“If you can simplify your life and have the same thing for breakfast or wear the same thing every day, it frees you up to use your decision making for other things.” – Daniel Levitin
For the past few years I’ve been making the same breakfast smoothie everyday, Monday to Friday.
Depending on whether or not it’s a gym day, I wake up at either 4.30 am or 6 am. If it’s a gym day, I get ready for training, smash a quick pre work out shake – banana, protein and water – and hit the road.
When I get back at around 6.30 am, I prepare my breakfast shake which consists of:
- water
- 2 scoops of protein
- cup of rolled oats
- handful of spinach
- tablespoon of natural peanut butter
- handful of blueberries
- chia seeds
It’s super healthy, tastes delicious, has everything I need to kick start my day and I’ve been making the same smoothie for the past couple years without failure.
Even on the non-gym days when I have plenty more time in the morning to cook up a breakfast feast – I love my bacon, eggs, sausages, mushrooms, tomatoes, etc. – I stick to the same smoothie day in and day out.
Social psychologist Roy Baumeister said:
“As you make decisions, you gradually deplete the energy you have available and your subsequent decisions are weaker. You don’t want to waste willpower making decisions about breakfast. Having a set morning routine is much better.”
I think it’s now more important than ever for people to learn how to simplify their life and free up their mind. From the minute we wake up to the moment we fall asleep, we’re constantly looking at our phones; getting overwhelmed with emails, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and whatever other social updates you’ve hooked yourself on.
We have a limited amount of energy so by freeing up your mind by automating specific areas of your life – whether it’s what you have for breakfast, lunch or dinner, what you wear to work – you can put that towards something like your work, training, family, friends and other things way more important than what you’re having for breakfast.
Here’s what I’ve tried to automate in my life so far:
- Breakfast – the same breakfast smoothie every day. No second thoughts, I just start throwing all the ingredients into the Vitamix each morning
- Work clothes – it might change here or there but I pretty much wear the same outfit to work every day
- Gym – weekday training is on Tues, Wed and Thurs mornings. On Saturdays and Sundays I’m a bit more relaxed and train whenever it suits.
- Sleep – I fucking hate being tired during the day more than anything. So the nights before gym when I have to wake up at 4.30 am, I’m sleeping no later than 9.30 pm and ideally 8.30 pm. On non-gym nights, I’m sleeping around 10 pm to 11 pm.
It’s super important for me to have a set routine for some parts of my life and I feel like the more I do it, the more energy I have for things like spending time with my wife, creativity at work, working on this website, etc.
Have a go yourself. Just take it one step at a time, have the same breakfast every morning for one week and see how it affects you. If you like how it goes, start rolling it out across other aspects of your life.
