My Morning Routine 2022 Update to the 5AM Club

At the start of 2021 I wrote a blog post about 5 AM Club titled “The 5AM Club – My New Secret to a Productive Day“. I was supposed to provide an update at the end of the 66 days, but I didn’t. As they say “Better late than never”. This article serves to provide my morning routine 2022 update.

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My Result

It was stated in the book 5 a.m. that it takes 66 days to form a habit, so the challenge was to go through the 5 a.m. Club routines for 66 days. I am proud to share that not only have I completed the 66th at lunch but I have gone on further to continue and refine if I am routine myself. 

In fact, it has become so natural to me I just continued with it and today is the 491 days since I started the 5 a.m. challenge.

My Morning Routine 2022 Update In Full

So just to share what I do nowadays for the morning routine. I would start my day by reciting to myself loudly, “It's going to be a great day!” when I woke up first thing in the morning and my feet touched the floor.

Then the next thing I would do is to go to the kitchen and have a full glass of plain water. After that, I would sit down and meditate by listening to the simple meditation app. Sometimes, I would listen to other meditation recordings, so this part is really flexible. This step typically takes about 5 minutes.

I would then make my morning coffee before I start my next step, which is Reflect. As mentioned in my previous article, I am using the 5-second journal for this. The 5-second journal provides a list of questions which guides and prompts me to do my self-reflection. The reflection typically takes about 15 to 20 minutes.

The last step of my morning routine is Grow which is learning new things. I have been using the book summary apps for this, so I get the key ideas in a new book every day to give me fresh ideas. This step also takes about 15 minutes.

So all in all it takes about an hour to complete all the steps in my new morning routine.

What has changed since the time I started the 66-day challenge?

My morning routine 2022 has developed along the way, so below are the few changes compared to when I first started.

Wake up timing

The first thing that's changed from my last post is the timing. If you go by the teaching of the 5 a.m.club in the strict sense, you need to wake up at 5 o’clock daily in the morning. However, I have been flexible with myself about that part after the 66-day challenge. This is because sometimes I could only sleep late (for example at 12:00 midnight). 

On those days, I would prioritize my sleep and wake up a bit later, say at about 7AM. But I would still do all my morning routine.

Exercising

And if you notice, I have omitted the step of exercising. Not that I have done away with it, but I have merely shifted it to the afternoon which works better for my schedule. 

The Need to Be Flexible

This is also one of the learning points I picked up along the way which is you need to be flexible in order to make the routine stick for you. However, being flexible doesn't mean being lax with yourself and allowing yourself to pick a certain part of the routine when you feel like it. What it means is that you would do all the steps by the timing or sequence of doing any particular steps can be flexible.

The Important Question On Whether I Have Ever Backslided During The Process

Some of you may wonder whether I had backslided during any of those days. The truth is, I did but not much. There will be days where you really don't feel like doing the routine or you simply wake up late and you don't have enough time to do it. 

Self-Compassion

On days like that, we just have to be compassionate to ourselves and understand that it's natural we would feel like that sometimes as we are only human. Then the next step is to restart the next day and continue with the morning routine. 

When using the Simple Habit App, if there was one day I did not do the medication the app count would reset the count to zero and restart the complete cycle. In that sense, it was a deterrent for me not to break the daily habit.

Habit Tracking

I also placed the wall calendar right in front of my exercising machine so that it also serves as a daily motivation for me.

Habit stacking

The key principle to develop the final morning routine is to stack on the new item (e.g. affirmation in my case). This is to make sure that the routine would fit well and make logical sense with your schedule. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I have developed my morning routine 2022 update to be part of my life which gives me the peace and calm to start the day right. In fact, it has been such a natural part of my day that I would feel uneasy if I don't do any part of it any day.

Would you like to develop your own personal perfect morning routine that will fit into your life and give you a great start of the day too? Sign up for my 7 Day Create Your Perfect Morning Routine Challenge for FREE now. 

I will send you an email a day to guide you how to do it step-by-step. By the end of the 7 days you can also have your personalized and practical perfect morning routine to start your days right. You can sign up below: