You’ve heard this one before: Win the morning, win the day. Call it cliche, but it’s true.

When I was growing up there were two things I never understood about the mornings. The first thing was why did my parents drink that nasty brown drink called coffee every morning, and the second thing was why would my parents wake up so early.

I get it now. On both fronts. The coffee and the waking up early. But, mostly the coffee.

All throughout high school and college and even when I first began working after college I had a terrible relationship with mornings. I never understood the importance of it.

It wasn’t until I began coaching Division 1 college basketball in 2012 that I realized there’s no way I can make it without an effective morning routine.

Coaching college basketball you learn very quickly that there is not much of the day that you can control. Therefore the mornings are so important because it is the one area you can control (and some days you can’t even control that.)

Then when I started working in full time ministry I quickly learned that I still wasn’t going to have much control over my days most of the time. That’s why winning the morning is vital if you want to be effective in whatever it is you do.

When mornings begin with running around and a general lack of intentionality, the day tends to follow suit.

Everyone is different and I’m not suggesting you follow my morning routine, but I thought I would include it here as an example. I used to be much more structured with my time blocks for each thing, but lately I’ve found I’m much more effective with just saying these are the things I would like to do each morning and however long each takes me I’m ok with. Some days I will begin reading and planning to only do it for 30 minutes, but I get in to something and may go longer. Same with my prayer time or writing time. These are the general things I like to accomplish each day to win the morning:

1. Read 3-4 chapters of the Bible and write at least one takeaway that I can apply to my life and leadership that day.

   Each year I print out this document and I read through the OT once per year and the NT twice per year. I don’t have a pattern or plan for what I read. Some days I read 5 chapters from the OT. Other days I might read 2 chapters from NT. If I feel led to stay on a particular passage of Scripture that might be the only thing I read that day. My goal is to read the entire Bible each year. How I do it may change daily, but my ritual is to read it daily.

2. Pray

   I have a prayer list of all of the people and situations that I am praying for that I pray through. I also read one chapter from the Valley of Vision each day which is a collection of prayers from the Puritans. There’s also a great app called Lectico 365 that helps you pray through different verses of Scripture each day that I use sometimes. Some days I get through the lists and devotional and other days the Holy Spirit will lead me to something completely different. Again, it’s about the habit of praying daily that I hold myself accountable to not necessarily what and how I’m praying.

3. Workout

   I try and lift weights 3 days a week and do some form of cardio like tennis, running, or HITT 2 days a week. As I’ve gotten older (I’m not old yet I’m only 38!!!), but I’ve found that lifting weights 3 days a week helps me feel stronger throughout the day and allows me to do daily tasks like carrying things and moving around the city much more efficiently. And it improves my mobility and flexibility while also burning calories effectively. I’m not a huge cardio person I get bored on an elliptical or spin bike so I prefer activities like tennis, running or swimming for cardio. I would be lying if I said I worked out 5 days a week every week. That’s what I aim for but it definitely doesn’t always happen. Again the goal is not to be rigid with your mornings, but to have a plan for most days.

4. Morning walk to charge for the day and get sunlight

   I live 3 minutes from Central Park so I try and walk there every single day. I get a lot of creative ideas during my walks. Sometimes I pray while I’m walking. Other times I listen to an Audiobook or podcast or music. Sometimes I just walk in silence. Recently there has been a ton of research coming out showing the benefits of getting sunlight in the first 15 minutes of waking up each day.

   Sunlight helps boost a chemical in your brain called serotonin, and that can give you more energy and help keep you calm, positive and focused for the entire day.

   “The simple behavior that I do believe everybody should adopt… is to view, ideally sunlight, for 2–10 minutes every morning upon waking. So, when you get up in the morning, you really want to get bright light into your eyes because it does two things. First of all, it triggers the timed release of cortisol, a healthy level of cortisol, into your system, which acts as a wake-up signal and will promote wakefulness and the ability to focus throughout the day. It also starts a timer for the onset of melatonin.” -Andrew Huberman

Here’s a great article that explains the benefits of morning sun on your entire day including your sleep that night.

5. Drink a protein shake

Mine is normally almond milk, chocolate protein powder (I use this Orgain brand Organic Protein ), banana, spinach and almond butter. I’m not sure if that’s the healthiest brand of protein powder, but it’s the one that taste the best to me!

6. Reading

I like to read a variety of things, but normally the morning is when I read books that I’m learning from that I’m taking notes on and writing on. These would be non-fiction books relating to leadership or creativity or a particular project I may be working on. Sometimes here I will also read articles that I’ve collected through the week. Again this time isn’t structured each day, but doing it is what I want to accomplish each day. Sometimes in the evening I will read other books like biographies or history or just anything that interest me.

7. Writing

By this point in my morning I’ve already read a few chapters from the Bible, prayed, read some type of book or article and listened to a podcast. So there is a lot of content and info that is floating around in my brain that I need to get out of my brain on paper so it will stick.

When I start writing I’m not doing it because I know what I want to say, I’m doing it so I can figure out what I want to say and what I have learned.

During this time I will write blog posts, leadership talks, update my files on stories or illustrations that I’ve heard or read about that morning. Sometimes I just write some things I’ve learned so far that morning without being sure what I’m going to use it for. But by writing it out now I won’t forget it and can always come back and recall it when I need it. I use Evernote to keep track of all of my notes and everything is categorized in there. I’ll even file articles that I want to come back to and reference later on in Evernote. For reference these are some of the categories of things that I’ve archived too the last few days:

Quotes on Creativity

Illustrations on Forgiveness

Article on Actionable Tips to have a great morning

List of books on Leadership

Article on Amazon’s best acquisition

Article on The Last Conversation You Need to have About Eating Right

You get the picture. Some of my categories are broad while others are highly specialized.

I know you’re reading that thinking there’s no way I do all of those things everyday.

You’re 100% correct.

That is my plan to Win The Morning. I definitely don’t always hit that. Sometimes a work situation comes up that I need to take care of. Sometimes my Mom calls and wants to talk. Sometimes I decide to just sleep in. Sometimes I decide to eat pancakes instead of a protein shake.

Also, keep in mind that I am not married and don’t have kids so my morning routine allows for a lot more freedom than most people.

With that in mind here are 2 final tips to help you set up your own morning routine and win the morning:

2 ways to Win The Morning

1. Stop bouncing between the extremes of on and off behavior

Find your sustainable pace and routine that you can stick to and do it. Don’t choose things to put in your routine that you know won’t happen everyday. You don’t have to go to the gym 6 days a week at 5am in order to win the morning. You can still win the morning by going to the gym 3 days a week at 8am. Whatever fits your life, do that. Choose things to put in your morning that you know you can stick to. If not then you will constantly be going back and forth with your behavior.

Be stubborn with your vision for your morning, but flexible with your plan for the morning.

2. Prime your mornings

Before I sold my house a few years ago the Realtor suggested that I paint the entire thing. I didn’t realize that also included priming the entire house to get ready to get painted.

The painter told me that without the primer the paint wont’ stick.

That applies to our morning routines as well.

If you don’t prime your morning routine it won’t stick.

Plan your morning the night before. If you’re going workout lay out your clothes and pack your gym bag.  Here are a few other ways to prime your morning:

1. Pack your lunch the night before.

2. Go to sleep at a normal time to prime your mind to be able to do great work in the morning.

3. Review your calendar for the next day the night before so you are prepared for what’s to come.

4. Get your coffee set up ready to go the night before so all you have to do is start it. (If you don’t have a coffee set up then that’s a whole different blog post.)

You get the idea. Anything that you can do ahead of time to help you have a better morning you should do it.

Hope this helps you WIN THE MORNING so YOU CAN WIN THE DAY!