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Design a Morning Routine You Look Forward To
Your brain’s freshest right after waking. Grab that edge before the world does.
The facts
Designing a cue-driven, pleasure-stacked morning routine makes it far easier to get out of bed and hit the day running.
In a 2019 controlled study, researchers found that one hour of 6 500 K blue-enriched LED light at classroom-level 500 lux within the first hour after waking cut subjective sleepiness by ≈ 22 % and boosted mood and visual comfort versus standard warm-white lighting.
A 2006 meta-analysis of 94 experiments showed that forming implementation intentions (“If situation X occurs, then I do Y”) produced a medium-to-large benefit, roughly a 17 to 25 percentage-point boost in goal-achievement odds versus standard goal setting.
A 2009 longitudinal study tracking daily behaviour found that automaticity stabilized after a median 66 days when the same action followed the same morning cue.
Why does it work?
Morning blue-skewed light hits melanopsin-sensitive retinal ganglion cells and signals the suprachiasmatic nucleus, accelerating residual melatonin drop so you feel alert faster.
Pair that surge with a pre-decided cue → action plan, and willpower gets yanked out of the loop.
Repeat the same rewarding micro-routine daily, and in roughly two months the basal ganglia run it on autopilot, freeing brain bandwidth for bigger wins.
How to implement it?
Pick a cue: Switch on a dawn-simulating lamp or yank the blinds the instant your alarm chirps.
Stack joy: While the blue-tinged light hits, queue up a hype track and down a glass of citrus-spiked water.
Move 2 minutes: 10 body-weight squats + 20 s downward dog + 10 s chest opener.
Set an “If–Then”: “If I finish the last stretch, then I pour my coffee and outline today’s top 3 todo tasks.”
Repeat daily: Same order, same vibe, until it feels weird not to do it.
Your turn!
Try this tomorrow, then hit reply and tell me whether you finally skipped the snooze. If it works, don’t gatekeep… forward it to a buddy who’s always late!
That was your tip of the day. You’re welcome! 🤝
The Mensletter Team.