A 6-hour morning routine? First, try a few simple habits to start your day

Starting with brushing his teeth before 4 a.m., influencer Ashton Hall says he also swims, meditates, journals, rubs his face with a banana peel, lifts weights, submerges his face in ice water and accomplishes much more every day before breakfast around 9:30. A video of his morning routine has racked up millions of views on social media, while sparking reactions that range from disbelief to awe. It also jump-started the conversation online about how best to start the day, even if a six-hour regimen is ambitious to say the least. A professor of workplace psychology at The University of Oklahoma, Shawn McClean, said accomplishing tasks in the same order every morning is helpful because people have limited mental bandwidth before they have to recharge. The brain subconsciously reserves resources for tasks that require higher-level thinking, so routines are a type of mental shortcut. “We’re cognitive misers,” McClean said. “We don’t like to use our mental energy on things that aren’t important.” His research has found that employees perform better and are calmer throughout the day when they complete their morning regimen uninterrupted. Conversely, employees with disruptive mornings report higher levels of mental depletion late in the day. It’s hard to define what a good routine is, and there is no formula that is best for everyone. “It’s going to be idiosyncratic to each person,” McClean said. “It’s what helps them function. Now, can we have destructive routines? Yes.” Rushing around in the morning to shower, eat and get out the door just on time is an example of a destructive morning routine, Kamalyn Kaur, a psychotherapist in Cheshire, England, said. The stress of a rushed morning produces extra cortisol. Too much cortisol in the bloodstream, however, creates a feeling of restlessness and anxiety that can be similar to drinking coffee on an empty stomach, Kaur said. Kaur recommends adding at least two or three quick activities to your morning that have been shown to improve mood. Research shows that completing a task first thing in the morning promotes the secretion of the feel-good hormone dopamine, she said. This article was provided by The Associated Press.