Day 10: Build Your Personal Operating System (..without the burnout)
September Rentrée Series
🍂 Welcome to the September Rentrée! Every weekday this month, you'll get one bold, bite-sized piece to spark reflection, shift your habits, and help you design a life that feels good in real life. 1 month. 20 bold truths. A life-changing September. In France, la rentrée (the return) is a national event. It's about fresh routines, new ideas, and intentional renewal. And that's exactly the energy we're bringing here!
Most morning routines are performance art for people who don't have real lives.
"4:30am meditation, 5am journalling, 5:30am workout, 6:30am cold shower/ice bath, 7am superfood smoothie, 8am gratitude practice"
Cool. Love that for you.
Now do it with a job. Or kids. Or a commute. Or a life that doesn't revolve around optimising every waking second.
The truth? Those perfect routines are fragile. One bad night's sleep, one sick kid, one early meeting, and the whole thing collapses.
I know, I tried!
I'm a sucker for self-help books and the 5am Club was fun for about 2 weeks, until I realised it was absolutely not compatible with my own life.
But maybe you don't need a morning routine. You need an operating system.
Think of it like this: A routine can be a little rigid. An operating system is flexible.
A routine breaks when life happens. An operating system adapts.
The Four Pillars of Your Personal Wellbeing OS
1. Anchor rituals (not routines)
Instead of a 2-hour morning routine, pick 2 or 3 non-negotiable anchors that can flex with your life.
Mine:
Black coffee + check my day's calendar (5 minutes)
A deep work block first thing (that's when my brain is sharpest)
Movement of any kind (usually the gym, but sometimes it's just 1 song and a dance in my living room)
That's it. Simple, portable, and flexible.
Works with early meetings. Works in a hotel. Works when life explodes.
The point isn't the 'what', it's that these anchors survive the chaos of real life.
And on mornings when everything goes wrong (late night, early call, or total chaos)?
My Wellbeing OS shrinks to the absolute bare minimum: coffee and a breath before I grab my laptop and dive in.
That's it. Still enough to anchor me. Still enough to feel grounded.
2. Energy management (not time management)
Your body runs on 90-120 minute cycles, with natural peaks and dips of energy throughout the day.
Here's how to actually figure yours out:
For one week, set a phone alarm every 2 hours. When it goes off, rate your energy from 1-10. No overthinking. First number that comes to mind.
After a week, you'll see the pattern:
Maybe you're on fire at 9am but completely done by 2pm
Maybe you get randomly productive at 5pm (me!)
Maybe your best ideas come at 9pm, not 9am like every productivity guru claims
Then match your work to your wiring:
Deep work when you're a 7+
Meetings and emails when you're a 5 or 6
Admin and mindless tasks when you're under 5
Stop forcing yourself to be creative at 3pm if your brain turns to mush after lunch.
And when your natural rhythm doesn’t line up with your schedule?
You have two options: use external boosts like coffee, music, or deadlines to push through, or protect the pockets of peak energy you do control and use them for what matters most.
3. Transition rituals
It’s not just the habits that matter. It’s the transitions between them.
Think of transitions as the reset buttons in your day. They stop one role or activity from spilling into the next.
End of work: I close my laptop, take a big breath, tidy-up the desk, and walk out of my home office. That short pause signals that work is finished and I can shift into home mode. Then a walk and a shower to decompress. Otherwise that annoying Teams message from 4pm follows me straight to dinner.
Before bed: Soft lighting, quiet music and laptop in a different room. My brain registers that the day is over and it's time to chill.
These micro-rituals don't take time. They give you back energy by containing stress instead of letting it follow you everywhere.
4. The Weekly Reset
Every Sunday (or whatever day works), take 15 minutes to:
Write down all the stuff that's taking up headspace
Pick three priorities that actually matter
Match them to your natural energy peaks
This isn't planning. It's creating space for what matters.
Do this today: Pick ONE transition ritual. 30 seconds to shift between work and home. Start there.
The payoff? Routines require perfection. Operating systems require presence.
Remember those 4:30am meditation people? They're still posting about their perfect mornings while you're reading this on your phone during your commute, hiding from your kids in the bathroom, or pretending to pay attention on a Zoom call.
And that's exactly the point.
You don't need their routine. You need something that actually works when life is chaotic, exhausting, and real.
Routines are for people whose biggest problem is choosing between oat milk and almond milk.
Operating systems are for the rest of us.
With love,
Noemie x
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