Skip to content

My Ultimate Productive Morning Routine

2022-09-30 · Long video (solo, talking head or whiteboard) · Ali · recording, 10:21 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Health, sleep and habits (also: Productivity and time) · mode: Demonstration and walkthrough · tags: Sponsor segment present, Lesson from a book, His own products discussed

Ali walks through his 7.30am morning routine in 2022 (mouth tape and Kindle the night before, the alarm across the room, Waking Up meditation, a shower and skincare routine, Hoffmann's filter coffee, morning pages and a daily highlight) and gives three tips: keep a routine simple and layer habits one at a time, don't check notifications first thing, and set a daily highlight.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — The night before, the 7.30am alarm, meditation, the phone in the toilet and The Second Mountain

  • ★★ Ali's morning routine starts the night before: he tries to be in bed by around 11pm, tapes his mouth shut to breathe through his nose, which he hears is healthier, and reads his Kindle until he falls asleep. (hedged) — 00:00:00 · Kindle
  • ★★ Ali's day starts at 7.30am; he once tried a 5am morning routine and decided never again. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ Ali's iPhone alarm sits across the room, so he generally has to get up to turn it off; on lazy mornings he asks Siri to stop it and goes back to sleep, which happens less these days. — 00:00:29 · iPhone
  • ★★ Ali is trying to get into meditation: after his alarm he sits on the bed with Sam Harris's Waking Up app and is on day 14 of its 30-day introductory programme in non-duality meditation. — 00:00:29
  • ★★ On days he meditates, Ali feels a bit more zen in the mornings, and meditation reminds him to slow down and appreciate life in the moment. — 00:00:58
  • ★ In the toilet Ali usually scrolls Twitter on his phone; on motivated days he reads saved articles in a reader app or a book in the Kindle app. — 00:00:58 · Twitter, Kindle
  • ★ Ali is reading The Second Mountain by David Brooks. — 00:00:58
  • ★★ David Brooks (quoted): In The Second Mountain, David Brooks says the first mountain is the success, happiness and independence we chase when young; after success, bereavement or a health scare we find a second mountain, where true joy comes from committing to family, community, faith or a cause. — 00:01:27

00:01:56 — The three-step shower routine, skincare, clothes and finasteride

  • ★★ Ali's shower routine: he applies conditioner every day and, since it must stay in for two minutes, brushes his teeth in the shower meanwhile. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ Ali shampoos his hair only about once every one to two weeks, because he says shampoo dehydrates hair. — 00:01:56
  • ★ Ali washes his face in the shower with CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser, part of his evidence-based skincare routine. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ For the second step of his skincare routine Ali applies Altruist SPF 50, a sunscreen and moisturiser combination he calls the nicest he has found and very reasonably priced. — 00:02:40
  • ★★ Ali says he has taken finasteride for hair loss since early 2019 and it has made a big difference: though he is losing his hair, it is much better than three years ago. — 00:03:09

00:03:12 — Heights supplement sponsor read

00:04:25 — Filter coffee with James Hoffmann's ratio and the Clever Dripper

  • ★★ For his morning filter coffee Ali follows James Hoffmann's ratio of 6 grams of coffee per 100 ml of water: 18 grams of freshly roasted beans, ground, for 300 ml. — 00:04:37
  • ★★ Ali calls the Clever Dripper the easiest and most efficient way to make really good filter coffee; he lets it brew for three minutes before it drains into the mug. — 00:04:37
  • ★ While the coffee brews Ali sometimes reads email newsletters such as Morning Brew and his internet friends' newsletters, or just tries to appreciate the present moment. — 00:05:06

00:05:35 — Morning pages, planning the day around a daily highlight, and where he works

  • ★★ With his coffee Ali writes morning pages in his journal: three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts by hand, which he finds great for being mindful of what is on his mind. — 00:05:35
  • ★★ Ali plans his day in his bullet journal: he looks through his calendar, writes down the day's major events and picks his daily highlight, the one most important thing to do that day for his major projects. — 00:05:35 · daily highlight
  • ★★ Ali's book is in editing mode, so most of his daily highlights involve tweaking chapters. — 00:06:04 · Feel-Good Productivity (book), daily highlight
  • ★★ Ali usually gives the first three to four hours of each day to writing his book, with team and friends later in the day. — 00:06:04 · Feel-Good Productivity (book)
  • ★★ Ali sometimes works from home but usually walks 30 minutes along the canal to his studio; for deep work without distraction from the team he goes to a local coffee shop with noise-cancelling headphones. — 00:06:34 · deep work (concept)

00:06:56 — Tips: keep it simple, don't check notifications first thing, set a daily highlight

  • ★★ When he was a student and working full time, Ali's mistake with morning routines was making them too elaborate too quickly. — 00:07:03
  • ★★★ Ali advises keeping a morning routine simple (get up, shower, go to work) and layering things such as meditation or journaling one at a time: like stacking any habits, do it slowly. — 00:07:28
  • ★★★ Not checking notifications first thing in the morning is one of Ali's big level-ups: checking Slack, email or messages then bombards his brain with others' requests and leaves a low-level anxiety all day. — 00:07:57 · Slack, WhatsApp
  • ★★ Ali admits he probably should not scroll Twitter in the morning, but the people he follows give him something interesting to think about without wanting anything from him. — 00:08:26 · Twitter
  • ★★★ If Ali could keep only one thing in his morning routine it would be the daily highlight: asking every morning what the most important thing to do that day is. — 00:08:26 · daily highlight
  • ★★ Ali does not set a daily highlight every day, but on days he does the day comes together better and he spends his time more intentionally; on days he forgets, little of what he did feels important. — 00:08:56 · daily highlight
  • ★★ Ali calls doing the day's most important thing every morning for the next 365 days, or even on half of them, completely game-changing. (overstated) — 00:09:25 · daily highlight

00:09:54 — Pointer to his journaling video and sign-off

In the description and comments

  • ★ Asked by a viewer whether it is okay not to exercise in the morning, Ali replies that he does not exercise in the morning. — creator comment
  • ★ Ali applies his Altruist sunscreen and moisturiser once a day. — creator comment

Threads in this video

  • refine · How do you sleep better? — Ali's morning routine starts the night before: he tries to be in bed by around 11pm, tapes his mouth shut to breathe through his nose, which he hears is healthier, and reads his Kindle until he falls asleep. (00:00:00)
  • refine · Should you meditate? — On days he meditates, Ali feels a bit more zen in the mornings, and meditation reminds him to slow down and appreciate life in the moment. (00:00:58)
  • refine · Should you journal, and how? — With his coffee Ali writes morning pages in his journal: three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts by hand, which he finds great for being mindful of what is on his mind. (00:05:35)
  • milestone · Ali's first book, which a publisher asked him to write (2020) — Ali's book is in editing mode, so most of his daily highlights involve tweaking chapters. (00:06:04)
  • refine · How do you improve your focus? — Ali sometimes works from home but usually walks 30 minutes along the canal to his studio; for deep work without distraction from the team he goes to a local coffee shop with noise-cancelling headphones. (00:06:34)
  • refine · What morning routine should you have? — Ali advises keeping a morning routine simple (get up, shower, go to work) and layering things such as meditation or journaling one at a time: like stacking any habits, do it slowly. (00:07:28)
  • refine · How do you build a good habit and break a bad one? — Ali advises keeping a morning routine simple (get up, shower, go to work) and layering things such as meditation or journaling one at a time: like stacking any habits, do it slowly. (00:07:28)
  • refine · How do you stop your phone and social media from eating your time? — Not checking notifications first thing in the morning is one of Ali's big level-ups: checking Slack, email or messages then bombards his brain with others' requests and leaves a low-level anxiety all day. (00:07:57)
  • restate · How should you plan your day? — If Ali could keep only one thing in his morning routine it would be the daily highlight: asking every morning what the most important thing to do that day is. (00:08:26)

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: daily highlight

Also: People: David Brooks · James Hoffmann · Sam Harris

Works: Feel-Good Productivity (book) · The Second Mountain

Organizations: Altruist · CeraVe · Heights · Morning Brew · Twitter

Concepts: deep work (concept) · morning pages · mouth taping

Products: Clever Dripper · Finasteride · iPhone · Kindle · Siri · Slack · Waking Up · WhatsApp

Replies to

← Previous: How to Retire in 10 Years (starting with $0) · Next → How To Manage Your Time As A Student