4am Starts: The 6 Daily Habits I Action Before 9 am
At 4 am, before emails, the expectations of others and noise, invest in your mind and body. Design your day to power your performance.
It was in my mid-20s when it hit me: outside of family and friends, most of my time revolved around my 9–5. Studying for it, landing the first perfect role for me, and then a dream job. Like many people building a career, my days centred on work — but that didn’t mean I couldn’t design my days around it.
I’ve since been fascinated by morning routines; curious about how top performers — from CEOs to elite athletes — spend their earliest hours. For example, Kobe Bryant was famously disciplined about his mornings. He typically woke up around 4:00 am — sometimes as early as 3:30 am — especially during his peak training years.
After years of experimentation, starting with 5:00am starts, I’ve now settled on my dream morning routine, beginning at 4:00am. In this blog, I’m sharing how I prioritise those precious early hours and how they power my mind, body, and performance.
In The 5 am Club, Robin Sharma says:
“Take excellent care of the front end of your day, and the rest of your day will pretty much take care of itself. Own your morning. Elevate your life.”
1. Pray
The 5 am Club proposes starting your day with an ‘Hour of Power’ grounded in a 20/20/20 formula. Sharma proposes that this comprises 20 minutes to:
Move - e.g. intense exercise
Reflect: - e.g. pray, journal, meditate
Grow - e.g. read books, consume audiobooks, listen to podcasts
While I don’t start my day in this order, I focus my first hour on reflecting and moving.
Growing up in a faith-filled family, in my adult years, I have returned to the power of prayer first thing in the morning. Beyond connecting with my faith, science shows prayer can also benefit your body. Research from Duke University examining religious coping found lower cortisol levels in individuals who engaged in positive spiritual practices versus negative religious rumination. When you pray in a reflective, surrendered way, it can function similarly to meditation, slowing breathing, reducing rumination, and calming the nervous system.
2. Morning Pages journalling
After years of struggling to keep a consistent journalling habit, I finally found a method I’ve fallen in love with - Morning Pages - an idea popularised by Julia Cameron, in The Artist’s Way. Morning Pages proposes to start your day by writing 3 handwritten pages of free-flowing thoughts - whatever that might be. Instead of handwriting these, I choose to type one page.
Since its original publication in the early 1990s, the book has garnered many fans, including big-name celebrities. Cameron claims creative blocks are a result of wanting to feel safe, but certain tools, however, help you nurture your creative talent and overcome The Censor.
As Cameron paints it, The Censor is what you might think of as a cartoon serpent slithering around your creative Garden of Eden. It hisses negative thoughts to keep you off guard. The key is remembering that The Censor’s opinions aren’t the truth. It’s simply the logical brain. It’s your survival mechanism fighting to keep you “safe”. Keeping you away from your potential. But, with Morning Pages, you can get to what is described as ‘the other side’.
The science supports the benefits of keeping a journal, showing it can have a positive effect on your mental and physical health. It creates space to process your emotions, improves your mood and lowers cortisol. Reflecting on your thoughts helps improve your emotional regulation and self-awareness of your thoughts, behaviours and patterns.
3. Yoga
I spend my next 20-minute block on yoga, for which there are several physical and mental benefits. A Harvard University study used MRI scans and brain imaging techniques on practitioners and non-practitioners. It showed that those who practised the exercise regularly had a thicker cerebral cortex (responsible for information processing) and hippocampus (involved in learning and memory), compared with non-practitioners. It is also said to improve mood.
4. Reading
I allow for 60-90 minutes of reading. I keep the block intentionally bigger to allow for deep reading and also to spend time with my husband between pages. No matter how much you want to perfect your routine, if you’re lucky enough to live with others, make time for relationships too. This will fill your cup more than any perfected habit.
Reading is a powerful way to advance your knowledge. Warren Buffett is famously known to spend 5–6 hours per day reading. He says knowledge compounds like interest — the more you read, the better your decision-making.
Buffett’s sentiment is backed by science. Research has compared the knowledge of TV watchers and readers, and readers are said to have more knowledge and better analytical skills, improving their judgment and problem-solving skills. Books, magazines and written text also use more unique words than television, improving your vocabulary and communication skills.
You don’t need to stick to non-fiction to reap the mental rewards of reading. Research has shown that reading fiction also builds your social skills and empathy. It creates neurological pathways relating to characters. These remain after you put the book down. It improves your people skills and emotional intelligence. So, you can power your relationship skills just by reading your favourite fiction.
Beyond boosting your brain power, reading also reduces stress. Due to the concentration level needed, University of Sussex research concluded that reading lowers stress by 68%. Even outperforming the also highly effective cup of tea, walking and listening to music. The best part is that it takes only six minutes to see results.
5. Creative work
Cal Newport, in his book Digital Minimalism, encourages converting your low-value ‘downtime' into high-value leisure time. With this mindset, passive consumption can instead be replaced with high-value alternatives, with a particular focus on craftsmanship - creating things. This is much like our ancestors did long ago, in what can now often feel like a slowly dying craft.
I spend a work block focused on my creative work - usually involving creating for my blog, YouTube channel or podcast.
6. Walking
Even top performing executives priortise their body in the morning. A 2017 survey of 5,000 executives by The New York Times found that over 80% of top executives exercise in the morning.
For me, walking has become both a built-in reward throughout my daily routine and a creative motivator.
Walking was a powerful habit for many of the most iconic minds in history, from Steve Jobs to Albert Einstein and Mark Twain. While the physical benefits of walking are well understood, the mental benefits are worth celebrating, too. A 2014 Stanford University study showed the benefits of walking for problem-solving and creativity. Researchers found creativity increased by 60% when compared to sitting. Results for creativity were observed for walks just 5-16 minutes long. This worked for walks both indoors and outdoors.
The University of Sussex research on reading also showed walking contributed to a 42% reduction in stress. It releases endorphins such as dopamine and helps build empathy. It also moves your brain wave frequency from the beta region to the high theta range - the same frequency entered during meditation.
Designing your ultimate morning routine
Crafting this morning routine didn’t happen overnight. It took years of research, habit building and experimentation: Here’s some of what works for me:
Schedule your dream routine. Schedule every aspect of your morning routine into your diary. Keep a dedicated calendar for this if you want to keep this private.
Colour coding categories: Break your routine down into key life domains, so you can see how you spend your time and what you might be under-investing or over-investing in.
Set alarms: As least to begin with, keep easily skipped elements in your routine flowing with notifications and reminders.
Designing my mornings to optimise my day
By 9 am, I’m not rushing - I’m ready. I’ve been ready for hours, and I feel like I’ve already lived a whole day before I’ve officially started my work day. These habits aren’t about waking early for the sake of it. They’re about starting grounded, focused and intentional. When you shape your morning, you shape your performance.
