Managing yourself: Follow a morning routine

In previous instalments of my “Managing Yourself” series, I have written about the things I do to be able to accomplish as much as I do in the time I have. One of the most important ones, and one I discussed with my fellow international travel writers at our recent Puebla Tweetup sponsored by the Mexican Tourism Board, was my morning routine.

Normally, my daily routine looks like this (I had to actually write what I did on a regular day for a blogger profile that the Canadian Public Relations Society, Vancouver chapter did of me):

4:45am: Wake up, write, answer emails, write blog posts, schedule tweets and posts
6:00am: Go to the gym
7:30am: Shower, breakfast
8:00am: Head to the university (or my office at The Network Hub)
– Research
– Prepare lectures
– Work on client projects (if there are any)
– Meet with students

5:00pm: Head out to events, theatre shows, etc.
– Sometimes, have work meetings in between

10:00pm: Work until about midnight, although most of the time I like to sleep early.

If you notice, the first thing I do is I wake up and write. I may write sections of an academic paper I’m working on, I may answer emails related to my research or to my academic activity. Sometimes, I use that time to schedule tweets for the day. But the first thing I do, is brew a cup of coffee and write. Writing is the one activity I do 99.99% of the time and thus I need to use as much of my early day time to write and build concepts as I can.

What is YOUR morning routine?