If you had told me five years ago that I’d be a person who wakes up before the sun, laces up her running shoes at 5am, and journals before most people have hit snooze once, I would have laughed you out of the room.
I was not a morning person. I was, if anything, aggressively anti-morning.
But here’s the thing about running a full-time 9-5 job AND a business at the same time: there just aren’t enough hours in the day to do it any other way.
My mornings became the one stretch of time nobody else could touch, and once I claimed them, everything else in my life started to click into place.
I get asked about my 5am morning routine constantly, so I wanted to lay out exactly what it looks like, minute by minute, plus the “why” behind each piece.
This isn’t a routine I copied from a productivity influencer. It’s one I built through a lot of trial, error, and a few too many groggy 5am runs where I questioned all my life choices.
I’ll walk you through what I do and how you can adapt it to your own schedule, even if 5am sounds like a personal attack right now.
Why I Start My Day at 4:30am
Let me back up, because my “5am morning routine” actually starts at 4:30am. That’s when my alarm goes off, and it’s also when my husband gets up for work.
We’re both early risers by necessity at this point, and honestly, having that overlap with him before the day pulls us in different directions has become one of my favorite parts of the morning.
There’s just something grounding about a house that’s dark and still except for the two of you moving around, tea steeping, no phones buzzing yet.
I work a 9-5 job that starts early (7am for me), and I also run my own business on the side. If I don’t protect my mornings, my business work gets pushed to 9pm when I’m running on fumes, and that’s just not sustainable. So 4:30am it is!
4:30am – 5:00am: Waking Up and Getting Ready to Move
When my alarm goes off at 4:30am, I don’t reach for my phone.
That’s a rule I set for myself early on, because I know myself, and one scroll through TikTok turns into twenty minutes I’ll never get back. Instead, I get up, brush my teeth, and get dressed for my run.
I know “just get up” sounds oversimplified, but for me the trick has genuinely been removing decisions.
My workout clothes are laid out the night before. My shoes are by the door. I’m not standing in my closet at 4:35am trying to decide what to wear, because half-asleep me will absolutely talk herself back into bed given the chance.
Every other day, first thing when I wake up, I take my iron supplement (A MUST!). It’s become part of the muscle memory of this window, right alongside brushing my teeth, so I don’t forget it.
5:00am – 5:45am: Run or Home Workout
By 5am, I’m out the door for my run. There’s something almost meditative about running in the dark before the world wakes up.
The streets are empty, it’s quiet, and it’s just me and my thoughts for 30 to 45 minutes. I genuinely look forward to it most days, which still surprises the version of me from a few years ago.
But I’ll be honest with you: some mornings my body says no. Maybe I didn’t sleep well, maybe it’s raining, maybe my legs are just tired from the day before.
On those mornings, I don’t force the run. I’ll do an at-home workout instead, something lower impact that still gets me moving without me having to step outside.
My advice if you’re building this into your own routine: don’t tie your morning movement to one single format.
If running is the only acceptable option in your head, you’ll eventually skip mornings entirely because running feels impossible that day.
Build in a backup so movement stays non-negotiable even when the specific workout has to flex.
5:45am: Meditation and Journaling
After I move my body, I sit down to meditate and write in my journal. I used to think this was the extra part of a morning routine, the part you add once you have everything else figured out. Now I think it’s actually the most important part.
My business and my job both come with a constant stream of decisions, emails, and other people’s priorities.
Meditating gives me a few minutes where nothing is asking anything of me. And journaling lets me get whatever’s cluttering my head out onto paper before it has a chance to hijack my focus later in the day.
Some mornings it’s a gratitude journaling session. Some mornings it’s me processing something stressful. There’s no formula, and I think that’s exactly why it works.
If journaling feels intimidating, I promise it doesn’t need to be profound. I’ve written entries that are just “tired, coffee, meeting at 9, need to call the dentist.” The point isn’t literary output. The point is clearing mental space.
6:00am-7:00am: Shower, Get Dressed, and Log In
Once I’m done journaling, I shower and get dressed for the day. Because I work from home, getting dressed doesn’t mean a blazer and heels, but I do still put together a real outfit rather than staying in pajamas.
It sounds small, but changing clothes genuinely signals to my brain that we’re switching modes from morning-me to working-me.
Then I log into my 9-5 job. My job starts at 7am, so by this point I’m plugged in and ready to go before most people have even had their first cup of coffee.
7:00am: My Spearmint Tea and a Light Breakfast
Before I fully dive into work, I make myself a cup of spearmint tea.
This is genuinely a must for me, not a nice-to-have. It’s become this little self care ritual that marks the transition into work mode, and I look forward to it the same way some people look forward to their first coffee.
I also eat something light for breakfast. I’ll be honest, I’m not usually all that hungry that early, so I keep it simple: think yogurt with fruit, a protein bar, or overnight oats I prepped the night before.
I’d rather eat something small and easy than force down a big meal I don’t actually want, and I’d encourage you to listen to your own hunger cues here instead of eating what you think you’re supposed to eat at breakfast.
How I Time Block My Day (And Why It Changed Everything)
Here’s the part of my morning routine that I think has had the single biggest impact on how much I get done: my weekly dashboard planner and time blocking.
The night before, I always write my to-do list. Always. I never leave this for the morning, because I know if I wake up and try to figure out what needs to get done, I’ll waste precious early morning time just deciding, or worse, I’ll forget something important entirely.
So in the morning, once I’m logged in and settled with my tea, I pull out my weekly dashboard planner and go through the to-do list I wrote the night before. From there, I time block my day. Every task gets an actual slot on my calendar instead of floating around as a vague intention.
Because my job starts at 7am, I structure my day so that most of my 9-5 responsibilities happen during the day when I’m “on the clock,” and I push most of my business tasks to later in the day, after my job wraps up.
Time blocking is what makes this actually work. Without it, work tasks and business tasks would bleed into each other constantly, and I’d end most days feeling like I did a little bit of everything and finished nothing.
If you only take one thing from this whole post, let it be this: write tomorrow’s list tonight, and give every task on it an actual time slot. It’s seems small, but it’s the difference between reacting to your day and actually running it.
Water, All Morning Long
One small but important habit I didn’t mention yet… I stay hydrated throughout this entire process.
By the time I’ve run, showered, made my tea, and sat down to plan my day, I’ve usually had a full glass of water before I’ve had a drop of tea or caffeine.
Starting the day dehydrated makes everything, including my workouts and my focus at work, noticeably harder.
A Quick Timeline Recap
Since I know a lot of you want the bird’s eye view, here’s my 5am morning routine laid out by time:
- 4:30am – Wake up, brush teeth, get dressed for a run (iron supplement every other day)
- 5:00am – Run, or an at-home workout if my body needs something gentler
- ~5:45am – Meditate and journal
- ~6:00am – Shower and get dressed for the day
- ~6:15am – Log into my 9-5 job, make spearmint tea, eat a light breakfast
- ~6:30am – Go through my weekly dashboard planner and time block the day using last night’s to-do list
- 7:00am – Work day officially begins, 9-5 tasks during the day, business tasks in the evening
How to Build Your Own 5am Morning Routine
I want to be really clear about something.. this routine works for me because it fits MY life, my job, and my personality.
It took months of trial and error to land here, and it’s still not identical every single day. If you’re thinking about creating your own early morning routine, here’s what I’d actually suggest instead of just copying mine line for line.
Start by getting honest about why you want to wake up earlier. Is it for movement, for mental space, for a business, for quiet time before kids wake up? Your why will shape which pieces of a routine actually matter to you and which ones are just noise.
Then, protect one non-negotiable before you add anything else.
For me, that was movement. For you, it might be quiet coffee on the porch or twenty minutes of reading. Get that one thing locked in before you try to stack five habits on top of it, or you’ll burn out on the whole idea within a week.
Prep the night before, always. My to-do list, my clothes, my breakfast when I can manage it. Every decision I remove from 4:30am me is one less reason for her to hit snooze.
And finally, give yourself permission to have imperfect mornings. Some days my run becomes a walk, my journaling is three rushed sentences, and my light breakfast is a granola bar eaten standing up.
A 5am morning routine isn’t about running a perfect script every single day. Rather, it’s about having a structure to return to, even on the mornings that don’t go as planned.
Waking up at 4:30am isn’t for everyone, and I’m not here to tell you that it should be.
But if you’re juggling a full-time job, a business, or honestly just a life that feels too full for the hours in it, claiming even thirty quiet minutes before the world wakes up can change more than you’d expect. It changed mine.
If you try building your own realistic morning routine, I’d genuinely love to hear how it goes. Come find me and let me know what your version looks like.
