You will experience Mondays for the rest of your life – may as well enjoy them! Here’s the Monday morning routine that I’ve gotten into that helps me set the tone for max productivity with a clear head. These days (writing during COVID-19) I am working from home, so there’s no commute time. My Monday morning is focused on setting up for a great week and getting visibility on what needs to be accomplished in the next few days.
7 AM: Wake up (realistically, snooze a couple of times). I’ve been meaning to get a simple alarm clock so that I can leave my iPhone outside of my room at night.
7:15 AM: Head straight to the coffee machine, and drink warm water while the first cup brews. Literally nothing better than that moment when nothing exists in the world, just you and a strong coffee. I sip quietly for a bit as my head clears up, and try to stay off my phone. I open the windows to let sunshine and air in – I feel like that makes me wake up.
7:30 AM: A short stretch and meditation on the yoga mat. Both the Peloton membership and Alo Moves memberships have great meditations ranging from 5 to 30 minutes, and I switch off between the two. Waking up muscles and circulating the blood helps me think better.
8 AM: Get ready for the day! If I have a bunch of video calls, I fill in my brows and mattify my forehead with powder. Pre-COVID, I was one of those people who put on a full face of makeup (from primer to contour to setting spray) for every work day, but… hey, we’re in a pandemic. Luckily, my team’s dress code has always been smart-casual so I usually wear a nice athleisure top from Lululemon.
8:25 AM: Make a breakfast-snack to have through my morning. It’s usually a protein smoothie, leftover banana bread, or oatmeal with a piece of fruit.
8:30 AM: Check emails and email newsletters. I don’t reply to anything yet – I’m just trying to assess my workload and get updates on the world and my company. Sometimes I’ll simultaneously listen to the Robinhood Snacks daily podcast (I listen on Spotify) – it was started by 2 former investment bankers. I love it and find it valuable because they go really in-depth on 3 business stories, rather than trying to blaze through everything that happened in the last 24 hours. It equips me to discuss those 3 stories intelligently. They also have an email newsletter you can subscribe to!
9 AM: Check my week’s schedule and make notes. Which projects are launching or closing? What needs maintenance? Who should I check in with? Do the people that I manage have everything they need to succeed? Which calls do I need a lot of time to prepare for?
9:25 AM: It’s time for my second coffee at this point. With this one, I stir in some supplements – cinnamon and collagen peptides. Cinnamon helps me with my blood sugar, and in LA it’s mandatory to have a superboosted coffee at least once a day (kidding!).
9:30 AM: Meetings usually start now. If I don’t have any, I’ll get cranking on a project and start answering emails. I have found that batching my email replies is way more productive (for me personally) than constantly answering bit-by-bit all day. I prefer to avoid multi-tasking and get really deep into actual work for hours at a time, and email (or any other type of messaging) can really de-rail that.
That’s the start to my Monday!
