My Updated Morning Routine & Cheers To A Year! — The Steward’s Journal .054

It's been a year since I joined Substack, and you all have been awesome.

This morning felt like Fall and I can’t get over it… 🍂

Cheers to a Year! 🥳

So, I missed it.

As of August 1st, I have been on Substack for a whole year!

250+ subscribers and 54 posts later, and we have built a little community that has been such a joy to write to and engage with each month.

Seriously, if you have ever thought about starting a newsletter/blog, Substack is THE way to do it. The network and social aspect can’t be beat.

But I digress. Here’s to another year and another 55(ish)(probably more like 12) newsletter entries!

THANK YOU ALL FOR AN AMAZING YEAR 🥳

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My New Morning Routine 🌅

Every now and again, when the season changes (and/or the wife and kids go back to school) I get to rethink my daily routines.

If you read my last entry you will know I have been doing more thinking than just about my morning routines and have been attempting to rewire my brain a bit and change who I am — more into the Godly man I am meant to be.

This is a life-long journey but I have found many times that it can come in the form of waves of epiphanies, seasonal changes, or otherwise a nice slap on the back of the head by some life event.

So, when I set out to plan my mornings (now starting at a 5am alarm!) I knew I needed to consider things a bit differently, keep my priorities straight, and start each day thinking more about what needs to get done in my walk as a child of God and less about what I personally want to achieve for the day to best amuse myself.

The Schedule

With two kids in the same daycare across town, a wife who happens to be a teacher, and a job that is far more gracious than I could hope for, my morning calendar looks like this:

05:00: Alarm goes off.

05:30: Usually snooze till around this time then hop in the shower leaving my phone on my night stand.

05:45: Get dressed and get some stuff ready downstairs.

06:00: The girl wakes up when her light turns green and we hear, “Mommy, daddy, I’m awake!” over and over until we open her door.

06:30: Try and be out the door with the kids so my wife has 30 minutes to get ready (yikes!)

07:00: Drop the kids off at daycare (yes it’s about a 30 minute drive there and back — best daycare ever, wouldn’t change a thing). On my way to work I listen to the Dwell App reading me through the Bible, then pray for the day as Jesus taught us to pray including my own personal praises and prayers for others and myself. Then with any spare time, I listen to music, think in silence (or by talking out loud), or listen to an audiobook.

07:30: On a good morning I make it to work at this time - usually looks more like 7:45 though, if I’m honest.

07:35: Morning Checklist before any actual work tasks get done.

The Morning Checklist

My morning checklist exists on my Notion and currently holds 11 tasks that must get completed each morning, in order, before I can hop into the bulk of my daily work.

Sometimes tasks get skipped or switched or I don’t get to them due to quick meetings or overruling and time-sensitive work.

However, I try my best to adhere to this list every morning to set my mind right - with God at the helm and my heart prepped for serving others as best I can.

Here is that list:

1. 👋🏻 Check-in on Slack

2. 🙏🏻 Pray (For God’s Will, Work, and Team)

3. 🗓 Check calendar

4. ☕️ Make coffee

5. 📖 Daily Devotional

6. 🤳🏻 Check in with *** and ********

7. ✍🏻 Research and Write

8. 🙏🏻 Priority Check/Task Creation

9. 🗓 Daily Planning

10. 📉 Optimize campaign pacing

11. 📧 Check email

Let’s walk through this real quick:

1. 👋🏻 Check-in on Slack

   1. I need to let my work peeps know that I am now in the office if they need me. We all do this on Slack.

2. 🙏🏻 Pray (For God’s Will, Work, and Team)

   1. I pray that God’s will be done today, that my work will glorify Him, and that my team/company would all come to know Him and believe in Him.

3. 🗓 Check calendar

   1. Here I need to make sure nothing urgent is going on that might need to trump the rest of this list. This also helps me better understand how much time I have to complete this checklist.

4. ☕️ Make coffee

   1. This is usually my second cup and I usually need it… most definitely an idol and a bit problematic.

5. 📖 Daily Devotional

   1. I read a daily devotional from He Reads Truth - browser versions are free, btw.

6. 🤳🏻 Check in with *** and ********

   1. I have two close friends who I pray for daily and who act as an accountability team for me and vice versa. I love these guys and we are working on living in the light with one another, and confessing and praying together. It’s incredible. 20/10 would recommend. If you’re reading, hey fellas! 👋🏻

7. ✍🏻 Research and Write

   1. This is when I head over to my typewriter and journal my thoughts about life as well as any business ideas I have been floating around in my head. It’s good to get things down on paper and I love the typewriter (NO DISTRACTIONS).

8. 🙏🏻 Priority Check/Task Creation

   1. Here I look at my to-do list for the day and literally go down my life priority list making sure to create at least one task for each, in order, if I don’t have anything on my list already — Faith, Family, Social, Work, Personal.

9. 🗓 Daily Planning

   1. After my priority check, I add any more work tasks to my to-do list I haven’t yet, then think about when I want to tackle them throughout my day while looking at my calendar.

10. 📉 Optimize campaign pacing

    1. As a programmatic media buyer, I have constant campaigns up and running that need to be optimized each day. Might as well get that task out of the way first.

11. 📧 Check email

    1. Email usually ads more tasks to my to-do list but can also be a major distraction. So, while it is important to start my day with email, I definitely try and make it last on my morning checklist.

In Summation

So there you have it! — my ‘23-’24 Morning Routine.

As with anything like this, I will continue to tweak and workout kinks, and right when it is a perfect up-and-running machine, I will get bored with it and rework it again.

Confession time - I’ve got a real problem doing that and am working on it!

Would love to hear any ideas on how I can make my mornings more productive and God-centered, so if you have any tips or ideas, let me know!

Other than that, Here’s to 1 year of writing for you guys and I hope for many many more.

And as always — thanks for reading. 🌱

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Together with:

You ever smelled real leather? How about daily on your phone or watch? Welp, ANDAR has your back.

I’ve rocked the official Apple leather case for years and have always enjoyed how they look better and better the longer you use them thanks to that awesome patina effect.

Well, I have to admit I didn’t know what I was missing out on.

ANDAR uses a full grain leather with all of their leather goods which is the highest quality and most durable leather you can buy. The patina looks so much nicer than the Apple cases and you just can’t beat that leather smell that Apple cases seem to lack.

ANDAR has been a blast to work with and they were kind enough to send me the Aspen iPhone case, the Apple Watch Band, and some “Cord Burritos”. I grabbed all these in the camel tan and MAN, they look awesome.

Here are some photos I took right out of the box and I can’t wait to see how these products look months down the road.

Grab yours by clicking the button below. Thanks, ANDAR!

A little about ANDAR

“When we started our journey in 2015, we set out to make something unique and minimal that would last. With Andar being a Spanish verb meaning "to carry" and "to ride", our goal is to minimize and organize what you carry. Over the years, this wild ride has pushed us to create unique designs for everyday carry goods that we are stoked on and are pretty sure you will be as well. We believe in creating handcrafted goods using the highest quality materials. We aren't here to be just a replacement but an invitation to clean out the clutter, organize your life and carry what matters. We're looking forward to the ride together.”

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Latest Content:

I found this unfinished video in my FinalCut library and, though I am still taking a break from social media and this kind of hobby-content, I thought I would go ahead and share this fun little video since it was just sitting there.

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Things I have been enjoying:

I am working on removing myself from an obsession with products (especially tech).

In doing so, I am trying to find better, more quality products and entertainment sources that will last me longer and rewire my dependence on these things to be seen as tools and not idols.

Here are the latest tools and entertainment sources I have been enjoying as of late:

Coffee Golf — Remember Wordle? Well, here are 5 holes on a random golf map each day for you and your friends to take a swing at and share your scores.

Made for People — Justin Whitmel Early has been busy the last few years popping up all over social media and writing a handful of books - all while being a dad and full-time lawyer… wut? This is his latest book all about how we were made for “covenant” friendships and to not do life alone. It’s been great so far and just what I needed.

TUVU — Tired of social media and all its ads and unwanted inappropriate content? Here’s a new social media for families that leans heavily into christian culture. They still have many things to work out but I hope they continue to grow as I have really enjoyed the platform and people there so far. Follow me if you sign up! @spencerscottpugh

Clutterfree — Joshua Becker is a minimalist creator who focuses on families trying to declutter and live more intentionally. He has many resources to help folks along this journey and one is his decluttering app. I’ve been using it to knock out a room every Friday for the past few weeks. It’s been pretty helpful and motivating.

Fitbod — There are tons of workout apps out there and I have no clue which is the best. I have been using this one to log my weightlifting workouts. The best part is it keeps an account of all your workouts by pulling in your Apple Health data and can show you which muscles are rested and which you should not work too much. It then gives you new workouts based on your recovered muscles as well as the equipment you have available to you. Super neat stuff.

Cycling — It’s been awhile but I am back at it with my 1980s Peugeot Racing bike. Cycling on the greenway about 1-2 times a week has been so fun.

Alone — I need to take this show in small doses but if you haven’t watched it yet, it’s on Netflix. The show drops 10 contestants in the wilderness and they have to live off the land with only 10 objects for as many days as possible while filming themselves - truly alone. I think the longest day record is 102…

Emergen-C — Game changer if you ever get that tickle in your throat and feel like you are getting sick. Take this once a day and it will kick that cold in the butt. For real.

Kid’s Camera — Got Lina a little camera for her 3rd birthday because she wanted one “like daddy’s” (*melting*). Not too expensive and she’s had a blast with it so far. Excited to have some of her photos framed for her bedroom!

Gregory Alan Isakov Album — Fall came early this year when Gregs dropped his latest album. It’s growing on me as his albums always do. This guy is just a master at creating a vibe. 🍂