The Best Morning Routine For Men
Introduction
A morning routine is key to setting up your day, and a foundation for productivity, self-improvement and levelling up as a man. From past experience, we can all see anecdotally how demoralising a slow, unproductive start to the day can be. Before you know it, it is 1pm on a Sunday and all you have done is watch Netflix. Especially with a 9-5 career, it is incredibly frustrating to waste such a large part of your free time on weekends. Hopefully, this article can provide some key tasks you can include in your morning routines to maximise your time and productivity.
No. 1: Start Early
The earlier you wake up the better (assuming you still get 7+ hours sleep). It’s hard, it’s quite often cold (in the UK), and it requires true discipline to stick to day in day out. It isn’t just about gaining a few extra minutes in the morning, but it’s a deliberate choice to increase productivity and mental clarity. This heightened sense of discipline goes a lot further than you’d expect.
At the start, waking up at 6am whilst you are used to waking up at 10am is a struggle and will be daunting. The transition takes time. Rather than jumping straight into it, slowly make your alarm earlier and earlier, until you reach your desired wake up time. Once you have reached this, make sure to stick as close as possible to this routine to regulate your circadian rhythm.
No. 2: The Power of Meditiation
Yes, a lot of people find this pointless. We think it is the most important thing to include in your morning routine. In the beginning, it's hard and boring. All your mind wants to do is find the quickest fix of the dopamine, your mind cannot focus on the task, and it can be overwhelming. Meditation is a skill, and over a longer time period, can really increase self-awareness, reduce stress and improve mental resilience. Your increased mindfulness allows you to find pleasure in the simplest things, reducing your need to pick up the phone and scroll TikTok for hours. Working hard on your side hustle becomes fun. Building Lego becomes more fun than drinking and parting.
If you have never meditated before, find a short five minute beginner session and try and incorporate this for a week. Even if it is not perfect at the start, you’ll quickly find true benefits.
No. 3: A Healthy Breakfast and Caffeine
This very much depends on preference. Some people prefer to fast in the morning, believing this provides them with a heightened sense of productivity, however we personally prefer to eat a small breakfast of fats and proteins, with a relatively small amount of carbs from fruits three to four fruits. A well-balanced morning meal provides essential nutrients, stabilizes blood sugar levels, and kickstarts your metabolism. Discover the impact a nutritious breakfast can have on your energy levels, cognitive function, and overall well-being.
Four eggs, coupled with fruits and 1 to 2 litres of water is ideal here. It is also a good idea to ensure you take the relevant supplements for you with this meal, for instance a multivitamin, creatine, or ashwagandha etc. Pomegranate is a particularly good choice to include in the morning meal, great for testosterone, and particularly tasty. Blueberries and raspberries are also great to include.
In terms of caffeine, abstain from a coffee until an hour and half from waking. This seems to be the most optimal in terms of natural cortisol fluctuations, optimising productivity.
No. 4: Train In The Morning
Training is hard, and energy demanding. Therefore, if possible, you should try and train in the morning. Testosterone reaches its peak early in the morning, so training during this time arguably is most optimal. From a mental perspective, you have completed a tough, large task early in the day, and this sets you up for your work and study for the rest of the day. The natural surge in dopamine and endorphins you will receive from training hard cannot be underestimated either.
If you are a beginner, and looking for a great beginner’s split as well as the basic training principles that we preach, check out our blog post here: The Best 4 Day Workout Split To Build Muscle
No. 5: Set Your Intentions - Journalling
Journalling is a great way, in synergy with meditation to really develop a deep understanding of self-awareness and mental clarity. At the beginning, do not overwhelm yourself. Set three to four sections out for you to complete every morning. We would recommend the following:
3 Things That Made Yesterday Great
3 Things That You Could Have Improved Yesterday
3 Things You want To Achieve Today
3 Things You Are Grateful For
Again, it may sound trivial, but developing these habits will have a profound positive effect on reinforcing what is important to you, and developing a healthy way of critiquing yourself whilst developing a sense of gratefulness and positivity towards working hard on your goals, and improving weak areas.
It is also great to write these on paper rather than an app or phone notes, to stay away from screens and be fully present with yourself. Looking back at your journalling from months prior also acts as a further catalyst for motivation, when you see how much you have developed from your original self-criticisms and goals.
Outro
We hope you enjoyed reading this short blog post on how to set up a morning routine for success. Start slow, and create habits that are sustainable and long-term, rather than trying to begin the most intense morning routines available, and only managing a couple of days. Once you master the basics of meditating, journalling, waking up early, selecting proper nutrition, and exercising, we can begin to develop further habits which will take you in further into optimising your time and productivity.
Thanks for reading, and let us know your thoughts on the above, and if there are any key points you think would benefit others too.
