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My Simplified Morning Routine: Why I Gave Up the 5 AM Grind
Skylar Hunyadi
May 19, 2025
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The popularity of morning routine content is partially due to a natural curiosity, but it’s also a byproduct of toxic wellness culture. Online, we’re sold the idea of a hyper-optimized morning routine. An innocent ~morning GRWM~ can easily add undue pressure to fine-tune every minute of our precious mornings.
Admittedly, I’m a sucker for a morning routine video. This content usually inspires me, but I’ve also been known to over-engineer my routines to the point of stressing myself out. This became clear when I spent the night before strategizing how to fit all the steps into my routine and get enough sleep. It was time to do some serious re-prioritizing.
Instead of reaping the benefits of a well-balanced morning routine, I was merely ticking off checkboxes: reading, journaling, stretching, a big glass of water, deep breathing, meditation, making my bed, and so on. My mornings felt less productive and more frazzled.
So, I resolved to simplify and, in some cases, scrap parts of my morning routine.
✔️What I kept:
I kept the main focus of my routine on meeting the basics. This means prioritizing gently moving my body (stretching/mobility), eating a nutritious breakfast, taking my medications and vitamins, and attending to hygiene. These elements serve as the foundation for my simple morning routine. Sometimes, I don’t hit these marks as graciously as I’d like to — i.e., zooming through the Dunkin drive-thru — but as long as I’m fed, watered, and dressed, I’ve already accomplished a lot.
❌What I scrapped:
The first thing to go from my routine was an early wake-up. Because it takes me a few pushes to get out of bed, my sunrise alarm would go off at 4:45 AM. While my intention was always to get up at 5 AM, it ended up being more like 5:45 AM, not nearly enough time to complete my extensive morning routine. I also did a little research on the Sleep Foundation website and concluded that I probably wasn’t completing enough sleep cycles (they recommend 4-6), so getting an extra hour of sleep has made a difference.
Next, I let go of journaling, writing, reading, breathwork, and puzzle games. I used the five-minute journal every morning and night for a while, but I no longer feel like I need this to ground myself. Doing freelance writing work in the morning also once made me feel accomplished, but jolting my brain into productivity mode at 5 AM became overwhelming. And while reading in the morning is something I would love to do, it just makes me tired. I also stopped doing the New York Times word games — admittedly, they often take a long time for me to solve.
➕What I added:
The only thing I added was walking to work three days a week. In good weather, my walk to work is about 10 minutes, time for me to get a dose of sunshine and fresh air before settling into my cozy, albeit windowless, office. I’ve noticed this energizes me and gets some steps in at the start of my day.
*****
Mornings aren’t a productivity contest — they are a chance to set the tone for your day. Complex morning routines may look effective in theory; however, they can complicate your morning more than anything. Flexible, simple morning routines give you a solid foundation to build upon depending on the time of year, season of life, or type of morning.
By simplifying my morning routine, there’s less room for self-criticism or perceived failure when I don’t complete a complex list of tasks. I also don’t feel as rushed (most days). I now spend time on each step more mindfully instead of being beholden to the inner dialogue of "okay, what’s next?" Because I’m not burning out at the start of my day, I’ve noticed consistent energy and less anxiety first thing in the morning.
Key Points:
You don’t need to “win the morning” to win the day
Sometimes the most effective routine is the simplest
Create a solid foundation (i.e., take care of your basic needs), and anything else is a sweet bonus
Check in with yourself frequently: what may need to change in your morning routine?
Old Routine vs New Routine
For more from Sky, join her on Substack! Subscribe here to receive her personal essays right to your inbox. This newsletter is a cozy corner of self care, reflections, and other small pleasures. All are welcome <3
Skylar is a licensed clinical mental health counselor who talks about self-care as the foundation of a prosperous life. She has a deep love for yoga, vegetarian cooking, and religiously organizing her Google calendar. Follow her on Instagram for more self-care and mental health content or on LinkedIn for the more ~professional~ stuff.
Welcome back to our weekly series, Ask A Financial Advisor with Kellen Thayer of Advisor.com! Dozens of members of the TFD community love and trust Advisor to help them on their financial journeys. Get $500 off your first year with Advisor by signing up through TFD! Click here to take our short quiz and schedule a FREE consultation call with Advisor today and never make another financial decision alone!
Q: Investing in stocks is something I am a bit fearful of—what do you recommend for a beginner?
A: Investing can feel intimidating, but it’s one of the best ways to grow your wealth over time. Start small and focus on low-cost, diversified options like index funds or ETFs. These track the overall market, spreading your risk across hundreds or thousands of companies.
If you’re investing for the long term—think 10+ years—market fluctuations become less important. Set up automatic contributions to your investment accounts, so you’re consistently building your portfolio without overthinking each market move. Resist the temptation to check your investment balances every day so that you can avoid making emotional decisions.
You could try using a robo-advisor, which uses algorithms to build and manage a portfolio tailored to your risk tolerance, or work with a financial advisor for personalized guidance focused on your goals.
The most important thing? Just start. Time in the market beats timing the market every time.
On Mother’s Day as a treat to myself I went to The Face Shop in Koreatown to mindlessly browse and stocked up on a few of my staples (like iUNIK’s tea tree relief serum) but also purchased a few new items to try out. One new item I got was Medicube’s overnight collagen mask which so far I LOVE. My skin looks so smooth and hydrated in the morning and I weirdly enjoy peeling it off. I also got Jayjun’s green tea eye gel patches that I’ve been using daily between my skincare routine and putting my makeup on and it’s cooling, smells delicious, and definitely gives added moisture under my eyes.
Related, makeup-wise I got rom&nd’s lip melting balm. I’m SO particular when it comes to lip products because I don’t like anything too sticky, glossy, or matte, and cannot stand anything with a taste. Somehow this lip balm has all the right things. It’s a bit more moisturizing than a chapstick with just the right amount of tint I like and doesn’t have any sort of taste. It’s officially a staple in my purse.
As a mid-30s girlie who wants to dress as my best self, but also wants to be comfortable, I got these red Mary Jane slingbacks from Naturalizer. I cannot tell you how comfy these are — and also super cute. I love the pop of red and they can be dressed up or down. They’ll definitely be a staple of my summer wardrobe.
Lastly, I actually am stealing this recommendation from another TFD employee, Jane! She’s been doing a wardrobe audit for months where she compiled a list of everything in her closet into a spreadsheet in order to take note of what she is/isn’t wear and if she is, how often. While I’m not at that level yet, I did start auditing my closet with the intention of doing the same as Jane in order to help me shop more intentionally and get more use out of what I already own. Highly, highly recommend doing the same if you want to curb your shopping habits/be a more intentional consumer and maximize your current wardrobe.
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May 27th: NYC — Join us for Chelsea’s book launch party! Chelsea will be joined by NYT bestselling author Ashley C Ford for a fabulous evening celebrating Chelsea's sophomore romance novel, The High Dive. Ashley will lead a conversation with Chelsea around the novel's themes of love, money, and class politics, followed by interactive audience games, giveaways, and Q&A. Each guest will receive a signed copy of the book, as well as a gift bag featuring gifts from Dieux, Onsen, Poketo, and more! Only a few spots left! Get your tickets here.
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Chelsea is back with it’s not about you, another iPhone rant, where she’s once again talking about the state of American politics and how she feels it’s best to handle the chaos we’re currently dealing with.
Last week we premiered a new episode of The Budget Fix! For this iteration of the series, Holly is joined by Rachel Lawrence, a CFP and rep from the budgeting app, Monarch, to dissect real life budgets. We have more episodes dropping weekly through the rest of May into early June!
We’re also excited to have Asked & Answered back for season 2! In this series, co-hosts Chelsea & Erin Lowry of Broke Millennial answer your personal money questions from budgeting and investing basics, to navigating the financial headlines of our current political climate. So far, 3 new episodes have dropped, with 3 more dropping in June. Make sure to tune in!
ICYMI: Check out our latest video essay, How Stanley Cups Predicted Our Black Mirror Economy! In the video, Chelsea dives into America’s problem with hyper-consumption. Our May video essay is all about marrying the wrong man and drops next week!
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Check out our latest Society podcast capsule series, TikTok Therapy! In this 4-part series Chelsea is joined by Samantha Dalton, clinical social worker, for a discussion about how mental health and therapy speak have been co-opted and distorted across social media. Each episode breaks down a different piece of toxic mental health advice. ALL episodes are available now! Our next podcast series will be a political two-parter featuring Anna Gifty and premieres this week!
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Want to chat with Chelsea and get your personal (financial and otherwise) questions answered? Join her this Wednesday at 3pm et during her May office hours! ALL Society members from our $2.99 tier & up get access to office hours with Chelsea every month!
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