Back on Track February, Refresh New Years Goals

We are almost through January — it’s time for a refresh on the New Year’s Resolutions, or your February reset. How’s it going? Sunrise journaling, three-mile walk/run, inbox zero by 7 a.m. Start early; make the day happen. But then, you get the investor notes, a production hiccup, a sick kid. Routines don’t fail because they are bad. They fail because they don’t survive contact with reality. You want a routine that bends without breaking, plus seven daily habits to keep it intact. You will cut decision fatigue, add guardrails, and still leave room for the chaos that comes with building anything worthwhile.

You do not need “monk mode” to make this work.

• Nir Eyal, author of “Indistractable,” argues routines stick when you remove friction, not when you add willpower.
• Dr. Andrew Huberman, Stanford neuroscientist, points to light and movement as reliable switches for alertness.
• Alexis Grant, founder-operator, treats routines like product: ship a small MVP, iterate weekly, and measure outcomes. Shared takeaway: design beats discipline. Tradeoff: you’ll give up a bit of spontaneity to gain consistency. But, oh, it’s worth it.

1) Start with a wake anchor and a single cue

Pick one fixed anchor you can protect 80% of mornings, like a 6:45 a.m. alarm or “when the baby wakes.” Tie it to a single cue you never skip, such as boiling water for coffee. That pairing starts the routine without decisions. Put your phone on Do Not Disturb with VIP exceptions before bed so the cue fires cleanly. If your schedule is variable, use “first coffee” as the anchor and set a repeating calendar label called Anchor Block so family and teammates see it.

2) Do a 12-minute physiology primer

Get 2 minutes of real daylight (I have an inside daylight light that turns on with the alarm at 6:00 a.m.), 8 minutes of light movement (stretches), and 2 minutes of deep nasal breathing. I keep a 5 kg kettlebell by the door (okay, I should move to 10 kg — that’s in February), and I rotate hinge, press, row for 8 easy minutes. On travel days, I swap in stairs plus brisk hallway laps. The point is to nudge cortisol and body temperature up so your brain stops idling. If the weather blocks sunlight, and you don’t have a sunlamp, stand by a bright window and take a short walk later. Good enough beats ideal.

3) Hydrate and mini-fuel before caffeine

Drink 12–20 oz of water before coffee. Then eat a boring, reliable breakfast that you can make in under 8 minutes. Oatmeal and a spoon of peanut butter work great. My rule is protein + fiber: Greek yogurt with berries or an egg on greens. This removes a high-variance choice that can tank your first three hours. If mornings include kids, batch-cook on Sundays and label containers so anyone in the house can assemble them.

4) Open the roadmap first and set the intent

Touch your roadmap or OKR doc before you open the inbox. Read the top priority and write one sentence: “Today protects X.” That sentence becomes your North Star. In one 3-week test I ran, simply opening the roadmap first raised my task completion from 62% to 88% and dropped afternoon firefighting by roughly a third. Why it matters: mornings are investor-grade hours. When the roadmap opens first, you act like a CEO, not a help desk.

5) Run a 45-minute deep work anchor block

Block 45 minutes on your calendar for the riskiest deliverable. Shut Slack, set your status to Busy, and use a visible countdown timer. I aim this block at one unit of progress that moves the business, such as a pricing page draft or three outreach emails to top design candidates. If you are in fundraising, this is the model teardown or partner memo. The two-device rule helps here: keep a “clean” morning device with only the calendar, notes, music, and your build tool. Everything else lives on the “dirty” device in another room until 10 a.m.

6) Take a 10-minute VIP triage window

After deep work, open communications briefly to prevent anxiety pileup. Scan only VIP lanes: investors, top customers, your execs, your family. Reply with one-line confirmations or schedule follow-ups. Use a decision template you pre-wrote: If a meeting lacks an agenda 12-hours prior, reschedule. If a task can be delegated in 5 minutes, assign it in Asana. Then close the inbox. You are buying calm without letting the day steer you.

7) Timebox the rest of your first three hours

Lay down two more blocks before noon for what only you can do: product, capital, or talent. Add a 10-minute buffer strip between blocks so one slip does not topple your morning. If your world is meeting-heavy, switch to a 90-minute focus window plus two 20-minute flex slots for quick wins.

Your calendar is a contract, not a wish list. Treat it like a board meeting with yourself and defend it accordingly.

8) Close the loop and pre-load tomorrow

End your morning with a two-minute reset: log one win, one lesson, and one next step in a pinned note. Then pre-load tomorrow’s start. This part of your routine actually begins at night. If at home, put your laptop on the table, gather all your stuff in one place. If you’re writing, write the first sentence you will start with tomorrow.  If your life has early kid duty or travel, build a backup micro-routine you can run at lunch: 2 minutes light, 20 minutes deep focus, 10 minutes VIP triage. When you plan for slippage, you avoid “all or nothing.”

Recap:

1) Drink water before caffeine

Start with water to offset overnight dehydration, then drink your coffee. Frankly, I don’t drink coffee, so I have water by the bed. Even worse, I don’t like taking the time to drink caffeine, so I take half a caffeine pill when I get up. I know, my office peeps shudder to think of this. To speed up your coffee routine, fill a 20 oz bottle at night and leave it by the kettle. Small hydration wins work with fewer mid-morning headaches and less snacky decision-making. If you want to stack more science, add a pinch of salt or electrolytes, but do not let complexity beat the daily wins.

2) Touch your roadmap before your inbox

Open your roadmap first. Confirm that your anchor block targets the top item on your list, and rewrite a one-line intention if needed. On heavy customer days, set a 15-minute inbox preview, then snap back to the plan. The habit is symbolic and practical. It reminds you what the company or your work actually needs from you today.

3) Use a visible timer for deep work

Put a countdown timer on your desk or screen for the 45-minute anchor. I like a sand hourglass. Seeing the sand drop nudges you past the ugly middle. For calls, the timer keeps you honest about timeboxes you promised yourself. If it feels juvenile, try it for one week. Most founders find that it shifts work from intention to throughput without more hours.

4) Keep a one-shelf toolkit

Tools sprawl is a routine killer. Put your essentials on one shelf or one homescreen: calendar, tasks, notes, focus music, timer, and your build tool. I keep exactly six icons on my morning device’s dock in that order. Less hunting means fewer context switches, which means more mornings that feel repeatable. Review the set quarterly and prune.

5) Plan where you will work, not just what

Decide by 6 p.m. where tomorrow’s anchor block will happen: office, kitchen table, patio, or a quiet corner of a hotel lobby. Your brain remembers locations tied to focus. If home is noisy, choose a library or coworking space. Have two reliable alternates so the routine does not stall when your primary spot fails. Place matters more than we admit. Warm, well-lit, quiet.

6) Protect energy with a mini-fuel rule

Create one boring breakfast you default to on busy days. My rule is protein + fiber in 8 minutes or less. This is not biohacking. It is removing one choice that can derail the morning. For families, prep freezer-friendly options on Sundays and label them so anyone can assemble them for you fast.

7) Run a Friday retrospective

On Fridays, glance at three numbers: anchor block completion rate, time spent in meetings before noon, and days you opened the roadmap first. Jot one tweak to test next week. Over 8 weeks, you will own a routine that fits your company’s season, not someone else’s. The founder who respects cadence beats the founder who chases hacks.

Closing

You will not win mornings by wanting it. You will win by designing for reality, measuring what matters, and letting small, boring habits carry the load. Start tomorrow with the wake anchor and cue, then follow the eight steps once without perfection. Next week, layer in one daily habit. When life hits, scale down instead of stopping. The point is momentum; that’s what you’re keeping. At the end of each January, I redo my goals and call these tweaks “back on track” February. Try it!

Image Credit: Photo by Tiger Lily: Pexels