it’s 10pm

You’re in your bed… snug as a bug

and you can’t help but think to yourself:

“Man, i could’ve worked harder today. Maybe tomorrow”

If this happens to you everyday, it’s because of your morning routine. Because this NEVER happened to Napoleon

And you’ll understand why after you’ve see his crazy morning routine.

Right, we’ve got to start here because this is the most important part.

Despite what everyone will tell you… Napoleon did not have a rigid schedule.

This is important because a lot of morning routine videos tell you that you need to wake up at 5 AM, douse your face with ice, meditate for exactly 20 minutes, and follow the same schedule every day.

There are two problems with that.

First, if you wake up late or take too long doing something, the whole schedule falls apart. Now you have a great excuse to be unproductive for the rest of the day because your “perfect routine” is broken.

Second, life doesn’t work like that. Sometimes you have a huge project and need to work late. Sometimes you need to get to bed early because something needs to be done in the morning.

Napoleon understood this.

His schedule fluctuated enormously depending on what he was doing. Sometimes he was at war. Sometimes he was governing from a palace. Sometimes he was traveling. There was no single routine he followed every day.

But there were patterns we can steal.

On nights Napoleon went to bed earlier, it could be around 11 or midnight.

But he wasn’t religious about bedtime. Sometimes he worked extremely late. Other times he went to sleep earlier and woke up in the middle of the night to work.

It doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you have a period of time where you’re working while everyone else is asleep.

Trust me it does wonders

Because you’ve got claude, google, etc.

So fucking take advantage of that. You’re smarter than 99% of the greatest people on earth, and you’re listening to me?

GO MASTER CLAUDE… NOW vvvv

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Napoleon was known for working at ridiculous hours.

He could wake during the night, summon his secretaries, go through correspondence, dictate responses and issue orders.

Sometimes he’d continue working into the morning. Other times he’d go back to sleep and wake again around 7.

Think about why correspondence mattered so much to him.

Napoleon had armies and an empire to command. Letters were how his decisions became actions hundreds of miles away.

By getting orders out early, other people could already be acting on them when the normal working day began.

You probably don’t command an army.

So don’t copy the letters. Copy the principle.

What is the most important thing you could possibly do today?

Maybe it’s contacting business owners.

Maybe it’s writing the book you’ve been putting off.

Maybe it’s building your company.

Whatever it is, do that before the day gets a chance to distract you.

Around his normal morning rising time, Napoleon might have tea or an orange-blossom infusion while dealing with correspondence.

Again, the drink doesn’t matter.

The work does.

Instead of waking up and immediately filling your brain with everyone else’s priorities, use the beginning of the day for your own most important work.

I also don’t think you need some enormous breakfast beforehand.

Have something light if you want it. Coffee. Tea. Napoleon liked orange-blossom infusion.

Then work.

Napoleon could spend a surprisingly long time bathing, shaving and getting dressed.

Does that mean you need a two-hour grooming routine?

Obviously not.

The point of this entire routine is flexibility.

If you have more work than usual, work longer.

If you need to travel, get ready faster.

If you need more sleep, sleep.

Your routine should work around your life, not your life around your routine.

Butttt that’s not an excuse to sleep in till 12pm and start scrolling substack. ;)

Once ready, Napoleon continued with the business of the day: correspondence, meetings, officials, orders and administration.

By this point, though, you’ve hopefully already made progress on the single most important thing you needed to accomplish.

Everything else comes second.

Napoleon was famous for eating quickly.

He could treat meals more like fuel than an event, sometimes spending surprisingly little time at the table before returning to work.

and you know what, so did steve jobs and julius cesear.

All three of them would usually skip breakfast and lunch or have a light meal.

So take with that what you will (if you’re going to copy anyone, copy them)

⸻

And that’s Napoleon’s morning.

But the most important lesson isn’t waking up at 3 AM.

It’s actually the opposite.

Stop looking for the perfect routine.

Napoleon managed an empire, commanded armies and fought campaigns without following the exact same morning schedule every day.

Build a framework instead.

Get enough sleep.

Find quiet hours when nobody can bother you.

Do your most important work before everything else.

Eat when you need to.

Change the schedule when life changes.

Your routine should serve your work. Your work shouldn’t serve your routine.

If Napoleon could run an empire without a perfect 5 AM morning routine, you can probably survive waking up 30 minutes late.