Sunday Spotlight: Routine Themes and CGP Grey

Routine: the most important time of the day

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Art by Felicia Chiao

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I think we’ve all seen our fair share of morning and night routine content.

• “If You Wake Up Late In The Morning, Here Are 27 Products That Will Speed Up Your Morning Routine”

• “I followed Snap CEO Evan Spiegel's morning routine for a week”

• “We Tried 'The 5 AM Club' Morning Routine For A Week. Here's How It Went.”

Yes, these are all ACTUAL titles I’ve found from big news sources.

Blah, blah, blah. There’s a million and one routine advice columns out there telling you what you should, do, buy and more. It’ll change your life! (sure.)

Backtracking for a second— these articles can be helpful, there’s nothing wrong with them. I mean, maybe CEO Evan Spiegel has some super secret time he gets up and it made him see the light, but I won’t follow his routine to the letter even if I try.

We can’t claim that one routine is going to be one-size fits all.

We’re all different with our own struggles, strengths, and quirks. I unplug my alarm clock when I wake up every morning, so I have to set my phone on my desk so I’ll actually get out of bed—whether I’m an eye-crusty zombie or not.

So how can we drink the routine-juice without trying to copy a routine that will fall dead on day one?

Let’s talk about it!

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Ok, There is Science in Routine

It’s like our version of hijacking our brain for productivity. Creating our own personal routine helps to ground us, relieve stress, and enhance productivity, creativity, or sleep—whatever you can dream of, you can prioritize it through routine.

Be your own Tony Stark of routine, think of the possibilities Platypus!

• Routine reduces stress

As humans, we have basic needs, physical, emotional, and mental needs. We need to be connected to others, we long for love, and we want control. Wanting control is not a bad thing, it gives us more sway over our environment helping us reduce the mental load of making decisions. Routine imitates control that way.

When you wake up in the morning without a routine, you’ll end up doing whatever. You’ll have breakfast, make your bed maybe, get dressed, play a game on your phone. But you have to actively decide to do those things.

Every. Single. Day.

And making those decisions takes some of your mental power. So why not set those decisions for the night before in a ritual? You know what you’ll have for breakfast that day, know how much time you need to get ready—all in your realm of influence. It puts you at ease.

(It also decrease your heart rate and correlates to better sleep—because y’know, with a sleep routine you have a consistent amount of sleep)

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The Power of Symbolic Meaning

Humans are the only one’s who enact and follow routine. It’s our own human tried and trademarked ritual. Animals take part in rituals too, but one thing sets the human Routine TM apart: symbolic meaning.

Art once again by Felicia Ciao, I’m a little obsessed

Everything we do has a reason (well most of the time, some people just like chaos. I am some people), especially if we plan out time for it.

When I wake up every morning and make my bed everyday, I do it more than just for the sake of making my room look nice. I make my bed as the first completed task of the day, it’s the catalyst to my productive momentum that I need to begin the rest of my routine. I don’t do it just to do it.

That symbolic meaning also drives us to complete the task at hand. It’s like waking up in the morning, if you had no reason to, you’d fall back asleep. But if there was meaning behind getting up in the morning, say you wanted to work on your writing, then you’re more likely to get up.

So if each task has a symbolic meaning, what if we added in a vision to our morning routines? What would yours be?

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The Thematic Routine-Machine

Themes are a booster to the symbolic meaning we already have in routine. If my theme was productivity, when making my bed in the morning I’m not only getting my first task done, but I’m taking my first step to be productive and work on the goal I have in mind for the day.

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Let’s start with an exercise. Write down the routine you want examine, whether that’s morning or night.

I am an early bird so I’m focusing on that.

Now ask yourself what it is you’ve wanted to work on? Maybe it’s a new habit, a goal, or time to perfect that new out-of-this-world lasagna recipe.

Whatever it is, what do you need to get there?

Motivation, maybe a sprinkle of time and some creativity.

My focus is on creativity, because I’m working on multiple writing projects, I need time to write where I’m most productive—the morning.

After that, make the necessary changes to your routine.

It kinda looks like what I did hasn’t made much of a difference. I’ve just rerouted some things, plus I already had writing on my schedule. Why would I change any of that?

1. The Reroutes: By rerouting my walk with Moe, it gets me out of the house earlier. Walking my dog and doing nothing else helps me to zone in—get out of my head. On our way to the mailbox I can listen to the birds and the bugs hum. I soak in the suns warmth and all the things I have to do that day fall away.

   So going outside earlier in the morning gets me in the right headspace

2. Journaling: I usually journal at night, but by adding it to my routine earlier I can get down thoughts and ideas I didn’t have before, acting as a morning muse.

3. Reading: Reading has a similar function to journaling, except it helps me discover new ideas, especially for Steeped In Success.

The Finished Product!

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Themes and CGP Grey

I dedicate this theme idea to CGP Grey on Youtube. He originally made a video about basing a three month block to a specific themed goal, which inspired themed routines.

CGP Grey has his hands in a bunch of different topics ranging from productivity to economics to country borders. His videos are presented in a simple stick-figure format—a really entertaining and simple way to convey complex issues. He along Myke, post a video podcast on Substack too!

Check out CGP Grey on youtube here

Check out Grey and Myke’s Podcast on substack @

CGP Grey

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Thanks for Reading

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope you enjoyed today’s Sunday Spotlight, the first one highlighting another creator. If you haven’t noticed I’m trying to incoporate more exercises throughout my posts to make them more engaging and help deliver on my promise for researched info you can easily execute.

Let me know if they’re helpful and how I can improve!

Another question:

Thanks for reading, and see you all on Tuesday with a post about my thoughts on Substack, and my journey so far.

Until next teatime,

Kate