The Unglamorous Power of Routine

You might be wondering about the picture I chose for this article. Obviously, it’s nothing fancy, just a pair of shoes sitting on a gym bag.

But to me, this image represents something very important: the quiet, unglamorous power of routine.

You see, every night before I go to bed, I set those shoes on top of that bag. Not because I’m forgetful. Not because I can’t find them in the morning. I do it because removing friction from the next day’s decisions is one of the smartest things I can do with two minutes of my evening.

And it works. Every single morning, the decision is already made. The bag is packed. The shoes are right there. All I have to do is grab them and go.

That simple ritual is the foundation of something much bigger.

What My Mornings Actually Look Like

On weekdays, I wake up between 5:00 and 5:15 every morning. Not because I’m a morning person by nature, but because I’ve decided that my mornings are too important to leave to chance.

After a few minutes of personal care, I head to the kitchen. I take my supplements. I prepare my coffee the same way I always do (with a little cream and MCT oil). Then I settle into the same chair in my dark, quiet living room and begin my morning spiritual routine, which involves reading scripture, prayer, and other practices that ground me before the world wakes up and starts making demands on my attention. That block of time lasts about an hour.

From there, it’s off to the gym. The specific workout changes depending on the day, but one thing stays constant Monday through Friday: 21 minutes in the sauna before I shower. Not 20. Not 22. Twenty-one (I read somewhere that anything over 20 is beneficial, so I settled on 21).

Some people might read that and think it sounds rigid. I’d push back on that. To me, it sounds like freedom.

Why Routine Is Actually Liberating

Here’s something that gets lost in conversations about discipline: routine doesn’t restrict you. It frees you.

Every decision you can eliminate from your morning is energy you’re banking for later. Researchers have a term for what happens when we don’t do this — decision fatigue — and it’s exactly what it sounds like. The more decisions we’re forced to make throughout the day, the worse those decisions tend to get.

But I’d go further than just decision fatigue. Routine builds identity. When you do something consistently, day after day, it stops being something you do and becomes something you are.

I’m not someone who tries to work out. I’m someone who works out. The routine made that true.

This is deeply connected to how we think about continuous improvement as well. Standard work isn’t about locking people into a rigid process forever. It’s about capturing the current, best-known way to do a job, so the baseline is always solid, and improvement has somewhere to grow from. Your personal routine is no different. It’s your personal standard work.

Small Disciplines, Compounded

Again, the gym shoes on the bag aren’t a big deal. Twenty-one minutes in the sauna isn’t heroic. An hour of stillness before the day starts won’t make the news.

But stacked together, day after day, these small disciplines compound into something significant. And that compounding is exactly what separates people who intend to live a certain way from people who actually do.

I think of it this way: motivation gets you started, but routine keeps you going. Motivation is emotional and unreliable. Routine brings structure and dependability. Lean thinkers understand this well. You don’t build a great process by waiting to feel inspired. You build it by designing the right system and then executing (and continuously improving!) it consistently.

A Challenge for You

To wrap things up, I want to ask you something. What does your morning routine look like right now? Not what you wish it looked like. What it actually looks like.

If the honest answer is “it depends on the day,” that’s worth sitting with. Because the days that feel chaotic, unproductive, or reactive rarely start with a solid routine. And the days that feel focused, energized, and intentional almost always do.

You don’t have to copy my routine. In fact, please don’t. What works for me is the result of years of experimentation, refinement, and personal reflection. Your routine should reflect who you are, what you value, and what kind of day you’re trying to build.

But I’d encourage you to start somewhere. Pick one small thing you can do tonight to make tomorrow morning easier. Lay out your gym shoes. Prep your coffee. Set a consistent sleep and wake time and protect it.

Small disciplines, practiced consistently, have a way of changing everything.

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