My morning routine is the only routine I've ever kept for more than a month. I've tried meditation apps. I've tried gratitude journals. I've tried the 5am club. None of them stuck. The thing that did stick was a $60 sunrise alarm clock, because it changed the moment the day began. Once the day begins differently, the rest follows.

Here's the full sequence. It takes about 30 minutes. None of it is original. All of it is free except the alarm clock.

1. The wake (0 min)

I do not wake up to a phone. I do not wake up to a chime. I wake up to a 30-minute gradual sunrise that begins at 6:00 a.m. for a 6:30 a.m. alarm, and a small selection of bird sounds at 40% volume. By the time the birds start, I'm already mostly awake. The Dreamegg Sunrise Beam costs $83.00. There are other sunrise alarms. This is the one I use. Link here.

2. The water (1 min)

A full glass of water, room temperature, before anything else. This is the most-replicated, least-evidence-supported piece of advice in wellness writing, and I do it anyway, because the discipline of doing a small boring thing first sets the tone for the rest of the morning. If I can't do this, the rest is in trouble.

3. The outside (5 min)

Outside, even for five minutes. Even if it's raining. Even if it's dark (it usually is). Morning light, even on a cloudy day, is the strongest circadian signal your body gets. This is the one that 8 of 12 sleep doctors said was the most important thing, and the thing the sunrise alarm is trying to simulate. Real light is better. The alarm is the backup.

4. The coffee (10 min)

Coffee, but not before the water and not before the outside. This matters less than I used to think it did. Coffee is fine. Coffee is good. Just have it after the boring things, not before.

5. The movement (10 min)

Some kind of movement, but the kind is not the point. The point is to be in my body for ten minutes before I am in my head. Stretching. Yoga. A walk. Dancing in the kitchen. Anything that involves standing up and moving some part of me. The minute I make it about "the right exercise" is the minute I stop doing it.

6. The write (10 min)

Pen and paper. Two pages, longhand, of whatever is in my head. Morning pages, if you have read The Artist's Way. I have read The Artist's Way. Morning pages. I don't reread them. I don't even finish some of them. The point is the writing, not the pages.

7. The open (0 min)

This is the moment I open my laptop. Not before. The first six things happen with the phone in the kitchen, the email closed, the Slack closed, the world closed. When I finally open the laptop, the day has already had a shape. The email and the Slack are still there — they were always going to be there — but now they're a task, not the entire morning.

Note: This is what works for me, not what will work for you. The point is not the specific sequence. The point is that there is a sequence, and the alarm clock is what makes it possible.