🌅 TREE 798: Morning routines

This week, TREE is written by my supremely talented colleague Lois Payne. Lois is The writer on my team in my day job. She’s also better than me at ping pong, which is super annoying. You’re stuck with me for the music selections. —Jeff

I used to obsess over my morning routine.

Over the years, I’ve tried a lot of idealised hit-your-5-AM-alarm-and-drink-a-green-smoothie-in-a-cold-shower-while-meditating-saying-affirmations-and-standing-on-your-head kinda stuff.

It’s interesting, but not helpful for me. I’m exhausted before I even get to the thing I’m trying to put myself in the best possible condition for. It’s a very subtle and cleverly disguised form of self-sabotage. And for a while, I fell for it.

But I realised something. If it’s not helping me work on the goal I care about most, my routine is working against me.

Honestly, I’ve found what works best is keeping it simple (stupid). I get up, drink water, and get straight on with the most important goal I have. Right now, that’s writing. So, I get up and write.

Life’s complicated enough without my help.

P.S. I’m writing more than ever.

I know I shared a Lava La Rue song a couple weeks ago, but their new album is my current favourite, so let’s do another.