All good things must come to an end. After six and a half years, {{ site.categories.routines size }} routines, and a total of {{ site.mmr_stats.newsletter_emails }} emails sent to our newsletter subscribers, we have come to the realization that our project is complete. When you combine our book, which was released last year, and our online archive of {{ site.categories.routines size }} morning routine interviews, it became clear to us that you, our loyal readers, already have all the tools you need to create a morning routine that works for you over the long term. What does ..read more

John Zeratsky is a writer and designer on a mission to help people make time for what matters. He is the author of Make Time: How to Focus on What Matters Every Day. He currently lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. What is your morning routine? Most mornings, I wake up around 6:30am—a little earlier in the summer, a little later in the winter (I live in Wisconsin, where the sun rises at 5:00am in June and at 7:00am in December). I sit up in bed and grab my glasses and watch from the nightstand. I have a sip of water, say good morning to my wife, Michelle, and then walk ..read more

Kate Nafisi is a designer and finisher at Nafisi Studio, a bespoke furniture and sculpture studio that she runs with her husband, Abi. Prior to working in the studio Kate had a decade-long career as a software designer. She currently lives in Horsham, UK. What is your morning routine? I have a couple of rituals I like to do rather than a strict routine. When I do my rituals four out of seven days a week, I feel more balanced and energized. In a few bullet points: 6:00am: Wake up to my phone alarm Fumble in the dark to put on my blue-and-white cotton dressing gow ..read more

Wilf Richards is a co-founder of Abundant Earth, a workers coop that manages a smallholding producing food crops, craft products, and running courses in a variety of land and people-based skills. He currently lives in Durham, UK. What is your morning routine? I have an alarm set for 7:00am, but I normally wake up before that and listen to some Radio 4 comedy in bed. In truth, the 7:00am alarm is really my “start meditation” alarm, which I do in bed. I’ll ideally then get up at 7:30am, weigh myself, drink a glass of water, and use an app to do some stretches. If I ..read more

Josh Gross is a founding partner at Planetary, a digital product studio that has worked with clients including Univison, Blue Diamond, and Google’s non-profit arm. He currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. What is your morning routine? Does “get smacked in the face repeatedly by the dog until I get out of bed” qualify as a complete morning routine? No? Well, in that case… I wake up at approximately 7:00am every morning. I try to be as consistent as possible with this because it helps set the pace for the rest of the day. Once I’m up, the first thing I do is put on ..read more

Melissa Clark is a food writer for the New York Times, and the author of numerous cookbooks including Dinner: Changing the Game, and her most recent, Comfort in an Instant. She currently lives in Brooklyn. What is your morning routine? The phone alarm goes off at 6:16am; I meant to set it for 6:15 but am too lazy to adjust it, and it really doesn’t matter. Bach cello suites to quietly lull me out of bed. The goal is to not wake my husband, who sleeps for another half hour. I keep quiet in the bathroom, too, trying not to clang around with my toothbrush and neti po ..read more

Paul Murphy is a third grade teacher of nineteen years who writes on how to help teachers inside the classroom and out at Teacher Habits. He currently lives in Mason, Michigan with his wife and daughter. What is your morning routine? I teach in an elementary school where the students don’t arrive until 8:30am, so I take advantage of the relatively late start to steal some extra sleep. I like sleep. I like it better than toast, and toast ain’t bad. My phone’s alarm is set for 7:00am. Once it goes off, I hit the snooze, which buys me five more minutes. Then I hit th ..read more

Denise Lee is the founder of Alala, a high end women’s designer activewear and workout clothing brand. She currently lives in New York City. What is your morning routine? I’m naturally a night owl; however, after running my own business for the last six years, I’ve forced myself to be more of a morning person because I find mornings to be the most productive time of the day. I wake up around 6:00-6:30am (before the alarm rings, most days) because my dog starts moving around in bed. After getting up, I take him out for a quick walk and then head to my workout. Afte ..read more

Amy Nelson is the founder and CEO of The Riveter, a community and co-working space company built by women, for everyone. She currently lives in Seattle, Washington with her husband and kids. What is your morning routine? It’s not easy to get a head start on the day when you’re competing with three small children. For me, this means 5:00am wake-up calls. First item on the agenda is time for myself, which typically looks like running for 20-30 minutes on the treadmill in our garage and scrolling through news briefings (I’m loyal to the BroadSheet, Katie Couric’s Wak ..read more

Rick Smith is the founder and CEO of Axon, a company with the vision of making the bullet obsolete. He is the author of The End of Killing: How Our Newest Technologies Can Solve Humanity’s Oldest Problem. Rick currently lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, with his wife and kids. What is your morning routine? I wake up at 6:00am, weigh myself, and take an EKG on my Apple Watch. I have occasional cardiac arrhythmias, so it’s good to check every morning. I also check my sleep hours using an Oura Smart Ring. (I set a goal of sleeping for seven and a half hours every night ..read more