TL;DR - I've tried every morning routine there is since I was 17 - the long "successful people" stack of exercise, journaling, meditation. Once I got my first coding job at 20, I realized most of it was a waste of time. The real routine is minimal - wake, 5-minute meditation, coffee, sit down and work as fast as possible. Work first. Everything else waits.
The history and what I threw out
From 17 to 19 I did the full morning ritual from the books - exercise, journaling, meditation, the whole "this is what successful people do" checklist. After I turned 20 and started my first part-time coding job, I saw it plainly - for me, it was a waste of time. The highest-value thing I could do in the morning was start working and learning as early as possible. So I stripped the routine down to only what puts me in the best state, fastest.
The current routine (the one I actually use)
- Wake - a 7am alarm now that I'm out of school; often earlier.
- 5-minute meditation, immediately - set up in the Brain.fm app, every single day, the first thing I do. The daily reps put me in the same deep, calm headspace every time; I think deeper after it.
- Sometimes a 1–2 minute cold shower - when I need to snap into the mood.
- Make coffee - about 15–20 minutes total from waking to sitting at the desk.
- Sit down and work - hardest things first, immediately, so I don't waste the sharpest hours.
Work first, always. The mundane stuff, brushing teeth and the rest, happens only after ~3 hours of work. I minimize the gap between waking and working to almost nothing, and keep stimulation low until the work is underway.
Why wake early and tired? Because that's when you get things done. You wake with a goal, you're tired, and you do it anyway. That's the whole point of the early alarm.
The evening - deliberately NOT a "routine"
I don't do evening "health-maxing." The one-hour-no-screen-before-bed advice is not for me. What actually works
- Blue-blocking red glasses
- A movie to turn my head off
- Earplugs and a sleep mask
I fall asleep in about 45 minutes. The sleep routine is simple.
- Magnesium
- No food 2 hours before bed, protein only