The morning routine trial continues! Over the past few weeks, I’ve probably tried at least a dozen different morning activities to get my day started. I’d say it’s been going well, and here’s a quick rundown of some of the activities I’ve been trying so far.

With a fairly small apartment in which getting outside becomes a task in of itself, I’ve been starting the day out with a variety of calisthenics and body weight exercises followed immediately by some stretching.

Push-ups, sit-ups, and squats were all fairly effective, but I don’t think anything has been as beneficial as jumping jacks. They’re easy to do and you can start immediately after standing up, but loosen up stiff joints and get your heart rate up to wake up the body. Depending on how much time I have to spare in the morning, I’ve gone anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds of jumping jacks to loosen up before starting to stretch.

When stretching, I focus carefully on loosening up my spine. It’s perhaps a variety of factors, but my lower back is pretty atrocious. Just turning or bending forward slightly leads to a few cracks in my back in the morning. With my recent yoga trial, I’ve tried incorporating a few poses I learned in the weeks of trying that out (here’s a link to part one of that trial if you’re interested). In particular, Cat-To-Cow and some poses in Warrior 2 (that I don’t know the names of) are the most beneficial I’ve seen work for me. I’ll usually top things off by bending forward initiating the previously mentioned back cracks and trying to feel each vertebra stretch apart. From there I’ll shake out the rest of my body with arm/shoulder circles and leg stretches.

When waking my mind up, I’ve been long reading The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman. I started reading the book at the beginning of the year, and have done so every day since January first. I’ve tried a few other approaches in addition to this, but haven’t found one I’m ultimately sold on.

So far, I’ve tried both guided meditation and journaling (which I also tried in a previous trial, these things just keep popping up, huh?). For meditation, I am a decent fan of guided meditation, but more so as a place to start. I found a meditation before bed that seems to knock me out cold, as the guide gets me out of my head and into my body then is silent for a few minutes. I’ve rarely been awake to hear his closing statements. I’ve tried a few morning meditations, but none have quite gotten my mind hacked like my nightly meditation.

If you have any good meditation suggestions, please let me know in the comments.

This has been the single most difficult piece of my morning routine puzzle. Trying to come up with something every day has been pretty tough. There have been a few that were relatively simple. Many have just been maintenance tasks that during the day I tend to forget, but others have been plans to make the rest of the day or week go a bit more smoothly.

Today, for example, my objective was to come up with a podcast topic to record another episode this coming weekend, keep your eyes peeled for that! Another day, I simply fixed a part of my bike that had bent a bit and needed to be put back in the right place.

Overall, my goal is to try and simplify my day by taking just a few minutes each morning. I don’t think any routine I’ve done has taken more than 25 minutes. This next week, try some of what I’ve done above on just one day and see how it changes the rest of your day or your entire week!