A Newer Morning Routine: 2026 Edition

I’ve obsessed over my wake-up and morning routine for my entire adult life. Stops and starts. Stops and starts. My problem is … I love my bed, love being warm and cozy, and when I’m laying their at 5:30 a.m. and I’m cozy and happy, I start to question, “what is the point of making myself angry and dragging myself outta bed?”

I know. I know. The daily grind. Focus. Chores. To-Do lists. Anxiety or lack of anxiety and worry. I know it’s all tied to sleep and routine and *gasp* some exercise. So, I’m gonna give this one a try.

Now that I’ve had to “cancel” Dr. Peter Attia . . . the YouTube universe gave me someone new – Dr. Arthur Brooks. I spend all my time on YouTube looking at pens and writing, journals and journaling, Aeropress recipes, and “hacks.”  My pursuit of “hacks” put Dr. Arthur Brooks into my suggested videos (he was being interviewed by Tim Ferriss) and because I’m like a helpless sheep … I’m following someone new.

My first taste of Dr. Arthur Brooks involved his morning routine and he’s telling me to do the hardest thing … delay my coffee drinking and caffeine consumption.

He waits nearly 2-hours after waking before drinking his first cuppa joe.

Today was my Day-1. 

• 5:15 a.m.  Alarm
• also 5:15 a.m.  Hit Snooze and lay there beating myself up over it
• 5:22 a.m.  Actually get-up before my 9-minute snooze beeps at me
• 5:24 a.m.  In the basement, all the lights on full brightness (that’s a thing about the cortisol and mimicking sunrise and maybe I’m gonna replace all the spotlights with full-spectrum sunglight mimicking bulbs
• 5:28 a.m. (where did those 4-minutes go) Body-weight workout (it’s Day-1 . . . gimme a break)
• 6:00 a.m. Mindfulness (I journal and watched a YouTube video from America – Jesuit Review)
• 6:25 a.m.  Shower and get dressed
• 6:45 a.m.  Empty dishwasher (morning chore)
• 7:00 a.m.  Aeropress some coffee and have my Dad Fuel

If you’re doing the math . . . I waited 1-hour and 38-minutes before I had coffee.

Why? Something blah-blah-blah about the frontal cortex and cortisol and that delayed caffeine has benefits where caffeine immediately on waking is like a drug and leads to a crash blah-blah-blah. And delayed caffeine pulls the dopamine or ADHD receptors something-something.

I don’t really memorize the mumbo jumbo, but I get the main point . . . do NOT have coffee right away. Instead, exercise right away in bright light (sunlight’s best but my Day-1 is February 10th in Michigan and sunrise isn’t until almost 7:00 a.m. and sunshine isn’t exactly something Michiganders see every day at this time of year.

So, it’s Day-1.  I’m writing this at 8:38 a.m. and I’m halfway through my second cuppa coffee. I made both cups of coffee on the strong side. I’m gonna say, oh, I had a 10 oz. cuppa joe followed by a 12 oz. (oh, goodie … I can and will actually log and journal that because I like exactness and tracking and spreadsheets.

Current feelings?  I notice. I feel different than yesterday morning (but yesterday was the day after Super Bowl and my morning was clouded by thousands of calories after 6:30 p.m. and bourbon followed by beers and going to bed late).

On Day-1 … crediting only the 1/2-hour exercise, the better bedtime routine on Monday night, and the delayed morning caffeine intake .. sitting here at 8:45 a.m. …it’s noticeable. 

Gonna call it a win.