Working in the mental wellness realm, there’s a handful of common questions I hear a lot. One of the most common…
“What’s your morning routine?”
And for good reason. You can’t open a book or hear a podcast without someone talking about their “billion-dollar morning routine.”
If that many people are talking about it, it must be important… right?
Over the last couple of years, I’ve gone down the rabbit hole trying to figure that out — in my own life, in conversations with other people, and, yes, in far too many Google searches at 3 a.m. (ironic because that’s a few hours before I wake up).
What I’ve learned?
I’ll tell you what I do at the end. But more importantly, I’ll tell you why I do it, because that’s the part that actually matters.
This isn’t a “wake up at 5 a.m. or you’re failing at life” kind of blog.
It’s for anyone who’s tried a perfect-looking morning routine, burned out, and wondered if it’s supposed to feel this hard.
By the end, you’ll see mornings less as something to perfect and more as something to explore, so you can start your day in a way that actually feels good.
Robin Sharma, author of The 5am Club, says a morning routine is a “Victory Hour.”
I say a morning routine is just the stuff you do after you wake up.
It can be a full-on 90-minute sequence with breathwork, journaling, and a smoothie that requires three kitchen gadgets.
Or it can be brushing your teeth, staring out the window for five minutes, and deciding which sock feels less damp.
There’s no official length or structure. The only real question is:
Does it help you start your day in a way that feels right for you?
There’s some truth in saying a morning routine is the key to productivity, success, happiness, and possibly immortality (okay, maybe not immortality).
Studies show the way you start your day can influence your mood, focus, and even how resilient you feel when things go sideways.
But here’s the part that gets missed: a good morning routine isn’t about squeezing more out of your day. It’s about setting the tone for how you move through it.
If the first 20 minutes of your day make you feel calm, grounded, and clear-headed, that energy tends to ripple into everything else you do, whether you’re heading into a meeting, caring for kids, or just trying to keep your head above water.
It’s less about “winning the morning” and more about starting in a way that makes the rest of the day a little lighter to carry.
The internet loves to make morning routines look like magic spells.
You just copy the right one, and boom — you’re happier, healthier, and wildly successful.
Except… not really.
Here are a few myths worth calling out:
There isn’t. Think about it. Everyone wants different things. If there was one perfect routine, it would be easy to find, everyone would do it, and all of life’s problems would be solved.
What works for your favourite entrepreneur or influencer might feel completely wrong in your life.
And if it does, that doesn’t mean you’re doing it “wrong”, it just means you’re human.
In my search, I’ve tried several different ones. Ones made for monks, billionaires, even creatives.
As frustrating as it was to find, practice, and stay consistent, it was also kind of fun. You start to notice a lot of overlap in what people do, but the how is always something you find through exploration.
Some mornings, mine takes 15 minutes. Other days, I might spend an hour or two moving slowly through it. There’s no stopwatch handing out gold stars.
If I’m in need of more discipline, I’ll fight the urge to skip it. If I’m craving more “me time,” I’ll get lost in doing whatever I want — whether that’s journaling for an hour or making pancakes from scratch.
Here’s the truth: life happens. You’ll skip days. Sometimes weeks. And that’s okay.
When I first started building a morning routine, I treated it like a formula to make me better, faster, stronger. I wanted to work harder, longer, and turn myself into a money-making machine.
And for a while… it worked.
The problem wasn’t the money. It was the machine.
I didn’t feel better, I felt disconnected. My mornings weren’t filling me up; they were just powering me forward like an engine that never got an oil change.
That’s when I started looking at my mornings less like a performance to nail and more like a space to explore.
When I stopped chasing the “perfect” morning, I started noticing how much more human it felt.
Instead of treating my mornings like a checklist to complete, I began experimenting. Some days I’d read. Some days I’d journal. Some days I’d meditate. Sometimes all three. Sometimes none.
It was like letting my mornings breathe again.
I realized I didn’t need to wring every ounce of productivity out of them. I just needed to start my day in a way that helped me feel the way I wanted to feel calm, clear, grounded.
And here’s the thing: exploration doesn’t mean aimless. You can still have a rhythm, a set of “go-to” practices you pull from, but you’re choosing them based on what you need that day.
That’s the difference between a routine that works for a season… and one that can adapt with you for years.
Here’s the rule I follow now: add what makes you feel good.
For me, that usually means three things:
Some mornings, I do all three.
Some mornings, it’s just journaling with coffee.
Sometimes the whole thing takes 15 minutes.
Other times, it takes all morning (especially on slow, rainy Sundays) or I'll toss in some stretches.
If you notice, I don’t set timers.
Timing things out feels too regimented for me and doesn’t fit my lifestyle. For you, it might be a great way to get started or stay on track. It depends on what you’re trying to achieve.
Again… experiment.
And here’s the part I used to think was “failing”: there are stretches where I skip it entirely.
If it’s mid-July, warm morning… I’m going fishing.
That’s the beauty of building your own routine. You get to match it to your season of life. If you need more discipline, you can make it structured. If you need more breathing room, you can make it loose.
The point isn’t to hit some perfect streak. It’s to start the day in a way that leaves you feeling more like yourself.
The thing about routines is that they work… until they don’t.
Sometimes it’s boring. Sometimes it’s burnout. Sometimes it’s just that your life has shifted and your old routine doesn’t fit anymore.
I’ve found the best way to spot this is to check in every so often and ask:
“Is this still helping me feel the way I want to feel?”
If the answer’s no, I change it up.
It’s like lifting weights. What felt heavy when you started eventually becomes easy, and if you never adjust, you stop growing.
Morning routines are the same. Once they stop challenging you, grounding you, or giving you what you need, it’s time to switch something.
That could mean swapping meditation for a morning walk. Changing your reading material. Journaling in a new location.
Or, for a while, not having a routine at all.
The point isn’t to protect your morning routine at all costs. It’s to protect what your morning routine gives you.
Sometimes your life dictates the situation.
A lot of my friends have children under the age of one. I do not. And if you do, you know that a morning routine (or any routine) isn’t always easy to come by.
Other things can get in the way too: your job, health conditions, stress, grief… life has a way of reshaping what’s possible.
So meet yourself where you’re at. Look for others who are in a similar season and see what’s working for them.
They might have better answers than I do, or at least ideas you can adapt to your own life.
But what do you think? Are you a morning routine person? Thinking of adding one to your life? Find me on my channels and let me know.
And if you know someone who might benefit from this article, feel free to give it a share.
For more on peer support or mental wellness in general, check out the content on my website.
Until next time, I’m Jeff —
and take care of yourself, however that looks to you.