A Good Life Is Built on Ordinary Days

We are a product of our daily habits.

The small things we do every day usually have a bigger impact on our lives than the grand things we do once in a while.

That’s because habits compound.

A 30-minute run doesn’t transform your health. One healthy breakfast doesn’t change much. Reading a few pages of a book won’t suddenly make you wiser.

But do those things most days for years, and they start to shape who you are.

It’s similar to investing. The individual deposits don’t seem like much. The compounding is where the magic happens.

So when I think about living a productive, healthy, fulfilling life, I try to focus less on the macro and more on the micro.

What can I do today that makes today a little better?

Here are the daily habits that improve my life.

Wake up early

I recognize that some people are naturally early risers and others are night owls. But our modern world tends to reward morning people, especially if you work a job that gets going around 9am.

The earlier I wake up, the more time I have to live on my own terms before the demands of the day begin.

On weekdays, I typically wake up between 5:30 and 6am.

Coffee + stretch

I’m usually the first person awake in my house. One of the first things I do is make a cup of coffee and slowly go through a full-body stretching routine.

I don’t rush it.

I focus on my breathing and let my mind wander wherever it wants to go. Often, without consciously trying, I start thinking about what matters that day.

The combination of coffee and stretching wakes up my mind and body at the same time.

Read and/or journal

After stretching, I usually read a few pages or write in my journal.

If something is bothering me or I’m having trouble making sense of a situation, writing is often the fastest way to untangle my thoughts.

If my mind is calm, I’ll read.

Sometimes that means religious reading that helps ground me in values and how I want to live. Other times it’s simply a book I’m excited about.

A few quiet pages in the morning can influence the tone of the entire day.

Exercise

Once my mind and body are awake, I’m ready to move.

Most mornings that means a 30-minute run outside.

Running is exercise, but for me it’s also therapy. I’m almost always calmer, clearer, and more focused at work after I run.

I don’t push especially hard. The goal is to enjoy being outside, breathe fresh air, let my thoughts move around, and have some time alone.

I also lift weights once or twice a week and usually play tennis a couple of times per week.

The specific activity matters less to me than moving my body every day.

No phone for the first 2–3 hours

You may have noticed that none of my morning habits involve a screen.

That’s intentional.

I try not to check email or social media for the first two or three hours after waking up.

Those early hours are mine.

I can wake up, think, move, read, and decide what matters before I start responding to everyone else’s priorities.

Most days I first check email around 8am, roughly two and a half hours after waking.

Eat a healthy breakfast

After my morning run, I eat a high-fiber breakfast.

My usual bowl is oat bran mixed with psyllium husk, chia seeds, cinnamon, walnuts, and wild blueberries.

It’s not glamorous, but I like it, it fills me up, and it works for me.

That is probably a decent description of many good habits.

No meetings before 10am

I try to avoid meetings before 10am, and ideally before 10:30.

That gives me the first part of the workday to focus on whatever matters most.

I find that my entire day feels better if I make meaningful progress on my highest-priority task before getting pulled into meetings, messages, and other people’s agendas.

I’m happy to spend much of 10–12 in meetings. I just like protecting that first hour or so.

Eat a lunch that keeps my energy steady

For lunch, I usually eat something like a salad with grilled chicken, plenty of vegetables, nuts or seeds, and occasionally quinoa or farro.

I generally avoid a heavy lunch because I know what happens next: my energy crashes.

I’d rather finish lunch feeling satisfied but still alert.

When possible, I eat outside. Even a short break from the office environment helps reset my brain.

Walk after lunch

If my schedule allows, I’ll take a 10–20 minute walk after lunch.

There’s a peaceful path behind my office that makes this especially easy.

The walk helps me digest, gets me back outside, and creates a clean break between the morning and afternoon.

If I can’t walk after lunch, a mid-afternoon walk works too.

Drink water throughout the day

I usually keep a glass or bottle of water nearby.

I’m not obsessively tracking ounces or carrying around a gallon jug.

I just sip water throughout the day.

Simple, boring, effective.

No meetings after 4pm

When possible, I also try to avoid meetings after 4pm.

That gives me the final stretch of the day to finish important work, close loops, and leave the office feeling like the day actually ended.

There’s something underrated about walking out the door with a clear mind instead of five unfinished thoughts bouncing around your head.

Put the phone away at home

I usually get home around 6 or 6:30pm.

I might do one final email check before going inside, but once I’m home, I try to put my phone in what we call the “phone foyer” — a spot in the kitchen where it docks and charges.

The simple act of physically putting my phone away helps me be more present with my family.

Otherwise, it is far too easy for work email or social media to follow me around all night.

No email for the last hour before bed

I avoid email during the final hour before bed.

Very little good comes from discovering a work problem at 9pm.

Whatever feels urgent at night usually feels much more manageable the next morning.

Protecting the final hour of the day helps protect my sleep, too.

Read and/or journal before bed

I usually read for 10–20 minutes in bed.

Reading tends to make me sleepy in a way that scrolling never does.

If my mind is still active, I’ll journal instead.

Once a thought is out of my head and on paper, my brain seems much more willing to let it go.

Go to bed early

On weeknights, I’m usually asleep by 9:30 or 10pm.

I aim for roughly eight hours of sleep, so if I want to wake up at 5:30 or 6, the math is pretty straightforward.

That means starting to wind down around 8:30.

Not exactly a wild nightlife.

But it works for me.

I’m looser with all of this on weekends, and of course life regularly gets in the way.

That’s fine.

The point isn’t to execute a perfect routine.

It’s to have a collection of small behaviors you can return to again and again because you know they make your life better.

None of these habits are especially dramatic.

That’s actually what I like about them.

A good life probably isn’t built through a handful of extraordinary days.

It’s built through thousands of pretty ordinary ones.

What Are We Optimizing For?

By almost any economic metric, the United States is an extraordinary success. We are one of the wealthiest societies in human history, home to incredibly innovative companies, remarkable medical technology, and conveniences our ancestors never could have imagined.

And yet something doesn’t add up.

The Prosperity Paradox

Our extraordinary material prosperity hasn’t translated very well into health or well-being. Americans live shorter lives than people in many other wealthy countries. Chronic disease is widespread. Measures of happiness and social connection give us plenty of reason for concern. Many of us feel stressed, lonely, exhausted, or perpetually short on time.

It raises a question I’ve been thinking about lately:

What if we’re optimizing for the wrong things?

We’ve become very good at measuring economic output, professional achievement, productivity, and financial wealth. Health has increasingly become something to optimize: steps, sleep scores, glucose levels, HRV, recovery, supplements, workouts, biomarkers.

Some of that is definitely useful. I exercise just about every day. I care about nutrition and longevity. I like understanding the science of living a longer, healthier life.

But I’ve started to wonder whether optimization itself has become another trap.

Because the point of health isn’t necessarily to have perfect biomarkers. The point of wealth isn’t simply to accumulate the largest possible number. And the point of productivity isn’t to squeeze the maximum amount of work from every waking hour.

The point is to have a life.

And many of the things that make a life good are actually quite ordinary.

A morning coffee. Moving your body. Doing work that feels worthwhile. Having control over your time. Sitting around a table with people you love. Playing a sport. Walking outside. Traveling somewhere new. Laughing with friends. Sharing a good meal. Lingering over a glass of wine.

These things can look unproductive on a spreadsheet. Perhaps that’s part of the problem.

Some of the most important ingredients of human flourishing—relationships, community, autonomy, purpose, movement, play, presence—are difficult to capture in the metrics our society prizes most.

Remembering What It’s For

That doesn’t mean achievement is bad, money doesn’t matter, or we should abandon technology and modern medicine. Far from it. Prosperity can give us extraordinary freedom and opportunity.

But those things should serve the good life rather than become substitutes for it.

Maybe the better question isn’t How can I optimize myself?

It’s:

What am I optimizing for?

For me, increasingly, the answer is something like this:

• To be healthy enough to keep doing the things I love.

• To have enough freedom to spend my limited time on my own terms.

• To remain deeply connected to other people.

• To keep exploring, playing, learning, and contributing.

• And to actually savor the experience while I’m here.

Health. Freedom. Connection. Purpose. Joy.

We don’t need to reject ambition, achievement, or optimization.

We just need to remember what they’re for.

Image Isn't Everything

With Wimbledon underway, I’ve been thinking about the player who got me into the sport in the first place: Andre Agassi.

When I was a kid, Agassi was it.
The hair. The attitude. The denim shorts with fluorescent spandex underneath.
I had the full Nike kit. I was all in.

He made tennis feel bold, expressive, alive — especially in a world where the top players were guys like Ivan Lendl and Stefan Edberg: stoic, elegant, all business.
Agassi was different. Loud. Fun. Unapologetically himself.

Later, when Pete Sampras came along — all calm excellence — I didn’t connect with him either (just like Edberg and Lendl).
He was just… good and boring. (Though eventually, I came to respect him. Because I respect all great champions.)

But the version of Agassi I truly idolized came later.

The one who hit rock bottom — falling from World No. 1 to No. 141 in the rankings.
The one who rebuilt himself through training, discipline, and purpose.
The one who came back stronger — and stayed on top through hard, quiet work.

That’s when he became not just great — but iconic.
The kind of figure who transcended tennis.

You can start with image.
But if you want to last — in tennis, in leadership, in life — you need purpose and persistence.

I still have a signed photo from Agassi that my middle school girlfriend wrote in for.
And I keep a framed picture in my basement from the day I met him at Dodger Stadium — one of the coolest days of my life.

Signed photo from Andre Agassi that I got in middle school

He was my hero when it was all about image.
He became my idol when he found his purpose.

(And yes, I feel the same way about Djokovic — I didn’t love him at first, but his mental strength and relentless excellence won me over.)

Launch of My New Course — The Top 10 Habits for Living Well

If you have been reading my articles for a while, you know I am fascinated with the best habits for living well.

I believe living well is the ultimate goal in life and it is achieved through the perfect blend of happiness, health, productivity, and success.

I read everything I can get my hands on related to this topic and continuously experiment with new tactics to see what works in my own life.

After a decade of research and personal experimentation, I have distilled my learnings into a new online course — The Top 10 Habits for Living Well.

The course is live now and open for enrollment here: https://10habitsforlivingwell.thinkific.com/

In the course, each habit is structured as its own chapter. For each chapter, there is a short reading assignment, quiz, and action items to apply to your life.

There is also a printable 1-page version of all action items for easy reference.

The entire course is estimated to take between 2–3 hours to complete.

My sincere hope is that everyone who enrolls in this course will learn actionable and practical tips to improve their life.

The first 10 people who sign up will receive a free 1-hour coaching session with me ($250 value) to help put the principles of the course into action.

I appreciate all the support and loyalty from my readers over the years and I can’t wait to hear what you think about this new course!

Sincerely,

Andrew

The 1 Habit That Has Improved My Life More Than Anything Else

Exercise is the single habit that has improved my life more than anything else.

Specifically a 30-minute run first thing in the morning.

This habit, which takes up just 3% of my waking hours, has delivered an incredible return on investment.

Exercise helped me overcome anxiety when I was in college and it has been a competitive advantage throughout my professional career.

I have worked in many high-pressure environments, working for billion-dollar companies including New Balance, Clif Bar, Red Bull, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Boston Red Sox.

Throughout my career, I’ve never gone into a big day without running first thing in the morning.

Any time I need to attend an important meeting or give a high-stakes presentation, you can be sure I’ve gotten my run in first.

Just a 30-minute run at a moderate pace (9–10 minute mile) has consistently proven to improve my mood and heighten my productivity for hours afterward.

This makes me better with my relationships and better at business.

Now that I have a family of my own, including 2 children, my morning run is the me time I need to then be there for my family.

My morning run makes me more patient and focused with my loved ones.

The benefits of my morning run are felt immediately and persist throughout the rest of the day. That immediate feedback is what I have needed to stick with this habit for more than 20 years now.

Remarkably, the long-term health benefits have not been a primary driver to maintain this habit, although it is a nice bonus.

I’ve often wondered throughout my professional career why more people don’t exercise first thing in the morning.

Perhaps they have tried and it doesn’t produce the same results as it does for me, or maybe it’s just hard to resist the urge to sleep in a bit more.

I need sleep as much as anyone else, but knowing how much my day will be improved is all the motivation I need to put on my running shoes and get out the door.

Whatever exercise you enjoy, I encourage you to give it a try first thing in the morning, before your obligations for the day begin.

If you’re like me, you’ll notice the rest of the day goes much smoother in all aspects of your life — mental health, relationships, and business.