The Toxic Morning Routine Myth (or 1,204 Things to Do Before 9 a.m.)

What if the morning routine you're chasing is actually working against you?

In this episode, George and Liz take on one of the most mythologized topics in personal growth: the perfect morning routine. They expose the absurdity of what the "experts" recommend, share their own love-hate relationships with morning rituals, and offer a radically different approach. One built on intention rather than optimization.

The Absurd List

Liz did some research. According to the experts, here's what you're apparently supposed to accomplish before 9 AM:

Wake up between 4 and 6 AM. Never hit snooze. Work out at home, or go to the gym, or do yoga, or run 3 miles, or start with mobility and then do plyometrics later. Empty the dishwasher. Complete your skincare routine. Write in your gratitude journal. Read the Bible or pray. Complete your morning pages, three pages handwritten, front and back, stream of consciousness. Read for 25 minutes from a book that enriches your mind.

We're not done.

Meditate. Do positive affirmations in the mirror. Eat a well-rounded home-cooked breakfast. Actually, scratch that, you're intermittent fasting. Or make a homemade smoothie with raw vegetables. Drink 32 ounces of water. Review your emails. Actually, scratch that, don't do any work. Give yourself a pep talk. Do something that brings you joy. Listen to a podcast while sitting under a light therapy lamp. Take a hot shower. No, take a cold shower. No, sit in an ice bath for 15 minutes. Complete a visualization for manifestation. Watch the sunrise. Make your bed. Don't check social media. Go forest bathing.

Oh, and if you have kids, make them a balanced breakfast and pack their lunches too.

George's response: "Let's be honest. The day is over."

He points out a critical flaw: "You drank 32 ounces of water and nowhere on that list did you give yourself time to go to the bathroom."

The Real Problem

None of those activities are bad on their own. The problem is how people use them.

"Mere mortal humans will Google. They'll get the list of things, even if it's not all of those things, and they'll say, this is what I need to apply to my life. Which right there, from the get go, is fundamentally broken mindset."

The people creating these routines aren't necessarily creating the most optimized morning for you. They're creating the most optimized morning routine that gets the most views from everybody searching for morning routines.

"Hopefully you realize how that fundamentally is going to get you at the doorstep of the wrong house for what you need for growth for your journey to the life that you're trying to create."

George's Love-Hate Relationship

George has been on both ends of the spectrum.

He's had no routine at all, where he just liked to stay in bed for a really long time. He's also had insane versions where he broke his brain and probably his body at the same time.

"Getting there was a little bit difficult because I kept trying to plug in some guru's version of the maximum morning routine."

The warning signs he now watches for: If it's backed by science, be careful. If it's the "ultimate" or "maximum" version. If it requires you to be someone you're not.

"Your morning routine needs to be customized to you, to your individual needs. The morning routine is about winning the morning so you can win the day."

He compares it to going to the gym on New Year's resolution. You hammer the weights hard, kill your body, and your body screams: What have you done to me? I can't even move.

"I would do the same thing with my morning routines where I would try to go from, like, morning routine zero to Hulk Rick Hogan of morning routines himself, and my brain would be like, what are you doing? We have to ease into this."

The Good Reasons

George breaks down why the growth mindset crowd is obsessed with morning routines.

Optimizing the brain. We've realized there are chemicals that can be induced through sunlight or other stimuli that help us learn easier and faster, that help us retain information longer.

Realizing what we need. Maybe you need to be more organized. Maybe more spiritual. Maybe more healthy. A morning routine lets you plug those realizations in and make them priorities.

Designing the future. You become what you think of. You become the actions that you take. Every morning, if you're designing that routine, you're literally designing who you're going to be.

Enjoying life. Part of the routine might focus on heart rate, blood pressure, losing weight. You're trying to extend the length of time you can actually enjoy the life you've built.

Regulating the chaos. Controlling the seas of the day. The tsunami of tech and digital. The tsunami of everybody else's needs and expectations. The tsunamis that are waiting to drown your boat.

The Bad Reasons

This is where morning routines go wrong.

Lack of flexibility. When it's a rigid thing that can't adapt to life.

Increased stress. When the routine itself becomes a source of anxiety.

Reduced creativity. When you stop dreaming and customizing what's best for you.

Neglecting other aspects of life. "If we did everything on that original list, I'd never see my family. My clients would fire me."

False sense of productivity. "Just because you're winning the morning doesn't mean you're done. You can't check out. You still have to have productivity in what I'll call the real world."

Burnout. George has lived this one. "I burned myself out just doing way too much, trying to have it way too optimized, trying to have it way too much of a 'all the other successful entrepreneurs do these 27 things, why shouldn't I?' I want to be like... no. I don't. I want to be like me."

Liz's Three Very Different Years

Liz shares how her morning routine has changed dramatically across different seasons of her life.

At the start of the year, she had one of those very early birdie routines. Up at 4:30 or 5. Morning pages. Deep meditation. Very cagey about the whole thing.

After the separation and divorce, it all went away. Looking back, she realized the routine wasn't really about enrichment. It was self-preservation.

"That was the one time of the morning where no one could get to me. I was in complete peace mode. I was just completely hiding, quite frankly, from the realities of what was happening."

Then over the summer, a completely different routine emerged. One defined by hypersomnia, a common byproduct of depressive episodes.

"My morning routine was get up, grunt, look in mirror. I tried to express gratitude, but I kept saying the same three things every morning. I am grateful for the sun. I'm grateful for this toilet. I am grateful for... I'm like, you know what? I'm just gonna move on."

Her takeaway: "If you don't choose the morning routine, it'll choose you. And I don't necessarily always think that's a bad thing."

What George Actually Wants His Routine to Be

George started by asking himself: How much am I worth? How much time am I willing to invest in myself in the morning?

His answer: An hour and a half to two hours. Wake up at 5:15, hit the office by 7:15 or 7:30.

Here's what he designed:

Wake up, make bed, small chores. Fold the towels from the dryer. Listen to K-LOVE. Get the eyes acclimated to being awake.

Hydration and spiritual time. Bottled water with some salts. Bible reading, prayer, devotion. "I want to hydrate with water, but I also want to hydrate my life with the living water."

Mindful meditation. 10 to 15 minutes. Headspace app. Breathing exercises. Affirmations.

Physical activity. 20 to 30 minutes. Going outside for a walk. Getting sunlight in his eyes and on his skin.

Personal development. 15 to 30 minutes. Audiobook on the walk. Learning videos when he gets back. "Imagine what I could learn 30 minutes a day for 365 days."

Shower. Healthy breakfast. Plan and prioritize the day.

"When I look at this, I go, no. This to me feels like the routine that will be the foundation for me for the rest of my life. Will I add time? Will I add things? Maybe. But this is a great foundation that is simple and can be consistent."

What Liz Actually Does

Liz's approach is different. Her theme: She wants to wake up and not feel like her life is living her.

"That's really the goal for me. Regardless of whether I got a good night's sleep, I don't want to feel like the moment I open my eyes, I'm already behind or already failing."

Her routine starts the night before. Habit stacking from Atomic Habits. When she gets home, she changes and immediately sets out clothes for the next day. Tidies up. Gets everything ready so she can walk out the door in the morning without thinking.

Then in the morning: Approximate wake time depending on the day. Shower. Make bed. Three things she's grateful for. "This morning, quite frankly, I said the three things I was grateful for while I was going to the bathroom."

Breakfast. NPR. Getting ready for the day.

The key insight: She doesn't force every good habit into the morning.

"My life got a heck of a lot easier when I realized the best way to optimize my morning routine is not to insist that every single good habit I do only exists in the morning. I actually sprinkle them in throughout the day."

Reading happens after the first meeting. Walking happens mid-day. Language learning and meditation happen at the end of the day.

"What is a good morning feel like? I just want to feel like I'm not already behind. That's all I want."

What Advice to Ignore

George's filters for what to ignore:

If it's "the most optimized." If it's "the hack of the century." If it's non-scientific. If it's someone using it to lead into a $1,000 course. If it feels wrong. If it doesn't feel like it fits in your life.

"We're all humans. We have good BS meters. I'm going to ask you to just turn that BS meter up just 2 or 3 notches. That's what you ignore. Anytime your radar goes off, nope."

Liz adds critical context about the people sharing these routines.

"Many of these bazillionaires who sit down with these interviewers and talk about their brilliant morning routines can do so from a place of deep privilege because they have bought their way to having an excess amount of time."

She guarantees these people weren't shotgunning raw vegetable wheatgrass smoothies and doing 18 hours of meditation before they started their business out of their garage.

"There's that mug that says 'Beyoncé also has 24 hours in a day.' Yeah. Beyoncé also has staff."

How to Construct Your Own

George connects constructing a morning routine to episodes they've already done:

You need to know yourself. (Episode 10) You need to know what you're trying to achieve. (Episode 21) You have to be kind to yourself so you don't burn out. (Episode 5) It has to be created for the long haul versus getting it fast. (Episode 7) You have to own your routine once you construct it. (Episode 16)

"Literally, you could go and listen to those episodes, find the base of that tree again, and start to construct what your morning routine will be."

Quotable Moments

"I burned myself out just doing way too much, trying to have it way too optimized. All the other successful entrepreneurs do these 27 things, why shouldn't I? I want to be like... no. I don't. I want to be like me."

"Your morning routine needs to be customized to you. The morning routine is about winning the morning so you can win the day."

"Just because you're winning the morning doesn't mean you're done. You can't check out."

"If you don't choose the morning routine, it'll choose you."

"The best way to optimize my morning routine is not to insist that every single good habit only exists in the morning."

"A life beyond your default is not a sprint. It's a marathon of magnificent mornings."

Your One Thing

George's takeaway: The word is intention. Being intentional with your morning helps you live a life of intention. Aim for simplicity in your morning routine. A sustainable, straightforward routine is more likely to be maintained and less likely to lead to burnout. This is a marathon of magnificent mornings, not a sprint.

Liz's takeaway: You don't have to cram every good habit into the morning. Sprinkle them throughout your day. And if you're looking to others to validate that you're doing life right, ask yourself: Who told you that you weren't worth it already, just as you are right now?

Reflection Questions

1. What does your current morning routine look like, even if you don't call it a routine? Is it intentional or just happening to you?
2. Have you ever gone from zero to "Hulk Hogan of morning routines" and burned yourself out? What did you learn from that?
3. What would it feel like to wake up and not already feel behind? What would need to change to make that possible?
4. Which habits are you forcing into the morning that might work better at a different time of day?
5. If you could only add one thing to your morning routine, something simple and sustainable, what would it be?

Ready to go deeper? Press play above and hear George and Liz work through their own complicated relationships with morning routines. If you've ever felt guilty for not being a 4 AM ice bath forest bather, this episode will set you free.