee.

Relax a bit. 

And then start my day. 

In all honesty, having a simple but regular morning routine has been beneficial to me because it helps me to start my day in a calmer way than if I were to sleep a little longer and jump straight into work. 

Also, things like not checking my emails or WhatsApp messages until I actually sit down at my desk have been great because I get some me time in the morning first. 

Of course, the entire routine goes out of the window when I am traveling, which I do a lot. And then I do notice that I don’t feel as balanced as when I start my days like this. 

I’d be curious to hear your morning routine or what you do that you think I should add to mine. 

Just hit reply, and let me know! 

Interesting stuff I found online 🤓

A robot can forecast the weather better than the weatherman 🌧

I remember growing up how badly off the weatherman used to be at times, ruining several planned outdoor adventures. I am glad the AI’s doing a better job of predicting the weather now. That also feels like a sensible application for AI. 

Chinese Scientists made a “chimeric” monkey glow green 🐒

Scientists in China have created the first “chimeric” money, i.e., a monkey with more than two sets of DNA. The little one only lived for two days and had a green glow on his face and fingertips, as well as green eyes. I’m not a big animal rights guy, but this is a bit f*cked up.  

Italy banned lab-grown meat 🥩

Two of my vegan friends taught me a lot about lab meat earlier this year, and it’s definitely an interesting food technology to explore. But I am in no way surprised that the Italian banned it. If you spend time with Italians, you will quickly realize that (almost) all they talk about it food. And they definitely don’t like anyone messing with it. 

What I am reading 📖

I have just started listening to the audiobook version of ‘Happy at Work: How to Create a Happy, Engaging Workplace for Today’s (and Tomorrow’s) Workforce’ by Robyn L. Garrett. I am like 15 minutes in, so it’s too hard to pass judgment on the book yet, but the author’s Instagram account is quite entertaining, so that’s why I got the book. 

I purposefully consume books that will make me a better person in business and/or in life in general. And this one looks like it fits the bill for that. 

What I am watching 📺

I just finished watching Blue-Eyed Samurai on Netflix. What an awesome story! It’s about a female, mixed-race Samurai (well, technically a swordmaster) who is out for revenge against four white men during Japan's Edo period (17th century) when no foreigners were allowed within Japan’s borders. 

I can’t imagine Netflix making a second season of this because this was great to watch, and the story wasn’t finished as season one ended. 

Hit me up! 👋

When I am not writing the world’s 49,298th best newsletter in the world, I run a content marketing agency called Rise Up Media, where I help Bitcoin and fintech companies reach their growth targets.

Reach out to me at [email protected] or just reply to this email.