Designing a Morning That Works (Even If Life Is Messy)

This is the transcript of The Refreshing Leadership Podcast episode: Designing a Morning That Works (Even If Life Is Messy), published on 9th February 2026.

Do morning routines really work if you are not a disciplined, consistent person? This is a listener question I had in January, and I loved this question because it captures why so many people opt out of morning routines altogether.

You're either one of those highly disciplined people who loves a morning routine, or you're somebody who can't stick with it. But actually I think there's a beautiful middle ground for all of us to enjoy the benefits of mornings and good morning routines.

There are the people who are ice bathing, journaling, waking up at five or six in the morning - and then there's another group who probably have small kids, lots of different responsibilities, and can't have such predictable mornings. I really want to address those people - the ones without the perfect morning setup. Because I am certainly not myself a hyper-disciplined morning person, and yet I love my morning routine. So today I want to show you how we can think about mornings in a way that feels really exciting. What could make you feel more alive than being excited to get out of bed and start your morning?

Why mornings matter

Mornings have a few unique things going for them. The first is that if we've managed to get decent sleep, we are mentally clearer, there are fewer distractions, and our willpower hasn't yet been depleted by having to make countless decisions.

For a long time, especially when the kids were young, my philosophy was: if I can get the first few hours of the morning right, the rest of the day will basically take care of itself. So I'm really conscious of how I use those few hours.

I don't typically take coaching calls until 11am, which means the morning is reserved for the really important things that I feel can only happen in the morning - cognitively or emotionally demanding tasks, things I've been avoiding or putting off, or tasks that will lift a mental weight once they're done.

That's the work front. The other part for me is wellbeing - getting outside, getting movement, doing some exercise and strength work.

Knowing that I have those two things in the morning means that once 11 o'clock hits and I'm with my clients, I'm 100% able to focus on them and their needs, because I've done the tricky stuff already. I'm also the pickup parent - I collect my kids from school and I'm with them from late afternoon through the evening. Because I had that brilliant morning, I feel like I'm good to go with them once we're together.

Building in a pull factor

Something else I think is really important is that even when I'm doing cognitively demanding work, it's not the first thing I do the minute I wake up. I did have to do that during lockdown when I was doing my master's, and I think it makes it a lot harder to get up.

Now I typically have good coffee, a good breakfast, a few quiet minutes, some journaling - all of that feels really delightful and is what gets my brain humming. Only then do I transition into harder work. That's something that's allowed me to sustain this routine year after year.

I think that distinction is important, especially if you're not naturally disciplined. Let's make it a pull factor to get you out of bed - really good coffee waiting for you, a nice bit of time to journal, perhaps with some good music on.

Working out the right infrastructure

If you have young kids, or kids at all, working out a balance with your partner is really important. In our case, I am not the morning default parent. Yes, I'm around, yes I'm often having conversations and reminding people of things, but I'm not the main parent in the mornings - that's me after school. That works for us. I know for others it will be a different scenario, but that infrastructure is often what enables the right type of morning for you.

While my husband is doing more of the running around in the morning, that's a concentrated hour for him, and I'm then spending many more hours with the kids at the other end of the day. That works with my energy, and that one hour in the morning that I do get is such a high-impact hour - it's my golden hour. I would happily trade that for three afternoon hours of productivity.

It's worth thinking about whether there are structural things that need revisiting. Just because you've fallen into a pattern over the years, if it's not serving you, maybe there's a conversation to be had. It doesn't need to be every day either - maybe it's the weekend where you get that time for yourself, or a couple of days during the week. Laura Vanderkam says three times a week is a habit, so even carving out two to three mornings a week to yourself could be worth thinking about.

Getting outside and moving

The next cornerstone, and I feel this ticks a lot of the wellbeing boxes, is getting outside - getting daylight into your eyes, which helps with cortisol and gets your whole circadian rhythm going.

A walk, a run occasionally - I've now layered in a few Pilates moves before I head out. This is my favourite bit of the day. I've done my hard thing, I know there's another coffee waiting when I get back. I might chat to people on the phone, listen to podcasts, or spend time in the woods with no headphones on, just because it's delightful to hear the birds. I'm getting my movement in, and I often find I get a lot of creative thoughts and podcast ideas when I'm out - it's a really nice part of my day.

One thing I try to do - if I get a phone call from a friend asking if I want to walk, I'll drop everything, even my hard tasks, to suit their timing, because getting to walk with friends is a real priority for me. Sometimes coordinating those things can be annoying, but if it lands on my doorstep, I'm there.

The only two real cornerstones

If I strip my morning down to its essentials, there are only two cornerstones, and I can proudly say I've stuck to those for many years.

During lockdown, for example, I was waking up at 5am to squeeze in four hours of work for my master's, because I had very young kids and a day job - that was the only way I could get it done. It was beautiful at the time but not sustainable, and it's not something I do now.

What I have sustained is doing something difficult in the morning - something really important, something I've been putting off - and getting outside and moving. The rest flexes. Wake-up times adapt with the season. Coffee rituals evolve. What I'm having for breakfast evolves. I think that flexibility is exactly why I can say I have consistency in my routine. If it was minute by minute, I think it would start to really bother me.

A few nice things I've added in recently are getting my supplements in, and the simplest of simple skincare - a vitamin C cream, which is actually a moisturiser rather than a serum, and sun cream even in winter, which I understand is really important. These are just little tweaks I'm experimenting with. When I have my supplements I've also been adding creatine to my water - a few little things I'm ticking off that make me feel good.

What I want you to take away

If you've not been a morning routine person, don't think they're reserved just for the really disciplined people. I certainly am not that person. I will start something, stop it, be a bit daydreamy - I'm not really bang, bang, bang in the mornings. I think that's my brain doing some good work in the background.

One client I spoke with the previous January, and then circled back to this January, has kept her version going. She talked about wanting to do something difficult first thing but feeling really overwhelmed by the idea of doing that every day. So we shrank it - we said let's just do five minutes of something difficult. She told me that when we had that conversation, there was a voice in her head saying, that's not enough, that won't count. It was really important that she said that out loud, and working with that, she's now found herself with a really strong system. It often starts with just five minutes of a hard task, and frequently carries on from there, but it doesn't need to. She's found that very liberating - but it was important for her to name that voice out loud.

I share that with you because I think we often have little voices in our heads saying, that's not enough, so I'm not going to bother. I'm here to say, just do that tiny thing, and let's compound from there.

I'd love to know what the cornerstones of your morning routine are right now. Are they still serving you? Are there any tweaks worth testing? We don't need rigidity here. Remember, your mornings are here to support you - they're not something you need to be a slave to.

If you're not sure how to spend that cognitively demanding time in the mornings, don't forget about my Vision Unblocked programme, which will give you some focus and orient you towards your vision.

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Check out Vision Unblocked here - https://www.mayagudka.com/vision-unblocked

About Maya

Maya Gudka is an executive coach specialising in C-suite career progression and leadership development. She works with senior leaders in major organisations on strategic career planning, executive presence, and building sustainable influence. Maya hosts The Refreshing Leadership Podcast, which ranks in the top 2% of podcasts globally and has nearly 300 episodes exploring the challenges faced by ambitious professionals.