Morning Rituals for Dads

“The way to own your life is to own your day. Today. Because that’s all you have.”

-Aubrey Marcus, Own the Day, Own Your Life

“Well begun is half done” 

-Aristotle

One of the first things that fell by the wayside when G came into our lives were our morning rituals. Open any blog or podcast today and you will see everyone from Tim Ferriss to Tony Robins discussing morning rituals. Having a younger child does not mean that your ritual has to go away… it just means that you might need to be more flexible with the order of the ritual and know that somedays it might not go your way. 

NOTE: While this might look like more of a morning “schedule”, by thinking of it as a ritual it helps me this done!

Pre-Morning prep (night before): I do my best to prep as much as possible the night before, which means clean the kitchen, prep the coffee maker, make sure we have the right breakfast items for the kiddo, washing dog bowls, etc. That way, when I first com downstairs everything is ready to go!

Weekday/weekend: Basically the below items are the same except on the weekend instead of going to day care we play in the playroom, park, etc. On the weekend we take our time a bit more, but still hit most of these items.

Nature calls: first things first, when you wake up, as soon as you get out of bed, take care of any business you have to...

Getting the rascal ready: This one is floating and happens whenever the kiddo (or kiddos) wake up. We give G breakfast in his PJs if we have enough time, if he sleeps in, we get him dressed before breakfast.

Dogs: First thing when I head downstairs is to let the dogs out to avoid any accidents in the house.

Breakfast: I stick to an intermittent fasting plan, so I don’t eat until noon and stick to coffee/water in the morning. I get my sons breakfast ready as he watches from his highchair, all the while talking to him. 

Water: Self explanatory, drink some water!

Coffee: arguably the most important step of my ritual… I turn on the coffee maker on the way to let the dogs out.

Make the bed: Tim Ferriss quoted Naval Admiral William McRaven’s commencement speech in Tools of Titans, siting “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride, and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.” I buy into this, but I also like the feeling of getting into a made bed at night!

News: While making breakfast and letting G eat, I typically turn on the local / national news. 

News part 2: Daycare run: At 8, its time to run G to daycare. I have 2 podcasts I listen to on my commute to day care. first is NPR’s Up First, offering a general overview of the days headlines, followed by the New York Times “The Daily” which offers a deep dive into a relevant story. This helps ground me in what is happening.

Mindfulness: as I called out in my mindfulness post, I complete my 5 Minute Journal Post either before or after the daycare run. 

Prep for the day: I work at home, so after the daycare run, I set aside 15 minutes to get the house and my office in order to minimize distractions. This helps ground me and prepare me for the day and remove distractions so I can focus on work.

This is a lot to cram into a 2 hour slot for sure, but sometimes I have a few other things that show up:

Optional:

Fitness: Even if its just some stretching or push ups, or a quick 20 minute Peloton ride, fitness in the morning can make me feel like I got a jump on the day.

Meditation: An extended mindfulness exercise can help you refresh my brain and be ready for whatever comes my way

Coffee run: sometimes when I need that extra caffeine hit, I will run to Starbucks. Not only does this allow me to get some high octane coffee, but it also gets me out of the house for another few minutes and energizes my morning further

What are some of your morning rituals that help get you through the day?

Links:

Tim Ferriss: http://www.businessinsider.com/tim-ferriss-morning-routine-2017-1

Tony Robbins: http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-robbins-morning-routine-meditation-and-workout-2017-10