Morning Routines: Why Small Habits Shape Big Days

Hi, I'm Matthew Greger.

And I'm Nancy Greger.

We have this new podcast called "We Should Probably Edit This." But we won't. Hi!

Hey! Hahaha.

Alright.

Welcome to another edition.

Yes, there's always something going on.

Always, always. It's always going on. I'm sure you're going to hear it in the background, but I'm going to tell you, like what I've just told this gentleman right here, just let it go. It'll be fine.

Okay.

And it's okay if there's outside noise, because that's what life is about— outside noise. All right, how to let it go.

Sure thing.

What's our topic today?

Our topic today is morning routines.

Morning routines.

What does that mean to have a morning routine? No matter what, you have a routine whether you, whether you set one up intentionally or not. You've got a morning routine. It's how you get up in the morning. It's how you get yourself going. Some of us may hit that snooze button 10 times. Some of us may jump up right away, get in the shower and go. But whatever that is, that's your routine and it sets you up for the day.

It does set you up for the day. But I do think that morning routine really starts for evening, where you end off the day and what it is that you're projecting you want to start off with the next day.

So you dream about the next morning?

No, but I prepare for the next morning as best as I can. I prepare. So you set an alarm, that's preparing. You make your lunch the night before, that's preparing. You make sure your house when you go to bed is in order, that's preparing.

That's all part of getting the dirty dishes out of the sink and loading the dishwasher. Yeah, getting that together.

What's my thing? I don't like— I don't like dirty dishes in the sink. It's just a pet peeve of mine. So before I go to bed, I want to make sure that I put things away so when I get up in the morning, it's not an overwhelming factor for me if I see dirty dishes in the sink. It makes me feel as though what happened the night before that you couldn't get your, your act together to prepare.

So what are the— what are some of the things that you do, um, in the evening to prepare yourself for the for the morning?

Really, it's more like what I just said. I, I make sure my house is cleaned. Uh, now I don't say spotless. I mean things are put away that needs to be put away. Pillows are propped accordingly on the couches. Um, certain things are just organized in a certain way. I try to make my lunch the night before if I'm going into the office. Um, so that I— because I'm really not a fantastical morning person. So if I do it the night before, um, I set the tone very easily the next morning. That's some of my stuff.

Okay, so do you prepare your outfit for the morning too?

Yeah, as much as I try to do that, it just never seems to work itself out for me to do that.

Okay.

Um, no. Okay.

I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll prepare myself for the morning for like kind of my review my schedule. Um, what I, I think that's something that's really important to do is kind of like get an idea what that next day is going to be about, especially if it's a work day. Um, because nothing can throw you off more than not knowing the meetings that you're going to have, especially if it starts early in the morning. And not knowing that you're not prepared for that next morning things. And it just may be just getting you mentally prepared for what's coming up that next day.

I know it's real. I know it's really bothering you. Yeah, it's really bothering you.

Well, that we're puppy sitting again.

Yeah, yeah.

It's just that it's It's just the, the, um, yeah, she wants to be part of the crowd.

She would prefer to be in the room with us. I'm not saying she wouldn't be barking and jumping up and down, but she'd be in the room. She has this thing. Okay, she wants to—

she's in the screen room right now. Yeah, I know, but she's by herself.

She's by herself.

Yep.

Um, so morning routines, um, we like to get up at a certain time in the morning. Um, usually he's up before I am. Um, making our bed in the morning. We definitely do a workout.

Well, I mean, let's talk about making the bed.

We make the bed.

No, but, but I mean, even Ed Mylett said, you know, you've got to start with the small things and have the routines.

And, you know, before Ed ever mentioned it, that was never— I didn't need Ed to tell me that.

I know, but why is it important to make your bed?

Well, it kind of just goes back to keeping my life organized and keeping myself tight. And that's one of the things that I have always done.

Doesn't it set the tone too, to just about— you've got some sort of organization in your life and you're not just a bunch of clothes and things.

Yeah, I, I've never understood that concept.

No, because we've always made our bed. I can't remember when we never met.

Yeah, but I also— I'm also not the type of person, nor have I ever been the type of person, that just leaves clothes all over the floor and not put it in the hamper, right? If it's dirty, put it in.

Well, don't you think that if you're disorganized in your home, you also disorganized?

Oh, absolutely.

In your mind and in your thoughts.

Absolutely. If you don't— if you don't have basic things that you always do routinely things can overwhelm you, right?

And then you feel chaos, that you're just in the chaos.

Yes, because you come home and it looks just like how you left it, right? It doesn't look like it— you made any headway. And making your bed is probably the more simplistic thing you can do to help set the tone for this, to set the tone. So we make the bed, and, and contrary to what his feelings would be, making the bed in the beginning stages of our marriage was just fix the blanket and put the blanket. As time went on, more pillows got added, so there's more fluffiness going on. And that would, that would drive somebody crazy, like, why do we need all these pillows? Like, what's the point of all these pillows?

I still, I still think that, but that's okay. If they make you happy, then more pillows we can have.

More pillows. I'm, I'm I like, I like to make it look as inviting as possible. And when you make a bed and you have all the— haven't you ever, when you go into a hotel and it's a fancy hotel or it's a really upscale hotel and you walk into that room and you see that bed fluffed up with all those nice pillows and crisp sheets, it really just says, ooh. Okay, I like that. So that's for me, that's, that's one of the things. And we do that together. Yes, we do that together. But, uh, so my morning routine would be, you know, the bed gets made, we do that together. Um, I do get an exercise routine in, uh, every morning. Sometimes that's us riding bikes together.

Sometimes this time of year I like to be outside, I really do. I enjoy getting up, um, you know, soon after the sun comes up where it's just the daybreak of light and get out there on the bike. And you, you get the fresh air, you get your body moving, you know, you can see the sun coming in different, different directions. Some parts are shady, some are just the sun's coming up. It just kind of just sets that tone for the day of what it is.

Sets the tone.

And, um, you know, and we've also you know, joined a gym recently to try to level up our fitness. So that's been a challenge for the morning routine a little bit because we have to drive. Yeah, we have to drive and allocate the time, and it cuts out some of the other things that we could be doing in the morning. Like what?

We want to work out no matter what.

Okay, why don't you talk? You can talk about your routine, then I'll talk about mine.

Okay, so my—

so we both work out.

We both work out, right? One way or the other.

Sometimes together, sometimes not.

Then it's coming back if we've been out, or once we finish whatever routine we're going to finish, then it's coming back and jumping in the shower, getting ready for work. Whether I'm physically leaving to go to the, to the office, or I'm home and I'm going to be working from home, it's just that routine of taking my shower and, and, and doing that part of it. If I'm going into the office, I would try to make my lunch or prepare it so that as I'm exiting out the night before— I do, but not always. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. If I do it the night before, well, then you're packing it. Then I'm packing it and I'm making sure that it's ready when I exit out the, out the door. Um, and then as far as what I'm wearing, that's probably the other routine is I will sit back and Iron. I like to iron my clothes if they need be. I don't like wrinkly, though I might end up wrinkly by the end of the day. I don't like to start off wrinkly, so I iron.

I think, yeah, what ironing does more— something else for you too.

It's just, you know what, it's just, it's, it's that swaying back and forth, getting rid of wrinkles, smoothing out your, your clothes. Um, making it look fresh and like you just bought it.

Um, so it's that crispness again.

It's that crispness. It's, it's just—

at least you're not ironing the sheets, so that's okay.

And I do— and there's lots of other things I don't iron. I know, but I do for myself. I iron clothes. That's what I do. Not every morning. But almost every morning.

Yes, I can hear, I can hear the steam, the steam coming off the iron. I said, oh, she's ironing again.

She's ironing. She's getting something ready. Um, and then it's, you know, off to the races. If I'm physically going into the office, I try to leave, I try to leave as soon as I possibly can. But I will tell you, you could actually make it on time. I never make it on time. And the sad truth through it all is, is I'm less than 10 minutes away from, from the office.

We're one of the few that have—

yeah, we're really close.

Yeah, both of us are in our different—

we're not in the same office, but no, but no, we go in different directions. But unlike what it used to be when we lived far away and we'd have to drive a long distance or different places that we worked. We always— I always used to make it in on time, but for some reason—

do you think that's age and, and the level of our job? Do you think it's the byproduct of COVID that you don't make it in on time? I think it's a byproduct of COVID because working from home, you were working from home, but we also— we're still hybrid. We work from home some days and we go in some days.

Yeah, but, and I do find that when I'm working from home, I start earlier. And sometimes I finish later. And I don't always, you know, I could be literally sitting at my desk, eating lunch, and not physically go out anywhere, though I will tell you that when I'm— I am at home, I would take a break sometimes and just physically leave, even if I went to go get a cup of coffee somewhere. I would leave, um, like 20 minutes, 30 minutes. I'd leave the house just to go get something.

Okay, well, in the morning for me it's working out again, and then we come back. Um, right now it's— I'm the one that usually makes, um, the smoothie in the morning. Um, we'll do a vegetable green smoothie or we'll do a protein smoothie. If we do the protein smoothie, then each one of us makes it our own way. If we do the green smoothie, then I'll make enough for both of us. And lately we've kind of gone back to the green smoothie just to, just to give it— it's refreshing and it helps cleanse your body and it gives you the vegetables which you don't really prefer to eat cooked, so might as well have them in a smoothie. And then we usually shower right after each other, so she's getting ready while I'm in the shower and we listen to Growth Day and the Daily Fire. That gets us going. It's a dose of, um, personal growth and positivity for the day. It really helps set our mindset, um, and it has a good message to really get you going for the day. And I think that's important, no matter what, no matter what that is, you know. If you, um, listen to something to set the tone for the day You know, it doesn't have to be a podcast too.

Yeah, if you have something that you like, right? You know, like you can listen to Ed Mylett.

You can listen to We Should Probably Edit This. Yeah, you could do that, but we won't.

But you can listen to Mel Robbins. You can— there's lots of people out there that I think if you, if you really want to look at ways to help set yourself up for more success and for a better routine, find somebody out there that you can listen to that can give you a good dose of that.

And not the news. No. And the media. That just, that can set your tone, your morning routine in a different direction. And then you can come to work all, all agitated and worried about what's happening in the world versus inspired and uplifted about what you can do or what's happening. So we'll do that. And then pretty much, if I have time before that, you know, I try to do a little bit of journaling and get my mind set for the day on that. And sometimes I'll reach out to friends, send them a text message or a video snippet or something in the morning, just to encourage each other. It doesn't always happen, but I do try to do something in the morning. That's where this gym routine right now has added another 30 to 40 minutes to our routine, so some of those other things I've had to cut out from doing it. But I do miss, I do miss my time in the morning to do a little reading, to get myself together for the day with that. But then it's really For me, it's just getting dressed like that, you know. I'm not worried about the ironing too much, although I will ask once in a while, can you iron this for me? So she's got the iron out, um, and then permanently. And then it's just a matter of if I'm working from home, it's a much more relaxed start to the day because I know that I don't have to get the lunch ready right then and there. Also, if I'm working from home I also know that I can get up and walk outside for a few minutes. To me, walking outside in the morning and getting that— whether I'm riding the bike first thing or a little bit later, it's important to get up and move around. Yeah, especially if you have a desk job and you're sitting there. I know some of, some of us out there have jobs that are very physically demanding, so, you know, your break is wanting to sit down. Where our break is, we need to get up and stretch and stand up and move. So if I'm home, I'll do that. I'll walk around, look at the plants. Sometimes I'll water them a little bit while I'm home taking a break. If I'm at work, I just walk up to the roof and walk around and see what's going on in the Sound, what they're doing with the new railroad construction that's going there.

But you're just doing something to break up the monotony of the day.

Right. You know?

Right. I'll do the same thing, but my— I've been having some hip issues, so for me, sitting down for long periods of time isn't a good thing. So I tend to get up, um, at least, at least every hour I'm getting up and I'm moving around. And it's not a matter of, you know, your stand-up desk.

Are you using your stand-up desk?

Not when I'm in the office.

No, never.

No, I don't. I don't. There's no sense of privacy, and it just annoys me, so I don't do that. I don't have an office like you. I don't need to do it when I'm home because if I'm really agitated, I just get up. Okay. And I just go do something.

I use my stand-up desk at work. Right, but you have your own.

You have your own.

Yeah, but all of us all have cubes, so we have walls that go up with it. You know, um, there are a lot of people are using them, are using them now. I mean, I think it's really important to work part of your day standing when possible, um, or at least taking those breaks like what you're, what you're—

I definitely think you got to take the break. I think you— if there's one thing that COVID really, I think, emphasized, and even from working from home, is you needed to take breaks. You needed to physically remove yourself from where you're at to go somewhere else and do something else. Um, that was more important, um, than anything else. And from that, I think that really set the tone. I think it was really hard for us to do it while we were still, um, kind of like working from home, um, back in the day, you You know, you would get up to go to lunch. You might get up to have a morning break or an afternoon break, but it wasn't like something where every hour you would be up and about unless you were one of the smokers that had to go outside to smoke. And even then, that, that kind of, I think, waned.

It seemed like it in, in those days, it seemed like it was okay for the smokers to go take a break every hour, but not normal people. And when I say normal people, I mean, I don't mean smokers aren't normal.

Um, well, that's why I think COVID changed the dynamics a little bit with people, uh, working from home and, you know, yeah, feeling— being accomplished to still able to do your work, you know. So that was good. So that's— morning routines though, I think, are important. Um, your body gets into a certain type of rhythm, like 9:30, starting at 9 o'clock till 10 o'clock. It's the winding down. It's the getting ready to go to bed.

Oh, you're talking evening routine now?

Well, no, I'm talking about, again, setting the tone for the next day, because more than likely that alarm's gonna go off at like— sometimes it goes off at 5, sometimes it goes off at 5:30.

So, so do you think now that we've been getting up earlier to get to the gym Are you waking up earlier now? I am.

I think, I think I automatically, all of a sudden, just something says, you know, we've had enough, we've had enough sleep.

And it's—

yeah, and we can get in— at least I will say for myself, if I can get in 8 hours of sleep, I'm, I'm pretty good for the day, you know, whereas If I was in the past, if I was get 6 hours or 7 hours worth of sleep, I might be a little dicey though. I'm still not 100% morning person.

No, you never have been.

Um, I don't think—

I think I'm better at night when it comes to creativity and some of the things when I'm there. Um, but the morning, I've been really trying to be that morning person, which I can get myself up and going. Better than you can. But lately I have to, I have to say that, you know, I'm amazed at you getting up at 5, 5:30, you know, to go do this thing, because normally I'd be on my own. You know, you'd say, you can go. Um, so that's— so I think once you've— I think anybody can change their routine.

Yes.

You know, for sure, because I've seen it, I've seen it in you. Changing your routine in the morning.

Yeah.

So, um, I think any—

if you set your mind to anything, I think you could do it, right? But you have to set your mind to it.

But that also means changing your evening routine too. If you're getting up earlier, you can't expect to go to bed at 11 or midnight or midnight and still get up at 5 o'clock in the morning. A couple hours earlier than you're used to. So you've got to adjust both ends of the scale. Or it's not going to work.

It's not going to work.

Yeah, right.

So that's what I'm saying. To some extent, morning routines have some— have a little bit of prepping in the evening to set your next day well, to set you, to set you up for success on your next, on your next day. You have to have some things being done in the evening to make that work, to make the morning routine actually work. Correct.

Right. Otherwise you're scrambling in the morning. You're not feeling good about it. Yeah, you're like, like if you don't prepare your lunch, now you got to figure out what you're going to make. So that now takes up additional time.

Or what you're going to buy when you get to the store. Right, right.

So that, so the, all those things that you don't prepare yourself for, for that day, take up that time that you could be doing other things in the morning.

It takes up brain space, you know, because you're having to think, whereas if you had done it the night before It's not anything you have to really worry about, and things become very much routine. What irritates your routine sometimes is going away, uh, going on vacation, or, you know, you're leaving your home, or having, or having people come and having company. Yep, having company, that can, that can throw monkey wrenches, but I, I think we've learned We have to sometimes alter that a little bit. Um, I think you—

if you're traveling, I think you still need to try to stick to your same, same, same routine, same routine. If you're used to exercising in the morning, you know, still do that because it's only going to make your traveling experience that much more, right, cohesive.

Cohesive. So maybe it's not necessarily going to a gym, but maybe it's walking or bringing some bands with you.

And exercising in the room. Yeah, yeah.

But either which way, what you're going to try to maintain, you know, that exercise routine. I know when we're going to go see our grandchildren soon, and they're going to get up early anyway because they got to get up to go to school, and we remember what that was like. That was like, ah, you know, there's a lot of screaming.

Oh, when you have, when you have kids, the morning routine is even more critical. And even more critical than that is the evening routine. Yes, and I think, I think that's what our son has really discovered is, you know, if they don't prepare everything the night before, morning is chaos. And if you want to have no chaos, get yourself ready for that. You gotta do it.

Yeah, you gotta do it the night before. But sometimes you don't learn that stuff until you're in it. Yeah, you know, in the mix. But I mean, most of her— well, our oldest was the type of kid who would get up, get dressed, and go. Uh, the last one, man, he would get going. Yeah, in a very like— like you would say, did you brush your teeth? You know, like, you really need to brush your teeth. You know, that kind of stuff. And, and the, the sister she always had her stuff together. Like, she had her, her—

and then she'd have to wait for the younger one.

Oh, that would drive her bananas. Uh, but because she was, she was very organized and very—

but when they're little, it's all that responsibility still falls on you, mom and dad, you know. And just to really be organized and have that routine— we didn't think about routines during those times. Really.

We thought about it, but we lived through it, right? And we, and we made it happen.

But for ourselves, we didn't, you know, we didn't have—

we still made the bed.

Yes. But we, we, um, yeah, we just got through the day. And, um, and like I said, if you don't intentionally have a routine, you still have a routine, you know.

But you don't want to get through the day. I think in the beginning, that word getting through the day makes it seem as though you didn't have any intention. Right, on your day.

That's another— that's something important to talk about, having routines. You need to have those intentions. Intentions.

You need to have the intention. And that's why we, we don't— we don't listen. We used to listen to the news. We don't listen to the news. No. Um, we focus on more positive, uplifting conversations, things that can give you knowledge and help you expand your knowledge base. So if you're listening to a podcast on, you know, from Mel Robbins that on her topic of, you know, the let them theory, for instance, there was some benefit to listening to that that helps you in your own life. It's that type. So I don't— so sometimes people think, oh, you get up and you listen to rah rah rah. No, it's not always rah rah rah, but it is about concepts that you can use, and not all, but certain things that are going to be helpful for you. That's what I mean. Listening to the news doesn't offer you any benefit, doesn't set the tone. And please don't tell me that that gives you more information about what's going on in the world. Trust me when I tell you, you don't need the news to tell you what's going on in the world. You can find out what's going on in the world.

Well, it's also skewed of what's going on in the world, in the world, and maybe in one little piece of it, right? Um, but it's, you know, listening to audiobooks, you know, I just, I just got through listening to The Alchemist, you know, which is really great. You know, I would start off in the morning and then, um, listen to it on my way or when I had a break. Um, you know, you don't have to— it doesn't have to be necessarily uplifting, powerful, you know, growth, growth kind of stuff. Like some things I'll, I'll listen to a podcast for work on as I'm trying to learn more about AI. You know, sometimes that can be boring, but at the same time it can be challenging on listening to see different things. I mean, so if— so in your career you might find something that you can listen to to help benefit and move you forward in what you're doing as well.

Yeah, probably the one thing I would, I would say that I don't do very often but it definitely helps set the tone, is listening to music. You know, just certain sounds and certain things, uh, really help set the tone.

I don't see you doing that in the morning though.

No, I don't do it because in the morning I'm really just— during cooking in the evening, cooking in the evening, definitely when I'm cleaning, uh, there is that motivational aspect. Sundays is one of those days where you just, you know, you want to quiet the noise. You don't want to hear a lot of racket going on. So I could, I could see Sundays being very mellow music days. And if I'm exercising, sometimes listening to somebody talk does not inspire me. So if I'm looking to really push myself, I'll put I'll put certain kind of music on in my AirPods that are going to make me go.

Um, so that's another part of morning routine. Well, let's talk real quickly. We can end this on, on this. How about coffee in the morning?

I don't drink coffee. I used to.

Um, well, you drink coffee, you just don't drink it in the morning.

Yeah, I just don't drink it in the morning. Uh, I've trained myself to number one, really just try to have one, uh, moment in the day where I have my coffee. And I'm not— I'm gonna be brutally honest, it's not gonna be this little 8-ounce cup. I could have a 16-ounce cup of coffee, uh, but I, I tend to have it late in the afternoons, um, like I'm a 2 to 3 o'clock-ish. And surprisingly enough, If I don't have that cup by that point, I won't have it for the rest of the day. Like, I'll miss the whole day without a cup of coffee. Um, but I enjoy having a cup of coffee. To me, it— to me, it's a— it's an enjoyment. Like, when my grandchildren are around, I like to get up early enough that before madness begins, like, I could get a cup of coffee in.

So you'll drink coffee in the morning then?

No, usually in the mornings, even now.

You mean before they come home from school? Yeah.

I'll wind myself to the point where before the madness, I'm decompressing. For me, coffee is a decompressing moment. It's a moment in my day where don't talk to me. I'm not answering emails. I'm not looking at my phone. I'm, I'm in the zone. I'm in a coffee zone.

I mean, I'll, I'll, I'll put it— I'll put matcha in my protein shake. Yeah. Um, just as I like to— I enjoy the flavor in that. Um, I've started drinking more coffee recently. I haven't in a long time. On the week— on the weekends, it's— on the weekends it's different. On the weekends The routines are different on the weekends.

Routines are different.

Yes, the morning routines are different.

Yes.

So I mean, so we enjoy going out for breakfast, especially down by the, um, by the marina where we can sit outside in the nice early morning sun, have a breakfast sandwich and a cup of coffee at that time, just relaxing.

Um, that's, that's a, that's— but the weekends are a different time for us because Number one, we don't have the responsibility of going to work, so a lot of it is just the two of us. Like, we don't have breakfast even when we're working from home. We don't sit down and have breakfast together.

It's a smoothie.

It's a smoothie. He's drinking it at his desk and I'm drinking it upstairs at my desk. So we're not sitting down together like we would, except on Fridays.

Sometimes Friday.

Sometimes Friday.

Friday starts the weekend for us.

It does. It starts the weekend for us, and we're like, okay, let's go. So we do things on the weekends that we normally wouldn't have time to do it during the weekday, right?

So we'd love to hear what you do on your morning routines. So on that note, we should probably edit this, but we won't. Until next time, see ya.

Bye.