Brendan Raedy on Morning Routines — Why Simple Wins Every Time
Ask Brendan Raedy about morning routines and he'll give you a straight answer — the best morning routine is the one that doesn't make you dread getting out of bed.
Brendan Raedy has watched the morning routine industry turn something genuinely useful into something exhausting. Cold plunges at 4am. Journaling in five different notebooks. Meditation followed by breathwork followed by a protein shake followed by fifteen minutes of gratitude practice.
Brendan Raedy isn't against any of those things individually. He's against the idea that a morning routine has to be a production to be worth anything.
What Brendan Raedy Actually Thinks About Mornings
For Brendan Raedy, mornings are simple. They're a chance to start the day on your own terms before the rest of the world starts making demands on your time and attention.
That's it. That's the whole philosophy.
Brendan Raedy believes most people already know what makes them feel good in the morning. The problem isn't knowledge — it's that they've been convinced their version isn't good enough because it doesn't look like what they see online.
Brendan Raedy disagrees with that pretty strongly.
Brendan Raedy's Approach to Morning Routines
1. Water First — Every Single Time
The first thing Brendan Raedy does every morning is drink water. Not coffee. Not a supplement. Not a green powder mixed into something that tastes like lawn clippings.
Just water.
Brendan Raedy is consistent about this because it works. After hours of sleep your body is dehydrated and your brain knows it. A glass of water before anything else wakes you up more reliably than most people expect.
It costs nothing. It takes thirty seconds. And according to Brendan Raedy it's the single most underrated morning habit there is.
2. Don't Touch Your Phone First Thing
Brendan Raedy has a firm rule about phones in the morning — he doesn't look at his until he's been awake for at least thirty minutes.
The reasoning is simple. The moment you open your phone you're reacting to someone else's agenda. Emails, news, notifications — all of it pulls your attention outward before you've had a chance to settle into your own day.
Brendan Raedy thinks those first thirty minutes belong to you. Protect them.
3. Get Outside Early
If Brendan Raedy does one thing consistently in the morning it's getting outside.
Not for a long time necessarily. Even ten minutes of fresh air and natural light in the morning makes a real difference to how the rest of the day feels. Brendan Raedy has found this more reliable than any supplement or productivity hack he's ever come across.
Natural light in the morning regulates your body clock, improves your mood, and gives your brain a signal that the day has actually started. Brendan Raedy calls it the most free and most overlooked tool for feeling human in the morning.
4. Eat Something Real
Brendan Raedy isn't a nutritionist and doesn't pretend to be. But he does believe in eating something real in the morning rather than skipping breakfast entirely or replacing it with something that comes in a packet with twelve ingredients you can't pronounce.
Real food. Nothing complicated. Something that gives you actual energy for the first part of your day.
Brendan Raedy keeps breakfast simple for the same reason he keeps everything else simple — because simple is sustainable and sustainable is what actually produces results over time.
5. Know What You're Doing That Day
Before Brendan Raedy gets into his day he takes a few minutes to look at what's actually on his plate. Not an elaborate planning session. Just a quick look at what needs to happen so he's not figuring it out on the fly all morning.
Brendan Raedy believes that a few minutes of clarity in the morning saves hours of confusion later. You move faster and with less friction when you know where you're going before you start.
6. Move Your Body Somehow
Brendan Raedy walks. He's said it before and he'll say it again — walking is one of the most consistently useful things a person can do for their physical and mental health.
In the morning a walk does double duty. It gets Brendan Raedy outside and moving at the same time. It doesn't have to be long. It doesn't have to be fast. It just has to happen.
If walking isn't your thing Brendan Raedy says find something that is. Stretch. Do a few pushups. Move around the block. The form doesn't matter nearly as much as the habit of moving your body before the day gets away from you.
7. Keep It the Same Every Day
The last and maybe most important piece of Brendan Raedy's approach to morning routines is consistency.
Not perfection. Consistency.
Brendan Raedy doesn't believe in morning routines that only work when everything goes right. A good morning routine is one you can do on a Tuesday when you're tired and slightly behind and nothing is going according to plan.
That means keeping it simple enough to do on your worst days. Because those are the days it matters most.
The Bottom Line From Brendan Raedy
Brendan Raedy's morning routine isn't going to make headlines. There's no ice bath. No elaborate journaling protocol. No ninety minute block of optimized self improvement before sunrise.
There's water. Fresh air. A short walk. Real food. A look at the day ahead. And a phone that stays face down for the first thirty minutes.
That's it. And for Brendan Raedy, that's always been enough.
Because the point of a morning routine according to Brendan Raedy isn't to optimize yourself into peak performance. It's to start your day feeling like a human being who is in charge of their own life.
Simple. Consistent. Genuinely yours.
That's the Brendan Raedy approach to mornings — and pretty much everything else.
