My Morning Routine: Coffee, Notebook, and 20 Minutes of Silence

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I get up at 3 AM. Before the phone starts buzzing, before any notification has a chance to hijack my attention, I’m already moving: gym clothes on, 20 ounces of water, and a Café Latte Shakeology — something in my stomach.

Next comes 15 minutes of standing meditation. Not the cross-legged, incense-burning kind. Just standing, breathing, setting my mind for the day. I picked it up from Tai Cheng, a BODi program. And The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (Paid Link) fundamentally changed how I think about being present. If you haven’t read it, put it on your list.

Then I start stretching. An hour of stretching — foam rolling and mobility work built in — with a finance podcast on, usually Raoul Pal’s The Journey Man. While I stretch, I brew a strong dark roast on my Nespresso: the Intenso (Paid Link) or the Double Espresso Scuro (Paid Link).

*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.

The smell of the coffee while I’m stretching is one of my favorite sensory experiences. It signals that the day is mine. Not my inbox’s, not anyone else’s — mine.

The 20 Minutes That Changed Everything

After the stretching and before the workout, I sit with the coffee and a notebook. No phone. No screen. Just the coffee and whatever’s on my mind.

Some mornings, I sketch out a financial idea. Some mornings, I plan my golf practice for the week. Some mornings, I write three words and stare out the window. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I have a protected window — a non-negotiable appointment with myself — where no one else gets a vote.

This is the single habit that ties everything else together. When you start the day on your own terms, you carry that energy into everything that follows.

Then Comes the Work

After the notebook, a scoop of Energize, then my BODi workout — whatever program I’m currently in. Over the last year that’s been 10 Rounds, 21 Day Fix Real Time, 21 Day Fix Extreme Real Time, Fire & Flow, Muscle Burns Fat, and 9 Week Control Freak. On days when the program has a rest day, I do a Tathata Golf training session instead. So I’m working out every single day.

Post-workout: a Tabak Especial Toro Dulce with my Vega Protein + Creatine shake (Paid Link). Yes, a cigar after a workout. It’s my thing. I earned it. And the contrast — the intensity of the workout followed by the calm of a good cigar — is what earned leisure feels like in practice.

Why I’m Telling You This

Not because my routine is perfect or because you should copy it. But because the structure of the morning determines the quality of the day. Mark Ford and Craig Ballantyne built Early to Rise around this idea. The specifics differ. The principle doesn’t: own your morning, own your life.

If you’re currently rolling out of bed, checking your phone, and starting the day on someone else’s terms, try one change. Just one. Maybe it’s the coffee without the phone. Maybe it’s ten minutes of stretching. Maybe it’s a notebook.

Start small. Ramp up. That’s the whole philosophy behind my book The Ramp.

The full Morning Ritual System — including the coffee, the movement, and the intention-setting — is System #1 in The Saturday Morning Blueprint.

GET THE SATURDAY MORNING BLUEPRINT — FREE

— Chad

P.S. I’m running my 2027 Ramp live on this site — the climb starts October 26. Follow along at freedomjourney.life/my-2027-ramp.