Ask HN: What is your morning routine?

I like to have a cup of coffee and watch some TV comedy when I get up. It never hurts to start your day off (or end it) in a light-hearted mood. I especially try to pick work- or office-related humor. For a while I was watching The Office, and now I'm onto The IT Crowd.

My best days have me getting out of bed in the wee hours for a brisk ride or run. A close second is knowing that I've penciled in some exercise time later in the day.

Once I've showered, I usually get the kids to school then either head back to the home office or head to work.

My morning is infested with quick email/slack replies to urgent issues on my iPhone to answer questions, coordinate and get meetings setup for when my day actually starts.

I block out my calendar from 7-8AM and only accept the most urgent calls/meetings begrudgingly.

I can often join a meeting in co-pilot mode (someone else is driving and just needs my inputs) while on my commute.

All of this is powered by wrapup activity the night before (30m @ 9 or 10PM) so I've set expectations for the next day - if that doesn't happen, I'm a bit more stressed in the morning.

Alarm goes off at 6. I hit snooze 12 times until it's about 7. I half doze, half ruminate on why I can't just get out of bed at 6. The hour I steal from myself gives me immeasurable pleasure. Around 7 I make it down into the bathroom, where I check political news for about a half hour. I ruminate on how unhealthy my eating habits are. I take a shower, and get out of the house by 8. On the ride in, I try to use positive thinking to set the tone for the day, but I generally fail and focus on negative thoughts. I obsess about whether living and working on the Internet have caused a reverse personal renaissance. Often I grab a high carb, high fat bagel and cream cheese, and large coffee.

Once I'm in, I log onto here for a half hour, check reddit, and try to force myself to "feel motivated". I hop onto Lync, and the underlings tell me about drama from their mid 20s lives. I get jealous of them and all the experiences they could be having, but they're locked up in the same corporation I am. We do fake smiles and get lots of coffee. I do agile meetings and track my own progress in a little web app. Once per week, a chart is mailed based off metrics I self assigned, to my manager and the director.

By 11am I start to decide if I am going to write any code for that day. If I haven't started, I get overwhelmed. Lately I have panic attacks, but I have a new doctor who tells me to stop eating carbs and drinking coffee. I lie to her and tell her I am, and then get those items on the way back from the appointment as a reward.

Tell me I'm not as alone as that felt

-Alarm goes off at 5:30. Hit snooze once.

-Alarm goes off at 5:35. Depending on how sleepy I am I may lay in bed for 1-10 minutes, usually petting the cat.

-Put on clothes in dark.

-Get out of bed, fill up a large jar of water and sit in living room. One pillow behind back, one pillow on lap, laptop on lap pillow.

-Put computer on airplane mode, open word doc of current novel manuscript.

-Write at least 500 words in manuscript (generally finish by 6:15).

-Get back in bed until partner's alarm goes off at 6:35.

-Get up, put on hot water. Eat cereal and read Harper's.

-Off to work at 7am.

-Spend first 30-45 minutes at work reading HN, ArsTechnica.

Why do you think experiences are limited to mid twenties? What kind of experiences are you talking about