🔥The Morning Routine To Achieve Massive Goals

You don't need a morning routine.

What you need is dopamine, curiosity and novelty.

These are the three drivers of triggering a deep flow, the optimal focus state.

But without a clear goal, ADHD people wander around without a vessel that directs their hyperfocus.

Your deep flow or hyperfocus can become directionless, distancing you from the goals you want to achieve, because "you enjoy the moment".

Your hyperfocus can quickly become an "addiction", a stimulation that doesn't move you forward.

After months or years, you might still be at the same place, wondering why the hard work doesn't pay out.

You might have been staying in flow state, have been extremely fast, you might even have learned a lot, but you are still at the same place.

You are missing one single ingredient, one big missing part, to elevate your mornings to achieve your goals.

• Writing is great.
• Reading is great.
• A cold shower is great.
• Drinking coffee is great.
• Being in a flow state is great.

Let me explain:

1) You Need A Frictionless Morning.

When you wake up, there should be nothing stimulating your mind.

No phone, no emails, no meetings, etc.

→ If you have meetings in the morning, refer your boss to me, I am serious. He needs some productivity advice. No meetings before 11 am. Period.

(This was one of the 12 rules I have developed for my startup.)

Your mornings need to be as smooth as possible to get into a creative non-fiction mental state. Your mind should be focused on one key moving block in the morning. The highest leverage work you can do, and whatever helps you to achieve this state of mind to tackle, is the most important.

For me, it is writing and getting into a writing flow.

For this, I take a cold shower to boost dopamine, alertness and wakefulness. Uncomfortable, but it works great. I hate getting into the cold shower every single day, and I appreciate it every single day, when it is over. I feel much better and also raise my body temperature; otherwise, I feel cold. It also boosts dopamine by 250%. (Do you remember the three triggers of flow?)

Then I continue my reading habit, which primes my brain to hunt for ideas and turns my brain into a "bored" state, hunting for curiosity and novelty. I hunt for ideas to write about. If I transitioned immediately from the cold shower to writing, I would stare at a blank piece of Kortex doc. (the software I use.)

If I miss this chronological structure, flow state becomes guesswork. This exact structure ensures flow on command daily, without exception. (as long as I stay in this "routine")

Yes, this is a morning routine, because it has a specific order and structure to it, but I am not telling you to do red light therapy, taking supplements, making food, going for a run, doing yoga, meditation or breath work before you start to work.

Taking a shower in the morning and brushing teeth is normal.

The rest of it counts as "work".

Reading is not for pleasure. It's for my work. Reading counts as work for me. It is research for my writing.

Lastly, before I start working ("actual work") am drinking coffee.

I drink coffee while writing, triggering more dopamine and bringing me into a deeper state of flow.

My mind starts to race, ideas pop into my head, and my hands flow over the keyboard.

This is the time for peak productivity, creativity and ideation.

2) Detach. Let Your Mind Wander.

You don't solve your problems consciously; that's the mistake most people make, getting frustrated and burned out.

You solve problems with your creative mechanism. With your subconscious mind.

But for this to be achieved, you need to let go and detach.

Do you remember the TV series for kids: Jimmy Neutron?

I call it the Jimmy Neutron Effect, or maybe you know the term: shower thoughts.

This happens when your subconscious (11 million bits per second) is used. It works passively.

Don't let your conscious mind (50 bits per second) do the problem-solving. You will burn out.

A mistake I have made for months and even years, which wasn't too bad, actually, because I enjoyed the process itself, but three big things massively declined in my life because of that:

1. My health went down because I didn't move in the morning and stood working 6 hours per day, which limited my blood flow in the body. (standing desk)
2. I stopped my morning runs, often pushing it too late in the day, which then resulted in a shorter run or with a fuller stomach, which doesn't feel good while running, just because I got "addicted" to the flow.
3. I didn't focus on the goals; I was addicted to the flow and the enjoyment of the process, pushing things to the back, which actually keeps my business growing and ensures more cash flow, stagnating my monthly revenue.

3) Morning Runs To Chase The Sun.

Getting sunlight in the morning is crucial. During summer periods, this is simple because the sun goes right into my home office, which makes it easy for me to read while viewing sunlight.

But for winter periods, where we are right now, this routine doesn't work anymore; not only that, but moving in the morning is crucial.

Standing in winter for 6 hours gives me cold feet, which already points towards a decrease in blood flow through the body, because the heart pumps blood down and up.

The big mistake I made, as mentioned, was not moving in the morning, because I was addicted to the flow. I thought of running in the morning as a waste of time, because my brain is most alert in the morning, so it would just make sense to put this energy into work.

Now comes the most crucial part, especially with ADHD:

We often focus on the wrong things. Chasing curiosity, novelty and dopamine. Not being able to prioritize based on importance.

After my Dad passed away (December 2023), I got addicted to the flow of my work and the progress I needed to make, because nothing in my life was chill anymore.

I had no choice but to become accountable and achieve a high-agency life.

The passing of my Dad gave me a huge load to carry as a 24-year-old at this time.

Turned out even running a startup for 2 years with a team of 10 people doesn't ensure personal growth, rather the opposite, but this is a topic for another letter…

The big aha moment I want to share is that you strategically need to include parts of your day, where you actively let your mind wander and THINK if the decision of continuing this specific work or task is worth the effort.

I switched back to morning runs around the time the sun rises and started "chasing the sun".

• Sunlight tells your brain it's time to wake up and schedules melatonin rise for 14-16 hours later.
• It resets your melatonin (sleep hormone) so you fall asleep more easily at night.
• It gives you a natural energy boost by raising cortisol (your "wake-up" hormone).
• Boosts dopamine, which helps focus, motivation, and mood.
• Improves metabolism and keeps your body's systems in sync.
• 5–10 minutes of real sunlight soon after waking and (30 if cloudy) induces healthy cortisol, improving focus and energy throughout the day
• No sunglasses (topic for another day), no windows: Actual sunlight.
• (Viewing sunset to strengthen your rhythm and telling your body it's time to go to sleep.)

The difference between a morning walk and run during sunrise for me, as an ADHD individual, is huge.

I don't know if this counts for everyone with ADHD. (I have no research backing this up, yet.)

This is just a subjective reflection and analysis:

Running activates dopamine and other neurotransmitters, especially endorphins, reducing pain and creating euphoria, which is the "runner's high". (You might have heard this before.)

It probably relates to our time as hunter-gatherers.

It activates the brain more than normal walks, making it better for focus during the run or after.

Walking has a minimal activation for endorphins and endocannabinoids, but running has a significant one (runner's high).

This gets even stronger due to different reasons in my routine:

1. I stay fasted during morning runs. (more alertness)
2. I drink coffee 90-120 minutes before, because I write.
3. I get sunlight right into my eyes.
4. I have a beautiful view above a lake or "explore" new territory (novelty)

My mind races like I am writing. I am deep in a flow state and an ideation state.

• I chuck down concepts, frameworks, systems and ideas like I would write, but speaking this one into my Apple Watch, while having a breathtaking view.
• I reflect and deepen my state of flow, analyzing if my next tasks, strategies, or content make sense to execute. Not wasting more time and energy.
• It gives me an IMMENSE boost of clarity.

(I am going to release a YouTube video soon about this.)

When I come home, I take my iPad, transcribe the audio files and tell ChatGPT to restructure them for clarity. Then I organize the information accordingly in my second brain, or create reminders in Apple Reminders and schedule when it makes sense to execute it.

To summarize to one key takeaway:

It's most important not how much you do, but the intention behind it. Take a bit more time to think. My runs are at least 50-60 minutes, and then there is the shower afterwards, so there is plenty of time for me to "validate" ideas, strategies and chains of thought. (I run 3x a week)

When we are in the moment or execution mode (flow), we are sometimes not conscious and mindful enough.

Hope this helps, and thank you for reading.

Jeff

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