Misbehaving, Moody & Mornings

Time to get vulnerable with you all. Here is my morning routine. Please roast me accordingly.

And no, not the “5-9 before the 9-5” where someone wakes up at 4:11am, drinks something green that tastes like lawn clippings, and stares at the sun until it respects them.

I mean real morning routine.
The one that happens before you start working but after you remember who you are.

So here’s mine. Exactly as it exists today. No optimization. No bullshit.

I technically wake up around 6:15 or 6:30, when my girlfriend’s alarm goes off. She gets out of bed immediately, like a person with purpose.

I do not.

I stay in bed until about 7:00. During this time, I exist in two states:

1. Awake, but horizontal and unwilling to participate

2. Asleep again, despite my mediocre effort to wake up

Around 7:15, she comes back in and tells me she has to go & asks if I’m coming with her or not. This is when I finally sit up, throw on random clothes, and get up.

Every morning, I walk her to work. She works very close to where we live. Close enough to walk, not close enough that I’m allowed to go all the way to the door without embarrassing her professionally. So I drop her off about a block away, say goodbye, and immediately turn around.

Then I walk home.
In complete silence.

No headphones. No music. No podcast about “unlocking my potential.”
Not as a mindfulness practice, just because I’m too asleep to remember to bring my headphones.

It’s just me, the sidewalk, and whatever half-formed thoughts are rattling around my head. Honestly? It might be the most peaceful part of my day.

When I get home, I make the bed (non-negotiable), sometimes make a cup of decaf coffee, and sit on the couch. Same spot. Same cushion. Like a ritual I didn’t consciously agree to but now fully respect.

From there, the morning splinters into a few possible paths.

Sometimes I turn on SportsCenter and let other people tell me what happened in sports while I slowly rejoin society.

Sometimes I open my laptop and start working around 7:45, cuz I’m an anxious king & realize I forgot to do something the day before.

Then at around 8:30, I (sometimes) work out… either a class or my depressing gym in the basement of my building. Or do a 10 minutes morning yoga class on YouTube. This one.

And yes, sprinkled throughout all of this are little moments where I’m on my phone. Twitter. LinkedIn. Scrolling. “Just checking one thing.” The most dangerous lie in modern history.

So that’s the routine.

It’s not terrible. It’s also not great.
It feels… fine. But a little unclaimed.

Here’s the part that made this click for me: mornings aren’t important because they make you productive. They’re important because your brain is barely activated.

There’s actual science here, but the short version is that when you wake up, your body floods you with cortisol. Not stress cortisol, just “please become a human” cortisol. You’re alert, but your self-control is trash.

Which explains why:

• Your phone feels irresistible

• Decisions feel heavy

• Intentions immediately fold under the lightest pressure

This is why routines matter. Not because they make you elite, but because they remove choices before your brain is ready to make them.

Defaults beat discipline. Every single time.

I actually already do some good stuff without realizing it. Credit to unaware me.

The morning walk? Sunlight and movement. Proven to help mood and focus.

The silent walk home? Accidentally meditative.

I didn’t design those habits. I do them for love. Which makes me think most of us don’t need better routines, we just need to slightly tighten the first 20-30 minutes so the day doesn’t immediately hijack us (or tell your girlfriend that you’re going to walk her to work one day, have her realize that she really likes it, and then be subtly forced to walk her every single day for the rest of time rain or shine).

The hardest part, though, isn’t starting a routine.

It’s getting back to it once it breaks.

Travel blows it up.
Getting sick completely nukes it.
One late night turns into a week of chaos.

And somehow, getting back to baseline feels harder than starting from scratch.

I think the trick isn’t restarting perfectly. Tt’s re-entering the routine badly and letting it smooth itself out over a few days.

So now I’m curious…

What are you doing in the morning that you absolutely won’t give up?

What habit did you think was stupid until you tried it?

What completely falls apart when you travel, have kids, or get sick?

And how do you personally get back on track when everything breaks?

Reply and tell me. I read all of them.
And there’s a very real chance I steal your routine and pretend it was my idea.
Also, go Pats. I love Drake Maye.