Mel Robbins’ podcast routine has six steps and, by her estimate, takes about 14 minutes, including a ten-minute walk. The available reporting does not include day-by-day notes from this article’s own one-week trial, so I can’t honestly claim to have tried it or describe personal results. Here’s what Robbins recommends, how it differs from her separate workbook checklist, and what a week of trying it could—and could not—tell you.
What is Mel Robbins’ morning routine?
In her official podcast episode, Robbins presents a six-step sequence: get out of bed when the alarm rings, make the bed, give your reflection a silent high-five, drink water before caffeine, get morning light, and take a ten-minute walk. She estimates the combined routine at roughly 14 minutes, with most of that time spent walking. That is her estimate and suggested approach, not a universal prescription.
Robbins describes the goal as creating a system that starts the day and puts you first. That framing is hers; it should not be mistaken for proof that the routine produces a particular health or productivity outcome. The steps and timing below come from her official podcast episode.
1. Get up when the alarm rings
Rather than staying in bed or picking up your phone, Robbins suggests using the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown to prompt yourself to move. The countdown is an initiation cue, not a requirement to follow the rest of the routine perfectly.
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2. Make the bed
Make the bed after getting up. It is a brief, concrete action in the sequence; Robbins does not present it as a substitute for sleep or as a guaranteed way to improve the day.
3. High-five your reflection
After brushing your teeth, look in the mirror and silently high-five your reflection. This is the routine’s distinctive step and the one most directly associated with Robbins’s High 5 Habit. No book or special equipment is needed to do the gesture.
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4. Drink water before caffeine
Have a full cup of water before coffee or other caffeine. Robbins suggests delaying caffeine for at least an hour. Treat that timing as her recommendation, not a medically established requirement for everyone.
5. Get morning light
Robbins gives a “5, 10, 20” guideline: five minutes in sunshine, ten minutes when it is cloudy, or twenty minutes in rain or with bright artificial light. It is her practical guideline, not a dose that this account independently verifies as necessary or effective. If you combine light exposure with the walk, the steps need not be separate blocks of time.
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6. Take a ten-minute walk
Walk for ten minutes, with the option to get outside for light at the same time. Robbins’s roughly 14-minute total estimate depends on combining activities and on the time it takes an individual to complete the other steps; it should not be read as a guaranteed duration.
How this differs from Robbins’s workbook checklist
Robbins’s Work It Out Workbook includes a separate morning-planning checklist. It is not simply a longer version of the six-step podcast routine: it adds sleep and work-planning practices rather than repeating the mirror high-five sequence.
- Get 7–9 hours of sleep.
- Leave your phone in another room.
- Get up without snoozing.
- Reserve ten minutes for yourself.
- Write a brain dump.
- Highlight three priorities.
- Make progress on one priority before work.
These are workbook recommendations, not additional steps in the podcast’s six-step sequence. Someone choosing between the two can use the podcast steps as a short getting-started routine and the workbook list as a broader planning framework, without assuming they must do both.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What a one-week trial can establish
A week can show whether the steps fit your actual mornings: which ones you complete, how long they take, where you encounter friction, and whether the routine fits your wake time and other obligations. It cannot, on its own, establish that the routine caused a change in mood, anxiety, sleep, or productivity. Those are different claims from recording what happened on a particular morning.
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Because no first-person day-by-day record is available for this article, there is no honest basis for saying I completed the steps, how many days I did them, or what effect I personally noticed. If you try the routine, a simple log can keep observations separate from interpretations:
- Record: which steps you did and the total time.
- Note friction: what felt difficult or awkward, and what disrupted the sequence.
- Describe context: your wake time, schedule, and whether the walk and light exposure overlapped.
- Keep outcomes specific: distinguish a concrete observation from a conclusion about why it happened.
- At the end of the week: decide which steps fit your life well enough to continue, change, or drop.
What another writer reported—and what that does not prove
In a Tom’s Guide account published April 12, 2025, writer Becks Shepherd described trying the routine for two weeks. Shepherd said the mirror high-five felt silly and that delaying caffeine was difficult, and planned to keep getting outside and to prolong the caffeine delay. Those are one writer’s subjective reactions, not findings from a controlled study or evidence that other people will have the same experience.
Robbins’s podcast transcript describes research and expected benefits, but those underlying studies have not been independently assessed here. Accordingly, claims that the routine is proven to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, or increase productivity would go beyond what this account establishes.
Who might find the routine practical?
The sequence is brief by Robbins’s estimate and relies mostly on actions that can be done without special equipment. Its practical fit depends on your circumstances: for example, whether you have time and a suitable place to walk, whether morning light is accessible, and whether delaying caffeine works for you. You can assess those trade-offs without treating every step as compulsory or interpreting a missed step as failure.
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If the mirror gesture is the part you want to understand better, Robbins discusses the related habit in another official podcast episode. The associated book is optional context, not a prerequisite for trying the routine.
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