'I Asked ChatGPT To Plan My Morning Routine, and the Results Were Life-Changing'
As a parent, my mornings are hectic, to say the least. While I tend to be an early-to-bed-early-to-rise person (shoutout to all my fellow morning people!), the time I wake up and what I actually do with my morning really vary. On a good day, I might happen to wake up at five, brew a pot of coffee and start work early, or maybe get a workout or some light reading in before my daughter wakes up.
On other days, I sleep until six or seven and only wake up when I realize my daughter has climbed on top of me. In other words, I really don't have much consistency. And as Parade's Health Editor, I spend a lot of time reading through the morning routines of celebrities and wellness influencers, my mouth agape, as I realize just how much they accomplish (and how much "me time" they get in) before the rest of the world wakes up.
So, I did what any reasonable person would do in 2023: I turned to ChatGPT. I wanted this robot to tell me exactly what the perfect healthy morning routine would look like, so I could copy it. Here's how that went.
The Perfect Morning Routine, According to ChatGPT
While I hoped ChatGPT would provide me with a morning routine blueprint that I could live by, the first thing it did was caution me that we're all different and that it was important to consult a healthcare professional before making any significant changes to my routine. Hey, that's fair. Once it had given me that disclaimer, this was the routine it mapped out for me:
ChatGPT
Some of this seemed easy enough. Setting an alarm? Sure, I could do that for the first time since 2019 (having a human alarm clock ensures that I'll never sleep too late). Drink water? That's another easy one—I already do it. Getting sunlight was already built into my morning routine too, since I take my daughter on a 10-minute walk to daycare every morning.
Other tasks seemed more daunting. I don't tend to exercise in the mornings, for example, and I definitely don't practice mindfulness (oops). My breakfasts are pretty hit or miss: some days, I'm all about steel-cut oats with walnuts and other days, I skip breakfast altogether or throw a frozen waffle in the toaster.
Still, I thought this morning routine seemed doable, so I decided to give it a try.
Leigh Weingus
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Making ChatGPT's Tips My Reality
Now came the hard part: figuring out how to squeeze all of these things into my morning. The first thing I had to do was decide on a time to wake up, and while this will probably not sound fun for a lot of people, for me that was 5 a.m. Sometimes I get lucky and my daughter sleeps until 7:15 or 7:30, but on other days, she's in my bedroom at 6 a.m. To ensure that I had enough time to squeeze everything in, I was going to have to go to bed by 9 and wake up at 5.
Related: How to Wake Up and Not Feel Tired In the Morning
After making that commitment, I came up with a plan for ChatGPT's other suggestions. I came up with a foolproof plan for having a healthy breakfast every day: I made a huge pot of steel-cut oats with walnuts and cinnamon that I could heat up every morning. I also set out a glass on my kitchen counter next to the coffee machine to remind me to drink a big glass of water as soon as I woke up (coffee is not something I ever forget to drink, and I've heard that it's not a great idea to drink water that's been sitting out on your nightstand all night).
As for movement, I decided to commit to a 30-minute yoga class on YouTube (I'm a big fan of this one), followed by a 10-minute Headspace meditation.
Leigh Weingus
Afterward, I would sit at my kitchen table with a bowl of oatmeal and plan out my day, complete with work to-dos and life to-dos. After all of this was complete, my daughter would either be awake or I would have a little extra time to myself, at which point I would either knock a few work to-dos off my list (PSA: The best time to get to inbox zero is at 6 a.m.) or read until she woke up.
Related: 101+ ChatGPT Prompts for Work, Parenting and More
How I Felt After Implementing This Morning Routine for a Week
While I appreciated ChatGPT's warning that we're all different, for me, this morning routine worked out really well. The hardest part was probably pulling myself out of my cozy bed at 5 a.m., but once I got through that part, had a glass of water and a few sips of coffee, I was ready to roll.
By Friday, my body felt more limber (thanks, yoga), and as a result of morning mindfulness, a healthy, filling breakfast, and a solid plan in place for the next 10 or so hours of my life, I felt a lot less frazzled throughout the day and was able to get through work tasks more quickly.
While everyone is different, I won't be quitting this morning routine anytime soon. So if you've been feeling low-energy, have had a hard time concentrating, or simply want to get your day off on the right foot, I highly recommend taking the advice of this AI bot.
Next up: How to Respond to an Old Text, According to ChatGPT