My morning routine is fairly regimented, as I have discussed in several previous posts (see "Feierabend", and "What is your morning cup of Joe?"). I've slightly adjusted my usual morning routine over the years, but certainly nothing drastic. I've learned the hard way what happens when you try to drastically disrupt your normal morning routine (see "Today, I was a doofus...maybe I should use a checklist?").
Starting the day off right is really important. I've previously posted about the importance of getting a good start to the day by tackling the most difficult problems first (see "Eat that frog!"). If you've read retired U.S. Navy Admiral William H. McRaven's book Make Your Bed (or watched his 2014 commencement speech at the University of Texas), you will know that he recommends starting off every day with an easy win, i.e. making your bed. I recently came across a blog post by Keith McNulty on Medium that recommends starting every day off with a math brain teaser ("Start Your Day with Math") - more on this in a minute.
Over the course of the past couple of years, I've added a few puzzles to my usual daily routine. While I may vary the time (before or after breakfast, during the train ride to or from work, etc), I try to complete the New York Times Wordle, the New York Times Mini-Crossword Puzzle, and the daily Woodoku puzzle every day. I've also been trying to complete a few lessons in German on the Duolingo foreign language app. While these puzzles are not too hard, I do feel a sense of accomplishment whenever I successfully solve them.
Keith McNulty recommends a similar approach, but rather than word puzzles, he recommends attempting to solve a difficult math problem every morning. McNulty writes, "Every morning before I start work I tackle a math problem. I schedule 30 minutes to solve this problem, and if I don’t succeed I stick with it the next morning and subsequent mornings until I have solved it and I am ready to move on to the next." He claims that solving (or attempting to solve) a math problem (1) trains your brain to be organized, logical and systematic, (2) exercises a muscle in your brain where you can relate seemingly separate concepts and see important connections between them, (3) helps you learn math (personally I'm not so sure about this one), and perhaps most importantly, (4) solving a problem generates an endorphin hit and provides you with a confidence to start your day. On this last point, McNulty claims, "The impact of this on your daily performance should not be underestimated. Think about it as a sparring session before the real deal."
Interestingly enough, I seem to recall that my favorite math teacher (my wife!) starts off every class with what she calls a "warm-up", a semi-difficult math problem. Perhaps I will add (pun intended) a math problem to my daily routine. Or maybe not.
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