Why I stopped optimising my mornings

For six months, I followed the morning routine that every productivity podcast seems to recommend. Wake at 5am. Journal for ten minutes. Cold shower. Meditate for fifteen minutes. Exercise. Only then: coffee and the start of the actual day.

I was disciplined about it. I tracked it in a spreadsheet. I bought a sunrise alarm clock. I told people about it at dinner parties, which in hindsight was the most annoying thing about the whole experiment.

What happened

For the first two weeks, I felt amazing. Energised, focused, slightly smug. I was the person who had figured it out.

By month two, the 5am alarm had become the thing I dreaded most about each day. I was going to bed at 9pm to make it work, which meant I stopped seeing friends on weeknights. My evenings became a countdown to sleep. I was optimising my mornings at the cost of everything else.

By month four, I was exhausted. Not from the routine itself, but from the rigidity. If I missed a step — skipped the cold shower because I was running late, or journaled for seven minutes instead of ten — I felt like the whole morning was ruined. The routine that was supposed to reduce stress had become the main source of it.

What I do now

I wake up when my body wakes up, which is usually around 7. I make coffee. I take Mochi for a walk. Sometimes I read. Sometimes I just sit there. There is no spreadsheet.

The truth I arrived at, which is boring and won't sell any books, is that the best morning routine is one you don't have to think about. The moment it requires willpower, it's a job, not a ritual.

The one thing I kept

The morning walk with Mochi. But I was doing that before the experiment anyway. Mochi doesn't care what time it is. She just wants to go outside and smell things. There's probably a lesson in that.