Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to vary your morning routine by having
Speaker 1: a short form and a long form. Lots of people
Speaker 1: pride themselves on their morning routines. Starting the day with
Speaker 1: intentionality can set you up for success. I love reading
Speaker 1: about what the most successful people do before breakfast, like
Speaker 1: anyone else. But here's the thing. You don't have to
Speaker 1: start your day exactly the same way every single day
Speaker 1: to reap the benefits. Indeed, starting every day with an
Speaker 1: extensive morning routine may not be feasible or even desirable.
Speaker 1: Having different versions of your routine can help make the
Speaker 1: routine more sustainable. That's because, as I have observed from
Speaker 1: time logs, even people who talk about their daily morning
Speaker 1: routines seldom do the routines every single day. Daily tends
Speaker 1: to mean Monday through Friday, except if the person is
Speaker 1: on vacation or sick or running really late. So maybe
Speaker 1: daily actually means something like two hundred times per year.
Speaker 1: This is decidedly fewer than three hundred sixty five times
Speaker 1: per year, and that is fine. But another approach is
Speaker 1: to have a long form of your morning routine and
Speaker 1: a shorter form. The shorter form accommodates the fact that
Speaker 1: not all three hundred sixty five days need to look alike,
Speaker 1: while allowing you to still get some of the benefits
Speaker 1: of routine. The basic idea is that the long form
Speaker 1: of your morning routine is your ideal. The short form
Speaker 1: includes some essential elements, perhaps in a more abbreviated form.
Speaker 1: For instance, someone's long form mourning routine might include a
Speaker 1: few minutes of meditation, reading a chapter in a professional
Speaker 1: development book, followed by a forty five minute run and
Speaker 1: some strength training. The short form might include a few
Speaker 1: minutes of meditation and a five minute toning routine that
Speaker 1: doesn't involve any equipment. The person is still setting the
Speaker 1: expectation of doing something in the morning and building that
Speaker 1: muscle memory. But this allows for those mornings the seven
Speaker 1: am flights, or when you're staying in a hotel without
Speaker 1: a gym, or for those times when an ankle injury
Speaker 1: or a bad cough renders a forty five minute run inadvisable.
Speaker 1: Perhaps your long form routine might include an hour of
Speaker 1: creative writing. Your short form is taking a few minutes
Speaker 1: to respond to a writing prompt just one hundred words,
Speaker 1: you are still writing, but you could probably manage to
Speaker 1: send one hundred words to yourself in an email while
Speaker 1: you are writing the elevator up to your office when
Speaker 1: you overslept and are running late. The advantage of having
Speaker 1: a preplanned short form of your routine is that it
Speaker 1: gives you the essentials of your routine on days when
Speaker 1: you have less time available without your having to deliberate
Speaker 1: about what to cut. This makes it more likely that
Speaker 1: you will continue to stick with your routine, even if
Speaker 1: your routine doesn't look exactly the same day to day.
Speaker 1: So tomorrow morning, as you go through your morning routine,
Speaker 1: consider whether there are elements you would like to expand
Speaker 1: on days when you have more time, or elements you
Speaker 1: could skip or abbreviate on days when you need to
Speaker 1: get out the door faster. By thinking through a short
Speaker 1: form and a long form morning routine in advance, you
Speaker 1: are able to get the benefits of intentionality and predictability
Speaker 1: without feeling like a failure when the long form can't happen.
Speaker 1: If you try using a short form and a long
Speaker 1: form of your morning routine, I'd love to hear about it.
Speaker 1: You can reach me at Laura at Laura Vanderkam dot com.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from it. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod.
Speaker 1: That's b E the number four, then break fast p
Speaker 1: o D. You can also shoot me an email at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.