Start the New Year with a New Routine

The Quiet Part Out Loud
Written By Chris Neumann

It’s almost the new year again.

For many people, a new year is a symbol of new opportunity. It’s the time of year when many people try to embrace new goals, particularly around self-improvement. Gym memberships surge 25 - 30% at the turn of each year (in fact, nearly 50% of people have some sort of fitness-related New Year’s resolution).

 
 

Over the years, I’ve found that setting New Year’s resolutions rarely works for me. Even when I set very specific goals. But there is something that does work for me time and time again: adding new routines at the start of the year.

Here’s what I mean:

Instead of focusing my New Year’s resolutions on goals or objectives (like, “lose 10 lbs” or “read 10 books”), I use the new year as an opportunity to adjust my schedule in favor of the things that I want to prioritize. For example, here is how those two goals might translate into routines:

If you adjust your routines to prioritize the things that you want to achieve, the results will naturally follow (and you can set specific goals after that).

Of course, achieving your goals still requires you to follow though on those changes. It’s uncomfortable to make changes, but there is power in discomfort. And, thankfully, there’s an app for that (there always is 😉). I use an app called Streaks to track my habits.

I also find it helpful to learn from other peoples’ routines. For example, last week John Coogan from TBPN shared his daily routine. While reading it, I learned about an app for tracking workouts that I wasn’t familiar with: Strong. (I also got a good chuckle at the fact that the cofounder of Soylent now eats double smash burgers and cinnamon buns for breakfast 😂.)

I’m not sure that my morning routine contains any epiphanies, but I thought I’d share it nonetheless. To start off with, here’s what my weekday routine looked like 3 years ago:

 
 

I’ve made a few changes since then — mostly because my wife now has an earlier start to her day than I do.

These days, I wake up at 5:45am, then go downstairs and make coffee. While I’m waiting for the pour over to brew, I put together the kids’ snacks and lunches for school. At 6:15am, I deliver coffee to my wife and give a light nudge to my boys (who naturally wake up between 6:00 and 6:30am).

I work out with a remote personal trainer from 6:30 - 7:00am while the boys get dressed and watch some morning cartoons. Having a virtual trainer is great because it eliminates the travel time from my schedule (he’s also great with kids — ensuring to throw in some bicycle kicks or planks at the end of each workout to get them involved).

 

Let’s go boys!

 

At 7:00am, I jump in a quick shower and then make breakfast. We all sit down as a family from 7:15 - 7:30 to eat. It’s short, but it’s a great touch point for us to start each day. At 7:30am, my wife is out the door to her work, while I get the boys ready to go. At 7:45am, we’re in the car and off to school.

After dropping them off, I stop by a nearby coffee shop, where I spend 45 blissfully peaceful minutes sipping on a cappuccino while responding to emails and reviewing my schedule for the day. By 9:00am, the day is on 🔥.

(My actual working days are all over the place, so I won’t try to pretend that there’s anything close to a routine between 9:00am and when my head hits the pillow.)

Speaking of which, I personally find it a million times easier to add new things to my routine in the morning — for the simple reason that there are fewer opportunities for interruption. I find it far easier to wake up 15 minutes earlier or delay my first meeting by 15 minutes than to insert anything regular into the rest of my day. But everyone is different.

Just remember that it’s not about being perfect. If you want to adopt a new habit, do your best, keep track, and be proud of your new routine and whatever you’re able to accomplish. Despite what Yoda says, trying matters (while perfect is the enemy of done).

So what am I going to do in the new year?

Recently, I was inspired by Charles Hudson’s post, Teaching AI to Think Like Me Made Me Rethink How I Think. While I’ve experimented a lot with AI, I’ve been inconsistent about how and when I do it. So I’m going to try adding a dedicated “AI block” to the start of each day. I’ll circle back at the end of Q1 to see what came of it.

Happy holidays! (And rememeber, you should take a break. No really).

Chris Neumann
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