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Branson to high achievers: Stop trying to copy celebrities’ morning routines. It just backfires.
As someone who writes for the internet, I know from experience that people love to read about the morning routines of famous people. Partly this is just natural curiosity. Tim Cook’s crazy 4 a.m. wakeups, Steve Jobs’s morbid morning question, and Jeff Bezos’s puttering are humanizing and quirky.
But many of us also look to celebrities and business titans for ideas on how to manage our own days. Richard Branson just explained why that’s a terrible idea.
Richard Branson says you should ignore productivity gurus
Sir Richard is famous for founding his various Virgin businesses, of course. But he’s also well known for his go-getting, healthful morning routine. The 75-year-old billionaire still routinely gets up at 5 a.m. to engage in one of his many healthy habits, like tennis or kitesurfing, before indulging in daily meals designed by a Harvard-trained cancer doctor.
It sounds like the kind of healthy living plan more of us should emulate. But on LinkedIn recently, Branson warned against blindly following his morning routine—or anyone else’s either.
“I’m often asked about waking up at 5 a.m. It’s something that comes very naturally to me, but I sometimes worry that people think it’s the secret to success,” he wrote. “There’s a lot of noise out there telling people how to live their lives and be successful. Rigid routines, relentless hustle. I sometimes feel uncomfortable to think my morning routine is adding to the noise!”
Plenty of influencers and self-proclaimed gurus will try to sell you a one-size-fits-all recipe for success, he continues, but “the reality is you need to find a routine that works for you and your life.”
Trying to squeeze yourself into some generic model of success often leads to burnout, he warns. Yes, discipline and hard work are necessary. But you also need to “create a rhythm that’s sustainable,” and the best way to do that is to find whatever routine helps you feel your best.
A best-selling author and neuroscientist agree
It’s typically plainspoken advice from Richard Branson. It’s also advice that has the backing of a whole lot of experts on productivity and peak performance. Oliver Burkeman has written several self-help best sellers arguing that most traditional self-help advice is nonsense. That includes rigid, formulaic morning routines.
Setting yourself a stringent morning routine, full of wellness practices and an eye-wateringly early wakeup, often backfires, he’s explained. When you inevitably miss these targets, you end up feeling bad, which saps your motivation. A more laid back, realistic routine does the opposite. Small early wins power you to more productivity during the day.
“Developing habits and achieving goals don’t matter in and of themselves,” he emphasizes. Routines should help you live a fulfilling life, and “it’s not worth bothering with the ones that drag you away from that reality, into a futile quest to become someone you aren’t.”
Neuroscientist Rachel Barr calls this the “cold plunge fallacy.” You believe some rigorous and extreme morning routine, like a cold plunge, will transform you into a more productive and successful person. But, in fact, habits you don’t genuinely like just make you unhappy. And an absolute mountain of studies shows unhappiness hampers performance and success.
“The things that you do for your mental health should be aligned with what your brain needs and your natural rhythms. And they should, in most cases, feel quite good.” she concludes.
The best morning routine is one that suits you
Richard Branson’s morning routine works for Richard Branson because it aligns with his natural preferences. He sticks with it because of that. This consistent forward momentum helps him be successful. If you just copy paste the same routine into your life, unless you share his preferences, you won’t see the same benefits.
So if stealing a celebrity’s morning routines doesn’t work, what does? Experimenting with the many options for your morning (here’s an inspirational list) and finding out what lights you up. Discipline and denial aren’t the point. The point is to find a routine that makes you happy, accomplished, and ready for the day ahead.
This post originally appeared at inc.com.
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