My Morning Routine

When was the last time you woke up feeling calm, focused, and genuinely excited for the day ahead? For most people, mornings begin in a rush—checking phones, downing coffee, and sprinting into obligations. In My Morning Routine: How Successful People Start Every Day Inspired, Benjamin Spall and Michael Xander make a powerful argument: your mornings shouldn’t be left to chance. They contend that the way you begin your day shapes your clarity, creativity, and emotional resilience for everything that follows.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews—from athletes and CEOs to artists, writers, and parents—they show that behind every productive, balanced life is a morning routine built with intention. Whether you’re an early riser or a night owl, crafting the right habits early in the day is a form of self-leadership—one that determines how centered, purposeful, and effective you’ll feel later.

Mornings as a Mirror of Life

Spall and Xander open with a relatable observation: if you start your day reactively—scrolling through news, hurrying to respond to emails, or frantically preparing for work—your mind begins with chaos. Conversely, intentional mornings create a sense of emotional ownership. This principle echoes ancient wisdom from Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius and modern self-improvement thinkers like Hal Elrod (The Miracle Morning), who all recognized that morning order leads to inner order.

The authors’ central argument is that there’s no universal formula for mornings—only consistent pillars that support individualized intention: movement, mindfulness, nourishment, reflection, and meaningful work. Mornings, in their view, are where you launch the day’s identity. Every routine, no matter how small—making your bed, journaling, sipping tea—anchors your values into physical acts of discipline.

Learning from the World’s Morning Rituals

Throughout the book, you’ll see how leaders and creatives approach their first hours. Journalist Maria Konnikova uses yoga and meditation to bring clarity before her intense research days. CEO Arianna Huffington wakes naturally after eight hours of sleep, avoiding alarms and phone screens. Cartoonist Scott Adams leverages early-morning focus between 4:00 and 8:00 A.M. to write and draw, recognizing it as his most creative window. Nobel executive Tim O’Reilly starts each day with plank exercises and poetry, blending the physical with the philosophical. These examples reveal a common truth: structure frees creativity, while chaos depletes it.

Even contrasting personalities—military commander Stanley McChrystal and artist Elle Luna—show how ritual creates stability. McChrystal’s discipline (up at 4:00 A.M. to work out) offers the same centering power that Luna finds in remembering and painting her dreams. Both channel intention through action. This democratic idea—that any person can design their day to support who they want to become—forms the beating heart of the book.

Why Morning Routines Matter

Why is your morning worth this level of attention? Because mornings amplify momentum. Behavioral scientists call this the “activation energy” principle—small wins early in the day build psychological drive for later challenges. Spall and Xander also point to habit stacking (from Charles Duhigg’s The Power of Habit): linking new behaviors to existing ones. Brushing your teeth can cue your meditation; making coffee can cue your journal writing. Over time, mornings evolve from arbitrary acts to intentional rituals of identity.

The authors also advocate flexibility over perfection. Life shifts—kids, travel, stress—and routines must adapt. A meaningful morning practice doesn’t demand rule-following; it asks for presence. As they note, “You don’t work for the routine; the routine works for you.”

From Reaction to Reflection

Ultimately, My Morning Routine is a manifesto for reclaiming stillness in an overstimulated world. It challenges you to replace digital reactivity with reflection—journaling, meditation, gratitude, or mindful movement. It reminds you that your best insights and your deepest calm happen not amidst tasks, but before them. By transforming mornings, you transform your narrative from “I have to” into “I choose to.”

Throughout this summary, you’ll explore how to rise intentionally, focus productively, move mindfully, maintain energy through exercise and sleep, and adapt when life changes. You’ll also hear what world-class performers—from Buddhist priests to tech CEOs—share about fulfilling mornings. Together, their voices form a cohesive message: designing your morning is the simplest way to design your life.

Spall and Xander begin by exploring the most fundamental obstacle to conscious living: getting out of bed. For many, this small act carries immense psychological weight. But the authors note that changing how you wake up—rather than when—creates the foundation for all other habits. It’s about training your mindset, not just your alarm clock.

Replace Chaos with Intention

Mornings that start with phone scrolling or negative headlines prime your brain for stress. Neuroscience backs this: within seconds, email notifications trigger cortisol spikes. Instead, you can replace these reflexes with slower, calmer triggers. Waking up gradually, turning to natural light, or practicing gratitude helps your brain establish dominance over emotional reactivity.

“If you start your day frantically, you’re playing catch-up with life before breakfast.”

The authors recommend experimenting with small shifts—getting up five minutes earlier each week or placing your alarm across the room. Even pets can help; as art director David Moore said, “It’s difficult to oversleep when you have two dogs that love you to death.” Environmental triggers—light, sound, movement—can replace sheer willpower.

The Power of Small Wins

Making your bed, a task as mundane as it sounds, becomes a keystone habit that signals discipline. This aligns with Admiral William McRaven’s famous advice in his “Make Your Bed” commencement speech: one small success reinforces more. Psychologically, doing one thing well right after waking up creates a feedback loop of control and confidence that lasts for hours.

Practical Tactics to Wake Easier

• Use lighter alarms or music to soften transition from sleep.
• Expose yourself to sunlight immediately—your circadian rhythm depends on it.
• Keep your phone out of the bedroom to end the endless scroll.
• Treat your awakening as meditation—a few conscious breaths before moving.

When framed as a moment of grounding, waking up becomes less punishment and more renewal. You’re not just getting out of bed—you’re committing to presence.

One central theme in Spall and Xander’s research is focus. The early hours are prime time for deep concentration—when distractions haven’t yet invaded your mind. For writer Ryan Holiday, mornings are when he does his most important work before the digital noise intrudes. His rule: do one meaningful thing before checking email.

The Science of Timing

Morning focus aligns with our brain’s peak attention rhythms. Biologists call this the circadian cognitive window: early daylight hours sharpen our prefrontal cortex, enhancing reasoning and creativity. Professor Cal Newport’s idea of “deep work” complements this—early focus sessions produce disproportionate results because your cognitive energy is undiluted.

Create Instead of React

The authors stress that checking email first thing is one of the biggest productivity killers. It shifts your brain into reaction mode. Entrepreneur Julien Smith admitted that when he began his day with email, he “hated his life.” The solution? Build boundaries. Turn off notifications, use physical journals, and intentionally guard the first hour for creative work or problem-solving.

“Keep your mornings for thinking work, and your afternoons for minutiae.”

This mirrors productivity expert Laura Vanderkam’s view in What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast: mornings should hold your most important tasks because your willpower reservoir drains throughout the day.

Prioritize Deep Work

• Write or plan your key project first thing.
• Make a short to-do list the night before.
• Protect uninterrupted blocks by refusing early meetings.

Focus, the authors argue, isn’t a gift—it’s a practice of denying the urgent to serve the important. Your morning isn’t for catching up on the world; it’s for building the world you want to see.

Exercise, for many featured in the book, is not a luxury but a mental necessity. Retired General Stanley McChrystal begins every day with a ninety-minute workout at 4:00 A.M. For him, movement is nonnegotiable discipline: “If I don’t follow my morning routine, my mood is off.” Conversely, artist Lisa Congdon uses running and swimming not for productivity but emotional stability. These examples reveal exercise as both a physiological and psychological anchor.

The Energy-Mood Connection

Working out stimulates endorphins and dopamine, the brain’s attention and motivation chemicals. But Spall and Xander emphasize smaller, sustainable efforts—five minutes of yoga or stretching counts. Exercise also serves as “moving meditation”: repetitive motion clears the mind, similar to mindfulness practice. Olympian Rebecca Soni breathes deeply before swimming each dawn, describing exercise as her balance against burnout.

Make It Automatic

The cornerstone of consistency is simplicity. Many achievers lay out workout clothes the night before or schedule workouts by default (like CEO Kevin Cleary, who plans his entire week’s exercise every Sunday). The key insight: reduce decision fatigue. When exercise becomes a ritual, not a debate, the mind relaxes into action.

“There’s no reversal to moving your body—it’s the simplest act of self-respect.”

Whether lifting weights, walking dogs, or hiking at sunrise, physical activity keeps you aligned with your intentions. It doesn’t matter how long you move—what matters is that movement exists before the day’s noise takes over.

If mornings shape your day, meditation shapes your awareness. In Chapter 4, Spall and Xander highlight meditation as the “greatest life hack most people don’t use.” It’s less about transcendence and more about clarity: attention restored to the present. The authors demystify mindfulness by showing its many forms—sitting practice, walking, journaling, or even making coffee consciously.

From Zen to Everyday Mindfulness

Zen priest and novelist Ruth Ozeki shifts between roles—professor, writer, monk—yet keeps one constant: morning zazen. Pixar president Ed Catmull commits to thirty minutes of breath-focused Vipassanā daily, using it to quiet his “internal discourse.” Neuroscientist Darya Rose found that even brief mindfulness before checking email reduced anxiety and sharpened her concentration. Each illustrates the adaptable nature of meditation.

Find Meditative Moments in the Mundane

Behavioral investigator Vanessa Van Edwards treats grinding tea leaves as meditation; Amit Sonawane notices mindfulness in brewing coffee. The act isn’t sacred—the awareness is. Meditation becomes less about escaping daily life and more about inhabiting it fully.

Don’t Take It Too Seriously

Yoga teacher Gracy Obuchowicz reminds readers not to build anxiety around meditation. “My practice isn’t fancy but it keeps me centered.” Whether ten breaths or a full hour, the practice’s power lies in consistency without judgment.

Spall and Xander frame mindfulness as antidote to modern overstimulation. The goal isn’t perfection—it’s being awake to your own mind before the world floods in.

No morning routine succeeds without its nighttime counterpart. Spall and Xander emphasize that “your morning begins the night before.” Sleep quality, evening calm, and digital detachment form the invisible architecture of your day’s start.

Respecting Sleep as a Strategy

Arianna Huffington’s story underscores this: after collapsing from exhaustion in 2007, she became an advocate for sleep as performance fuel. She now bans electronics from her bedroom, reads poetry, and wakes without alarms. Likewise, investor Brad Feld transformed his nights with digital sabbaths, linking consistent sleep to emotional stability and creativity.

The authors provide specifics: go to bed earlier instead of relying on willpower to wake up early, create dark, quiet environments, avoid caffeine late in the day, and physically remove phones. Their reasoning is physiological—rested brains regulate emotion and decision-making far better than fatigued ones.

Wind Down with Ritual

Evening reflection—journaling, stretching, or visualizing the day ahead—primes calmness. Jenny Blake uses nightly gratitude questions: “What was my highlight? My low? My learning?” Psychologists note that reflection before bed converts experience into insight, reducing restless cognitive looping.

In essence, what happens at 10 P.M. determines who you are at 7 A.M. Morning mastery is impossible without sleep as its quiet ally.

Spall and Xander dedicate an entire section to parents—those with the most unpredictable mornings of all. Instead of prescribing rigid schedules, they show how parents redefine success through adaptability and “miniature rituals.”

Parenthood as Practice in Presence

Twitter cofounder Biz Stone plays with his son first thing every day, calling it his “form of meditation.” Blogger Emily Schuman builds her morning around her daughter’s breakfast and playtime, considering presence her daily self-care. Attorney General Bob Ferguson reserves mornings exclusively for his children before policy meetings, teaching readers that emotional focus is as legitimate as professional focus.

Routines that Bend, Not Break

The authors remind new parents: treat sleep as sacred and let flexibility reign. “When you can, wake before your kids,” they advise—but if chaos strikes, reconnect later with gratitude or silence. The true trick is dropping guilt: perfectionism kills joy faster than sleeplessness. Parents like Jamie Morea describe their mornings as negotiation, not failure—proof that presence matters more than precision.

Parent routines model a deeper life lesson: self-care exists even amid unpredictability when grounded in awareness, compassion, and adaptability.

A major theme across My Morning Routine is imperfection. Spall and Xander repeatedly stress that rigidity undermines growth. The true art of routine lies in adaptation—treating interruptions not as failures but as teachers.

When Plans Fall Apart

Long-distance swimmer Sarah Kathleen Peck tells of competing after a sleepless night. Her coach said, “The challenge is winning even when you’re down.” This philosophy echoes through the book: when mornings collapse, simplify to one essential act—breathing, stretching, expressing gratitude—and rebuild from there.

Failure as Feedback

Entrepreneur Patrick Ward reframes derailed habits as data: if an element repeatedly breaks, it needs redesigning. Perfection isn’t persistence; it’s rigidity. The healthiest routines are “alive,” constantly adjusted to circumstances, seasons, and energy cycles.

“You don’t fail your mornings; you evolve them.”

The Freedom of Nonroutine

Designer Manuel Lima cautions: being enslaved to a single formula kills spontaneity. Occasionally breaking your routine invites creative spark—like rest days after training. Variation itself becomes a ritual of openness.

Routines work not because they’re unbroken, but because they’re intentional. Life changes, and your mornings must grow with you.

Perhaps the book’s most surprising message is that the most productive mornings begin not with aggression but with gentleness. Spall and Xander redefine self-care as strategic maintenance of energy and emotional regulation.

The Power of “Me Time”

Author Courtney Carver starts each day reminding herself: “I can better serve others when I start with me.” Mornings, she says, are a sanctuary for recalibration. CEO Julien Smith uses solitude before dawn as psychological armor against his high-demand work life. These “selfish” moments yield empathy, patience, and better leadership later on.

Grounding and Gratitude

Expressing gratitude—through journaling or prayer—anchors awareness in abundance rather than scarcity. Tessa Miller notes that calm, organized mornings lead to “smooth sailing” workdays. Visualization exercises, breathwork, and mindful eating all serve a single goal: alignment before acceleration.

The authors conclude that discipline without compassion creates burnout, while gentleness breeds sustainable productivity. By starting softly, you don’t waste energy fighting yourself—you channel it toward what matters.