I am a morning person and I always try to squeeze as many important things I can in the morning. I look for ways to perfect my morning routine so I feel my best throughout the day. So far, my morning routine looks like below:

Activity	Duration	Note
Wake up and get ready	30 mins
Meditation	12 mins	Part of get ready time above
Go to a coffee shop and listen to podcast	10-20 mins
Eat breakfast and study / do personal project	60 mins
Go to work	10 mins	Listen to the rest of the podcast. Even by this time, I’m one of the earlier people in the office

Meditation

I love the idea of being present, having focus on what I’m working on. And meditation is a technique to train mindfulness. I believe it gives my mind clarity and the ability to control my everyday tasks better so I’ve been doing it for 6 months.

I’m using a meditation app called Insight Timer. The app is free and it provides a simple timer (with background music) and guided sessions (a mix of both free and paid sessions). I use both options.

Prior to Insight Timer, I tried Headspace before but the price tag really put me off (around $200/year). The price was not high but at that point of time, my commitment was not ready for that price tag.

Recently, after 6 months, I still feel I’m not really getting the technique right, or only at the surface of it. So I told myself to get a basic understanding in meditation. After some research, I bought this book - The Headspace guide to Mindfulness and Meditation written by Andy - Headspace’s co-founder. He used to be a monk before founding Headspace. The book is well-written and covers the basic of meditation: approach, practice and integrate. This book was also recommended by Bill Gates.

Podcasts

I was introduced to Podcasts by my ex-colleague in ShopBack. From then on, I have been hooked because of so much useful content and how the medium integrates smoothly into my life routine. I find listening to podcasts while doing mundane tasks like travelling and cleaning really makes use of my time. I subscribed to Business Wars, Masters of Scale, How I built this, Tim Ferriss Show and few more. I like listening to in-depth content like interviews with great people. The only drawback for podcast is that since the content is pretty heavy and requires reflection, it’s important to take notes. However, I don’t have a convenient way of doing it. But so far, it’s an informative and educational medium for me.

Study Korean

I’ve been studying Korean for 3 years (1 year in school and 2 years self-study). I aim to take TOPIK II (level 4) but somehow my capability is not there yet (after taking some mock tests). I usually spend 1 hour every day (weekdays only) studying Korean while having breakfast. I try to have different self-study methods but somehow I still find my current way pretty inefficient. The fact that I can’t hit TOPIK II - Level 4 after 3 years proves that point. I’ll continue to adjust and see how.

Breakfast

• At coffee shop: I love going to coffee shop for breakfast not because of the food, but because of the conducive ambience for my study. During the time I was working in central area, my go-to breakfast is either French toast / croissant with a cup of milk tea, which cost me about $3.2 - $3.5. I just changed job recently to a different area so I still look for some conducive coffee shops nearby.
• At home: I’m also testing with another option, which is home-made overnight oats for breakfast. This option is pretty cheap. After my calculation it just costs me $1/breakfast (with oatmeal, yoghurt and fruits).

However, I still want to get out of house in the morning for my study. Let’s see how this option goes.