routine : The Art of Non-Conformity

Work

My Morning Routine: Why I Do the Same Things Every Day, and How I Work from Anywhere

I’ve been a longtime fan of MyMorningRoutine.com, which regularly interviews interesting people to learn how they spend their mornings. Some of my favorite profiles include features from Steve Kamb, Lisa Congdon, and Yuki Shimuzu.

The founders recently asked to feature me on the site, and of course I was thrilled! You can read my full answers over there, or a brief selection below.

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What is your morning routine? (Please note the approx. time you wake up).

First things first: I’m on the go to at least 20 countries each year, in addition to more than 100,000 miles of domestic travel. At the moment I’m kicking off a 30-city book tour that has me waking up in a different place nearly every day for five weeks. Therefore, sometimes there’s not a routine, or at least the routine varies greatly by time zone.

I was recently in Jakarta, Indonesia and ended up working a modified night shift for most of the week. I worked on my projects through the night, woke up for “morning coffee" at 2pm in the afternoon, and then everything was pushed back from there. It felt a little disorienting because I’d show up at the hotel restaurant for “lunch” around 10pm, right before they closed for the night. Then I’d have “dinner” during normal breakfast hours before falling asleep as the sun rose.

Work

A Better Approach to “Never Check Email in the Morning”

You’ve heard the conventional wisdom: never check email in the morning.

That sounds great, unless your job involves communicating with people, or if you happen to care about what people have to say to you. In either of those cases, you very well might want (or need!) to see what's happened overnight just as you sit down to work.

It's also true, though, that it's easy to get sucked into replies and never end up creating or building or just working on something that requires long-term focus, all because you can't get your nose out of the inbox.

Years ago I found a better way that I still use most days of the week. Here's how it works.

There’s a Good Reason Why We Keep Repeating the Same Mediocre Experiences

"Years ago my in-laws would drive me crazy by complaining about the food at a (now defunct) restaurant chain that they would unfailingly stop at numerous times when traveling from Pennsylvania to Florida each year. It was a major topic of discussion; how not-good the food was, service was terrible, etc. But the food wasn't bad enough to stop them from going back to the chain (and same locations) year after year. I asked them why they went there at all when all they did was complain and when there were probably so many local restaurants they could try along the way.

They finally came up with the answer "We know what to expect."

As you have said, it's easy to get into a rut. Some ruts are good, some not so much. I try to remember this story anytime I find myself sliding into a rut. It doesn't always work, but at least I've made a conscious decision and then I can't complain however it turns out."

I also always visit the Waffle House whenever I'm in the southern U.S. But of course, the Waffle House isn't mediocre. It's amazing!

Visiting the Art Museum

A while back I was emailing with Julien, and one of his questions reminded me of a story I like to tell… “A lot of people probably relate to the idea of leaving behind their responsibilities and heading out to a new life, but they’re not in the situation where they just say “screw it”…