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SALT LAKE CITY — Stanford professor and neurobiologist Andrew Huberman thinks he has cracked the code for the perfect morning routine. And if you do what he does in the morning, Huberman says, it will "make you better at everything."
Huberman walks viewers through his "perfect" routine in a YouTube video.
But first, you have to know how your morning routine — and the rest of your day — will go might depend on how your night went. According to Huberman, getting enough high-quality sleep is vital to a good day.
Huberman gets up each day between 6 and 6:30 a.m., writes down the time and then heads outside to absorb daylight for 10 to 15 minutes. If your wake-up time beats the sun out of bed, he suggests turning on all the lights and "training your body to expect morning," as the U.K. publication the Mirror puts it.
He doesn't ingest any caffeine until he's been up for 90 minutes or more, but he pounds water. He also drinks a glass of salted water "to stimulate ionic flow."
His first meal of the day is actually a green vitamin shake, with a more traditional breakfast at around 11 a.m. Then he goes to work for 90 minutes, before exercising for an hour. Finally, he exposes himself to cold, through a chilly shower or ice bath.
"Though most people have day jobs and can't take off after an hour and a half, the effects for those that are able to have a routine like this are immense," per the Mirror. The article notes that a YouTuber who tried Huberman's routine for a month reported that the routine "changed his life," citing breakthroughs in productivity, focus and overall health.
Different routines
When Upasna Gautam wrote about her own morning routine for CNN, she described how she and her husband get up at 4:15 a.m. on weekdays and head to the gym for their 5 a.m. weightlifting workout class.
But, she writes, just adopting someone else's routine may not be the best strategy.
"First, copying what works for them doesn't give you the flexibility to figure out what works best for you, the life you have now, and the life you want to live. Second, some of their activities may be insignificant and fail to have an impact on the rest of your day. And finally, you may feel stressed out because you haven't figured out what's right for you, and so you may be left with an unsettling feeling that you carry with you through the rest of the day."
While folks may have "similar goals and aspirations," that doesn't mean their days or responsibilities line up.
A recent HuffPost article suggests an entirely different approach from Huberman's morning routine, called "low dopamine mornings." That's based on advice from life coach Claire Michalski, who says to start by not looking at your cellphone for at least the first half-hour of your day.
As you increase the time you start without your phone, Michalfki said focus and productivity will "zoom."
The article says low dopamine mornings are simple, but a little difficult to get used to. Instead of grabbing the phone, go to the bathroom, wash your face and then make the bed. Next hydrate, preferably without caffeine.
You can release dopamine slowly by exercising, meditating, playing with a pet or reading a book, among others activities suggested for that purpose by Cleveland Clinic, per HuffPost.
But experts agree that a morning routine is a good idea for getting the day off to a sound start. And if you don't have one, take heart. Repetition creates a habit. Just be patient and keep plugging along.
