Waking up at the same time 7 days a week. I never feel overly tired and my body feels better.
Love my current routine and it’s doing wonders for my health, both phisically and mentally (or at least I believe it is, it might be a placebo):
- waking up every day at the same time
- bathroom (toilet, teeth, washing face)
- glass of water with a multivitamin and omega-3 (I’m vegan and this is so much easier than finding food that has all that)
- playing with the cat (I have no coice in this, she says it must be so, it is, therefore, so)
- ~15min of yoga
- ~10min of meditation
And then it’s coffee and work time. I’ve been on this routine for about 2 years now and I feel amazing since starting with it.
So… What you’re saying is, I need a cat.
I certainly hope that’s a rhetorical question.
Best regards, The cat.
This sounds great! And yes; obviously we must bend the knee to all Cats, they are our overlords afterall! :D
As part of my fitness training earlier in my life, I got used to getting up early (somewhere between 5am and 6am). I’m nowhere near as fit as I used to be, but I still get up early.
Finding a job that works with my night owl behavior. It’s not laziness if I sleep the same amount you do.
Keeping my pre-workout drink at my bedside table. It made more of a difference than I expected.
It took about a decade to undo the conditioning I gained in college and grad school to wake up every day at noon. Now, ten years later in my early 40s, I’m able to wake up at 10 am.
First thing in the morning I chug a tall glass of water. Somehow that’s actually made a healthy difference.
First thing I do in the morning is dread life itself and my parents choice to have me, then I wish i would die for 5 min, and then I take a glass of water. Also works
Same without the water
Does it work?
It doesn’t, and apparently neither do I
Any general effects you’ve noticed?
My skin doesn’t dry as easily. I no longer feel the need to lotion my hands all the time. Obviously, I drink water during the day but this was the change that started that.
Everything just felt healthier. I woke up more easily for my 6am start at work.
Before I started doing that, it sometimes felt like staying hydrated was constant catching up. Now, it’s more just maintaining.
Not the previous commenter but I do the same thing and I find it makes me feel less foggy in the first couple hours of waking up and helps me want to eat breakfast.
“helps me want to eat breakfast”
So my brother used to wake up and slam down like 20oz of water in the morning. He noticed it gave him a huge appetite for breakfast and all throughout the day. Ends up that this is an exersize that competitive eaters do. From my understanding, It stretches your stomach out, and the water drains out pretty quickly leaving it empty and ready for a big meal.
Biggest one for me was swapping from setting the alarm as late as possible and then rushing to get out of the house, to setting it an hour earlier and using that to read, do a little qi gong and have a leisurely breakfast.
Absolutely agree. It’s counterintuitive, but waking up earlier than you need to and start your day slowly actually makes you feel more rested and calm (provided you’ve still slept sufficiently)
Not eating breakfast. Seriously. Breakfast is to blame for a lot of obesity. The idea that breakfast is the most important meal of the day is an invention.
Unhealthy US* breakfast doesn’t help with obesity. Just don’t eat shit food
I came to post always eating breakfast. I prepare overnight oats and eat it when I wake up and its helped a lot with concentration. There’s definitely something to be said about a lot of marketed greasy or sugary breakfasts
Commuted to work by bicycle.
it’s a 10 minute ride.
flash forward 25 minute ride…just commuting
flash forward 45 minute ride…still just commuting
ended up at 1hr 25 minutes, then alternated with running in the winter & swimming on my lunch break in the summer (I was at a small university).
Turns out my brain is super gullible and is easily fooled by…my brain.
I’m glad it works for you, but I always hated getting to work very sweaty and then being smelly for the rest of the day when I biked.
Well, I had uniforms to change into, plus locker room facilities.
The point, really, was that you can fool yourself into getting a routine/exercise.
Wow, you got slower and slower. Usually people get better the more they do something.
/s
Getting up when my alarm goes off.
I put the alarm on the other side of the bedroom and used one with metal bells. I did it for years and hated it but it worked. Now my phone tinkles next to me and I’m up. Except Saturdays.
I tried the alarm on the other side of the room thing and it consistently ruined my day. Put me in a frustrated and pissed off mood from the start. Now I just force myself to get out of bed immediately when the alarm goes off, no excuses and no snoozing allowed. It sucks, but I’m never late.
All bets are off on the weekend, alarms are only for a damn good reason.
I did something similar during Covid while working from home. I bought a pack of NFC tags and stuck one on the other side of my room. When my alarm went off I had to open the app on my phone to scan the tag to switch it off, worked well the majority of the time.
There’s an app that uses a QR code system for something similar that’s available for free for those interested.
QRAlarm
I did this too. Eventually I set the alarm for earlier so I could get out of bed to shut it off and still have time to get back to sleep.
Flossing. I’m too tired to do it at night.
Thc
I think taking the time in the morning to enjoy myself. I WFH these days so it’s a easier (yet sometimes harder) to do that, but when I was commuting, I’d wake up early enough to get ready of course, but also take sometime to have a cup of coffee and read some news and such. Maybe even have a breakfast sandwich or something. Because for many years, I did the whole wake up the last minute, get ready, and get out the door ASAP thing. I always felt like I was in a panic.
I can’t say it led me to be more productive or whatever. But it just felt nicer. To not be so rushed. And that’s worth something.
Every morning I take the dog outside for her morning walk, start the coffee, make the bed, and get her fed and settled. Then I’m at my desk and I do the Wordle, NYT mini crossword and connections puzzles (and send them to the family group chat). Then I play one game of online chess, losing very badly and analyzing my mistakes afterward. Now that I’m totally awake and having my coffee, I spend time with my spiritual routine, then start answering my emails around 9 (I’m a web developer and work from home).
