I may not usually have to come to work until 10am, but being the go-to replacement for Paul when he's on vacation means I have my fair share of (very) early mornings.

Nights before I do the morning show are usually pretty restless.  I'm constantly afraid of sleeping through my alarm and being late for work.  Unfortunately, that means I'm far from fully rested when that alarm does go off.

So there are a few things I absolutely must do to feel and sound awake in the morning.

  1. Take a shower.  I used to shower the night before, to save time in the morning; but I realized that, when I did that, I felt groggy and off-balance for a lot longer in the morning.  So now I get up that precious ten minutes earlier, shower in the morning, and I'm well on my way to starting my day off right.
  2. Eat breakfast.  I'm notorious for flying out the door without eating in the morning; and when I do, I'm miserable by the time I get to work.  Starting work at 5am on an empty stomach?  Bad news.  So I try to at least grab a granola bar on the way out the door.  An hour later, my stomach is thanking me instead of growling at me!
  3. COFFEE.  I've mentioned before that I haven't always been a coffee drinker.  In fact, I used to genuinely hate the stuff.  But six solid months of doing the morning show on one of our sister stations, plus a wife who's a genuine coffee lover, means coffee is now a staple of my morning routine.  When I have a morning show ahead of me, my lovely wife will set up our Keurig coffee maker the night before; so I all have to do is push a button while I'm getting ready in the morning, and I'll have fresh coffee to start the day.

So that's how I wake up in the monring; but how about you?  Do you go to the gym before work?  Watch TV?  Do jumping jacks in your living room?  Let me know in the comments!

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