Your Morning Routine

Man of Honour
Joined
14 Apr 2017
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3,511
Location
London
Wake up around 06.15-06.30, go to bathroom, take a leak, go back to bed, (wife having vacated the bed around 03.00, and repaired to the living room couch), she complains that my body heat, and I quote, “does my brain in.”
Wake up again sometime between 08.30 and 09.00, get up, brush teeth, wash the sleep out of my eyes, every 3 or 4 days have a shave, then gaze into the mirror, wondering when Brian May with a few more lines on his boat race moved in, and pray for the day when my barber reopens.
Shower, spend 5 minutes trying to remember which switch is hot on my wife’s hair dryer, then jump into fresh boxers, and get dressed.
Go downstairs, put on a pot of coffee, slide open the kitchen door to the first floor balcony, waking up Arthur, our resident fox who sleeps under the balcony table, throw him some bacon rinds or pizza crusts, then drink coffee, eat bran flakes, and wait for the enemy to wake up on the couch, demanding tea and crumpets, rinse and repeat.
 
Soldato
Joined
5 Feb 2009
Posts
15,910
Location
N. Ireland
Monday to Friday I crawl from bed to desk chair at 8.58am.

Onto Ms Teams call (camera off).

Pretend I've been up for ages and care about what's being discussed on the call.
this is pretty much my routine too, though i often remove the laptop from the docking station and retreat to the bedroom and laze on the bed
 

LiE

LiE

Caporegime
OP
Joined
2 Aug 2005
Posts
25,602
Location
Milton Keynes
Looks to me like you’re enjoying yourself more as you’ve binned off work at 9:00 judging by your schedule... ;)

:p I WFH so work 9-10 before taking my break 10-11 for a workout.

Very interested in this as I have a similar relationship with mornings, having been extremely good in them in the past however currently terrible.



Yes I'd like to see how this fits in with your schedule now @LiE

See above ;)

Clearly not a family house with two kids and two adults wfh at the moment.

Taking the bins out is my peace and quiet.

My 5 year old son is usually up at 7.15 and he chills in bed with my wife.

I don't see the benefit of a lukewarm /cold shower. It has a major disadvantage by not being warm and thus I won't like it.

Yea it's not for everyone. There are some benefits although I haven't dug into them deeper

  • calming itchy skin
  • waking you up
  • increasing circulation
  • reducing muscle soreness post-workout
  • potentially boosting weight loss
  • glowing hair and skin

and the obvious one, boosting your energy in the morning.

When that cold spray hits your body, there’s a bit of shock. This shock increases:

  • oxygen intake
  • heart rate
  • alertness

There’s no evidence that I’ve seen for the benefits of a cold shower. I did the same for a while...nothing happened.

I wouldn't do straight up cold showers, it's too much of a depravation and will mean a higher chance of sacking it off. The Scottish shower is better in this regard since you can have a normal warmish shower (not 40c :p) and then for the last few minutes bring the temperature down. There's lots of info on the benefits of cold water, the main one for me is that feeling of being alive and having done something uncomfortable in the morning, a feeling of achievement however small it may seem.
 
Don
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
22,699
Location
Wargrave, UK
Pre-covid

06:50 wake up, get out of bed.
07:00 cup of tea and bowl of cereal. LBC on the radio.
07:15 remind son to get dressed.
07:20 shower, clean teeth, shave.
07:30 get dressed.
07:35 shout at son because he's still not dressed.
07:40 get lunch ready and put in bag.
07:50 leave house.

Currently

07:30 wake up, get out of bed.
07:40 cup of tea and bowl of cereal. LBC on the radio.
07:55 remind son to get dressed.
08:00 shower, clean teeth, shave.
08:10 get dressed.
08:15 shout at son because he's still not dressed.
08:20 get lunch ready and put in bag.
08:30 leave house to take son to school.
08:50 arrive back at home.
09:00 sit at desk ready for work.
 
Capodecina
Soldato
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1 Aug 2005
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20,001
Location
Flatland
The alarm goes off at 6am after which I bounce out of bed and get into my running gear for a 5K jog around the marinas. At 6.30am I'm back and get into the wet room for a Spartan shower with organic body milk moisturiser which takes me through to 6.45am. Following this I have a breakfast of granola and Bavarian yogurt with activated almonds before settling down to my studies of Elder Futhark which goes through to about 8.30am, as long as I don't get carried away.

Just before 9am I prepare for a morning's coding in Rust, C++, Python, LISP and Ruby while my Bulgarian girlfriend starts preparing a luxurious smörgåsbord, often wearing little else but stilettos and a pinny. I've told her it's somewhat impractical but she insists. w/evs.
 
Soldato
Joined
24 Nov 2006
Posts
4,922
Get up at 7.15, shower, have a vape, have a coffee and yoghurt, get PC and phone on in my office room and start work between 7.45 and 8. Work til 4 with a nice hour lunch between 12ish and 1 and then spend the evening wishing I had some hobbies and looking after our baby until 11 or 12 then sleep. Never really differs unless work put me on a 9 - 5.
 
Soldato
Joined
1 Jul 2008
Posts
2,532
Location
Birmingham
07:30 wake up, get out of bed.
07:40 cup of tea and bowl of cereal. LBC on the radio.
07:55 remind son to get dressed.
08:00 shower, clean teeth, shave.
08:10 get dressed.
08:15 shout at son because he's still not dressed.
08:20 get lunch ready and put in bag.
08:30 leave house to take son to school.
08:50 arrive back at home.
09:00 sit at desk ready for work.

Pretty much bang on. Slight timings adjustments

Add in another child 5 & 3), wife is a nurse so mornings can be quite busy.

I also try to feed them i guess
 
Associate
Joined
25 Aug 2008
Posts
947
Monday to Friday I crawl from bed to desk chair at 8.58am.

Onto Ms Teams call (camera off).

Pretend I've been up for ages and care about what's being discussed on the call.

Drink multiple cups of coffee.

Shower about 4.45pm.

Pretend to wife that I've had a productive day when she comes in from work.

Very similar to this, except I don't have a missus, and crawl out of bed a few minutes earlier to drop the kids off at the pool.
 
Soldato
Joined
22 Nov 2007
Posts
4,091
Last few weeks its been

8am - wake up and play guitar for 45 mins ish

9am - log on and check work emails, do some daily tasks

9:15 make coffee and cereal or toast

I shower ever 2-3 days while wfh and it being winter i don’t see the point in showering daily.
 
Soldato
Joined
2 May 2011
Posts
11,868
Location
Woking
I wouldn't do straight up cold showers, it's too much of a depravation and will mean a higher chance of sacking it off. The Scottish shower is better in this regard since you can have a normal warmish shower (not 40c :p) and then for the last few minutes bring the temperature down. There's lots of info on the benefits of cold water, the main one for me is that feeling of being alive and having done something uncomfortable in the morning, a feeling of achievement however small it may seem.

Don't get me wrong, I used to quite enjoy the cold part of my shower. But, I don't believe there's any evidence to support the purported benefits. They seem like the sort of things that have been repeated enough times to become "true." Like whoever made one video read one article, then someone else made another video or article, added their own benefit etc. I've no doubt that being in a hot shower for ages is going to damage your skin, but I don't honestly believe all that stuff. As I said though, it's quite nice.

In answer to the original question, I get up at maybe 7:45. Take a leak, make tea and breakfast, have a shower, go to my desk. I'll probably read a book while I'm doing all of that (bar the shower).
 
Capodecina
Soldato
Joined
1 Aug 2005
Posts
20,001
Location
Flatland
Don't get me wrong, I used to quite enjoy the cold part of my shower. But, I don't believe there's any evidence to support the purported benefits. They seem like the sort of things that have been repeated enough times to become "true." Like whoever made one video read one article, then someone else made another video or article, added their own benefit etc. I've no doubt that being in a hot shower for ages is going to damage your skin, but I don't honestly believe all that stuff. As I said though, it's quite nice.

I see where you're coming from, totally, but I think that's a rather cynical way of looking at it. In Turkish hamams it's quite common to get into a warm pool, a cold "shock pool" and then into a warm one again, repeat repeat repeat. Do this a few times and you feel way more invigorated as opposed to if you'd just sat in a hot one. It's a totally different feeling.

And in support of your "garbage" articles point, I totally concur. As I've said before here, people would be surprised if they knew just how many popular articles on the net are written with little to no research or by ghostwriters. it's a huge amount, and they get written just for shares and for clicks.

That said, there's a lot about it here:

https://english.stackexchange.com/a/485619/342755
 
Last edited:
Soldato
Joined
29 Jul 2013
Posts
8,565
Last few weeks its been

8am - wake up and play guitar for 45 mins ish

9am - log on and check work emails, do some daily tasks

9:15 make coffee and cereal or toast

I shower ever 2-3 days while wfh and it being winter i don’t see the point in showering daily.
I shower twice a day these days. There's nothing like going to bed clean and I can't not shower in the mornings as it wakes me up.
 
Soldato
Joined
9 Apr 2008
Posts
19,696
Location
Bedford
7am - alarm
8am - turn off all the snoozes and get up - never later than this after the 10:30 why aren't you in this meeting incident
8-9:30am - shovel in coco pops, drink 2 coffees, play civ and load up work laptop to look like in online
9:30 - shower
10am - coffee 3 and probably do work

I have no idea how I'll ever go back to being up at 6am, cycling to the station at 7am...

At least work has accepted it's not ok to try pre 10am meetings, I have no input in these
 
Soldato
Joined
2 Aug 2016
Posts
4,039
Location
Third Earth
Pre-COVID:
Up at 5am, shower, dress, walk to coach stop
Get the 05:47 to London, reach Cannon St around 07:20-07:40 assuming good traffic
Walk from Cannon St to Farringdon, stopping in at the cafe for a sausage and egg roll, or bacon roll depending on my mood
Get to the office just before 8, make a tea and eat my breakfast whilst checking emails


Now:
Wake up at about 07:30 and feed the cats and dogs if MrsHB hasn’t done it, she leaves at 07:55 for an 8 start
Clear up the garden of any mess, come in and shower
Power on laptop, get signed in, say morning to my team, make small talk and prep for them to tell me what they’re working on at our daily 10am check-in
Get a tea on the go
Put some toast on and get some cereal, add some frozen fruits and settle down on the sofa, get the TV on, channel 4 and watch Cheers/King of queens/Raymond/Fraiser and start going through emails
Been watching strong man series on 5star too which I quite like

If I have any formal meetings, I’ll go into the office as opposed to the sofa in the lounge.

Lunchtime grab a dog, go for a walk over to MrsHB work place (about 3 miles) and then as she comes home from lunch, she picks us up outside her office and we drive home and have a sandwich.
 
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