Across 7 Time Zones, a Morning Routine Is a Constant

The first thing I do when I get up in the morning (usually between 4am to 4:30am) sets the tone for the whole day. After a warm cup of lime juice water to clean up the intestinal system after a night detoxification process, I will sit in silence, connecting with my inner world and the Supreme Power to meditate. This allows me to get the pure and powerful energy for the Above, and plan the day in a peaceful and positive way. I will never miss the breakfast, the most important meal for me. I will then start a new, inspiring, meaningful and positive Day.

Winter has come to Harare so the first thing I do is check to see if there is sun. With that, the day is much more comfortable than the odd grey day. Shower, dress, feed the dogs, co-fix breakfast (fruit, yogurt and coconut wrap with hummus and chai) with the BBC on. Next it is dog-walk around our beautiful neighborhood and our ill-behaved street-dog rescues (one from Malawi, the other from Tanzania). Then it is laptop time: checking e mail, checking new job postings (both my husband and I are independent consultants). Later followed by work-out on stationary bike or swim in a heated pool. Since November, life in Zimbabwe has become a sheer pleasure for those with roofs over their heads and food to eat.

Up at 5:30 to enjoy the peace before the family wakes. Shower, coffee, then write for 45 minutes. It doesn't matter what about: dreams, stresses, the raccoon in the cherry tree outside my window being harassed by crows . . . the exercise of writing clears my mind and is the only way I can start my day.

Well, this is the time of day where my body clock starts to go. I have rested usually from 10:00 pm to 7:00 am and the very first routine is a hot shower, then coffee, a banana and a shave. Then I dress and take my 11 year old terrier Portia for a one mile walk and then we eat breakfast- she at home and I at a diner with my three retired buddies. About 11:00 I hit the gym and have a two hour workout. After that it’s lunch and a nap at home. I’m 74 now and I feel great. I’ve been retired for ten years and this daily routine keeps order and balance in my life and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

If the birds are already singing it means I have overslept, and it is 6 am. I like to wake up earlier, and usually do--around 5 or 5:30-- so that I can shower, meditate, do breathing practices and some yoga before breakfast. Then I look outside and marvel at the incredible wildlife that surrounds me, make some chai, and sit outside and catch up on the news. Life is good!

Definitely jealous of the retirees and super early risers with pets. Seems very peaceful!

I enjoyed reading about other people around the world and their morning routines. The similarities was comforting for me because I often feel "guilty" and think maybe I should be doing something else. I wake up early around 5:00 or 5:30 and listen to CNN. I check my sugar level. Have a glass of lemon water, toast with butter or avocado, 2 dates and 5 almonds. Then I have my cup of coffee while reading on my laptop in front of my wonderful huge picture window which looks at a cluster of old big cedar trees left from when they were boundaries to the fruit groves that were planted back then. I read emails from friends in the US and of course the NYTimes on line. I love the morning hours of being with myself. I am retired so I take the privilege of seeing my husband off to his work, going swimming in our Kibbutz Olympic size pool (unheated so good with the heat from the sun on the water for about 4-6 months. ) I also do hydrotherapy at a heated treatment pool once a week in the mornings. I often meet my English speaking girlfriends for a big healthy breakfast at 8:30 AM and begin various other activities. We have local senior center at which I attend classes such as creative writing.

Alarm goes off at 5:30. Rise and weigh. Dress. Greet the kitties at the top of the stairs for skritches. Down the stairs and turn on the computer, open the blinds, turn on the kettle and the timer. Then feed the hungry kitties, clean their box, check email until the timer goes off. Pour 170F water over loose tea, and time 5 minutes. Finish e-mail. Pour tea, add milk, put on shoes and appropriate dress for the weather, and off to services at 6:45.

I love waking up to the birdies chirping, I let my Sonny Boy (dog) out and grab my notebook to do my three morning pages of writing from The Artists Way. Then...coffee from a French press with foamy milk, sit on the porch..rocking..watching and hearing all that life has to offer. A little skinny dipping in the pool after that...bring on the day!

I get up around 5.30am-6.00am, put a pot of coffee on, go online and check news site, esp the NY Times. I always enjoy a tasty cup of coffee and catching up with what happened with the rest of the world overnight. Time zone is NZ Standard Time, (UTc+12).

What an obnoxious article. It's "hard to recover" from a morning that isn't perfect? Get a grip. For most of us, morning consists of hitting the snooze button as many times as possible, racing through the shower, throwing clothes on ourselves and the kids, fighting over what they will and won't eat for breakfast, leaving the house, running back to the house to get [whatever we forgot], realizing we have to get gas and will now be late to school/work, sitting in traffic stressing about being late and while illegally checking emails and trying not to rear-end someone...

Interesting. We are both retired and could have any schedule we wished so we follow the sun. Right now, the days are very long with length of visible light at 17 hours and being outdoors is taking up all our time. Winters are for hibernation.

What makes for a good morning? Getting up at noon!

I sleep with two dogs and every morning, Bingo (a Jack Russel) wakes me by staring at me so intensely I feel it before I open my eyes. I scratch him a bit until Tortoise (a doxie) works her way over the covers (which will take some work because she has quite the stubby legs). In a jealous pique, Torty flops on my face belly-up (!) to block Bingo from my sight and catch some rubs. After some lovely cuddle time I start my day!

This article really makes me want to retire--and I like my job!

4:45am alarm, out the door at 5 for an hour run along the Hudson (with a beautiful view of Manhattan), shower and eat breakfast, walk to Starbucks at 6:30, drink a venti black coffee while studying for an upcoming professional exam until 8:30, catch the train to work and in the office by 9.

A good morning is coffee, toast, WashPo, NYT and walking the dog!. If I'm lucky happens twice a week. Looking forward to expaning that to six days a week.

I thank God for another day.

I guess the people who have to dash out the door to catch the train and be at the office, or the people who have to get three kids out the door so they don’t miss the school bus don’t have time to write (or you didn’t consider them interesting enough). I am actually one of those fortunate ones, now that I’m retired, who can shmooze over my tea, the online New York Times and the crossword puzzle (on those days it isn’t too hard for me) and I’ve been enjoying the “Spelling Bee” puzzle as well. But I’ve not forgotten those days so many decades ago of getting my 6 month old up, into a clean diaper and stretchy, to her day care, and then to meet my carpool all by 7:20 am for an hour commute. Breakfast? At the desk. Watching the birds? Only the ones who pooped on my windshield. Oh, I am enjoying my retirement, and now I rarely commit to anything before 11 am, if I can help it.

My husband, a retired academic, had a severe stroke in December and is still in rehab. I go there seven days a week, ten hours a day, because he still tires easily and gets confused. I am generally up at 5:30, do some quick stretching, check email, stash cat in back bedroom due to the army of workmen we can’t afford who will arrive at 7:30 to rehab the house, grab a peanut butter on whole wheat, thrown on practical, washable shirt and pants, call an Uber, get to facility just in time to redress spouse, who is baffled by shirts and is frantic because I am six minutes late. There are roaches in the bathroom and the hallways smell like urine. How delightful to read of rustic, meditative mornings! But since our insurance is running out, and we have spent most of our savings on recovery expenses, I doubt I’ll have a leisurely arising anytime soon...and that goes for every caregiver in America.

I usually set my alarm at 0630 but somehow always manage to get up after 0700. I would have a glass of water that I already prepared the night before beside my bed. And then I would say a little prayer to give thanks to the Lord for the day passed and the brand new day given. Toasted bread and a good cold strawberry or chocolate milk are enough to boost my mood for settling into the day. Really, happiness is simple!

My alarm goes off at 5:45 a.m. and I go to a fitness center to exercise 5 days a week. After showering, I return home for coffee, breakfast, catch up on the day's news and emails. I head to work at 8 a.m. My current time zone is Mountain Time.

I am very recently widowed. My husband and I had a glorious morning routine: coffee, scribbling (me writing in my journal), breakfast, then me reading our current book aloud. My husband was blind, so we cherished this time of me reading aloud and him listening intently. That whole routine took about 1.5 to 2 hours, and then it was down to my basement office to work on my current book-in-progress and then on to client work. Now that my husband is gone, I'm not quite sure yet what will replace our reading time. In general, time seems odd; everything is vague and uncertain. I look forward to getting into a new rhythm, including a new morning rhythm.

Pacific time zone Alarm goes off early: 3:30 AM. Usually I get one snooze. Then get up, dress, and text my running buddy to see if she's up also. Gwen the cat gets a drink from the bathroom faucet while I dress. Out for a 45 minute run with my neighbor. Shower, dress for work, and out the door at 5:15 to drive 8 miles to the park & ride. An hour or so on the bus, reading the newspaper, and I am at the office. Set up, check email, get caffeine, and only then do I eat breakfast: Greek yogurt, frozen berries, bran cereal. I wish it was a bagel with peanut butter but I can't afford those calories every day. The day is much better when it starts with a run. It's even better when it also includes a chat and a chance to catch up.

No alarm clock. I rise leisurely by first looking out the window at a tree and squirrels, getting a cup of a favorite refrigerator cold brew latte, and journaling for whatever time I have available for that day. Then it is on to a short breakfast and the day begins--sometimes 2 hours after waking.

I feel the mornings being described in this article are very outside the norm. A quick google search for studies regarding American sleep patterns yields a more accurate picture. On average, Americans wake up somewhere between 7:00am and 7:15am - and we are early risers compared to most of the rest of the world. So to those in the comments comparing themselves to these routines, don't. At 24, I go to bed at midnight and wake up without an alarm at 7:45am every morning. I take a long, hot shower and use the songs playing on my bluetooth radio as an indicator of how much time I have before work. After putting my bed back together, I grab an oatmeal bar or an apple from a drawer exclusively filled with breakfast snacks. Then I'm out the door. I've of course been fed the theory that successful people are early to bed and early to rise. It seems like an attractive habit to adopt. Unfortunately, going to bed at 9:00pm every night is a terribly lonely way to live as a single adult, especially for my generation. When most of your peers are bartenders and waiters, choosing that kind of sleep schedule places a lot of strain on dating, maintaining friendships, and having face to face interactions outside of work (all things we seem to struggle with as is).

I get up, let the chickens out and usually but not always do the dishes and if necesscary make a fire in the wood heater. Than I try and drink a qt of warm water while perusing news etc on line. I am a carpenter so if I have a job going sometimes I sit with my coffee and get it together for the day. In the past I have used the early morning to practice a musical instrument before work.

How wonderful to learn that I share a routine with so many other readers around the world: coffee, communing with Mother Earth, caring for insistent pets, a little (or a lot of) movement, and reading the New York Times! Here in Hawaii Standard Time Zone, I wake up around 4:30 a.m., feed the cat, make coffee, and browse nytimes.com. Right before sunrise, I walk out onto my balcony, which overlooks a tropical rainforest, to listen to the birds welcome the day. A lone tweet breaks the silence and quickly escalates to a madcap chorus of birdsong. It's the most beautiful part of my day. As the sun lights the valley, the birds settle down and that's my cue to do some light yard work - watering plants, pulling weeds. Getting a little dirty in the yard sets my morning ablutions in motion and sharpens my appetite. Next is big food!

Age 51 I like to be up before anyone in my house, so I rise between 5:45 - 6:15. I read news on my iPad briefly then either do a calisthenics routine or go for a short but hard 30 minute ride on my road bike. When I'm done, I wash and cut fruit for my wife and two daughters (everybody likes a different assortment of berries), which makes me feel connected to them even if I don't see each of them every morning. I eat a piece of toast with crunch peanut butter or an egg white omelet with spinach and read the sports page. Make sure my oldest daughter is awake, make her oatmeal, jump in the shower, dress and try to get out the door with her between 7:30 - 7:40. Drop her off at high school by 8:00 and then head on to my job in fundraising at a hospital.

Not a morning person, bed at 4am, wake around noon. Cuddle the cats before my feet hit the floor, coffee, Times & Post online, then go to work with vets & exams for head injury/PTSD until early evening, to accommodate the guys with jobs. Write reports until midnight. Blacklist on TV, websurf, bed, rinse & repeat.

The mornings described so far are so idyllic I could cry. My alarm goes off at 0720. After hitting the snooze button innumerable times, I finally jump out of bed, grab my watch and my hearing aids, take my thyroid pill, check the Weather Channel app, dress, grab my briefcase and purse and race out the door. Timing my six-minute commute to avoid all of the parents driving their children to school, I race to open my office for my first client (0820) of the day. Whew!

I read this anecdote years ago and can't remember the origin: A young writer asked an experienced one for advice on the writing life. The answer: "Never write on both sides of the page. All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."

Lovely, but Ann Arbor and Columbus are both EST.

Unless someone redrew the map recently, Columbus and Ann Arbor are both in the eastern time zone!

Before I get out of bed, I do 25 minutes of exercise on my back. I then set up one cup of coffee, and leave the apartment to pick up my NYTimes in the lobby. For the next two hours, I have my coffee and water and leaf through the NYT. Then it's time for e-mail. Then time to write.