\u201cI let A.I. decide my morning routine \u2014 here\u2019s how it\u2019s going,\u201d the influencer Grace Lemire tells the camera, yawning and stretching. She \u201cdesperately\u201d needs a fresh morning routine \u201cbut didn\u2019t have the brain power to plan it out.\u201d She films herself inputting some parameters into the Anthropic chatbot Claude\u2019s interface \u2014 she calls her version Claudia \u2014 and it spits back a schedule for her:<\/p>\n
7 \u2014 wake up<\/p>\n
7:15 \u2014 skincare & makeup<\/p>\n
7:45 \u2014 breakfast<\/p>\n
8:15 \u2014 meditation & quick win<\/p>\n
8:25 \u2014 coffee & clean up<\/p>\n
8:30 \u2014 work.<\/p>\n
Lemire makes a montage of herself going through these motions, curling her hair, lighting a candle, eating French toast and grapes, unloading the dishwasher, placing a mug under her espresso machine. A week in, she says, she\u2019s loving it. She\u2019s thriving! Thank you, Claudia.<\/p>\n
The morning-routine video is a classic genre of social media \u2014 a montage that\u2019s part self-documentary and part self-help inspiration. It\u2019s as though watching someone make her coffee, do her makeup or even just open her blinds in quick jump-cut succession is designed to make you feel as if you\u2019re just a few steps away from a routine that will unlock everything.<\/p>\n
Our curiosity about other people\u2019s mornings long predated TikTok, of course. Benjamin Franklin published his daily schedule, in which he woke up at 5 a.m. and asked himself what good he could do that day. But modern self-help culture has fueled interest in other people\u2019s routines. People want to know the secrets of chief executives and creative people they admire and want to emulate. Toni Morrison made coffee and watched the sunrise; Warren Buffett drinks Coca-Cola and stops at the McDonald\u2019s drive-through; Jeff Bezos doesn\u2019t look at his phone and spends his first hour \u201cputtering.\u201d In recent years, our voyeurism has trickled down to influencers and ordinary people leading ordinary lives: moms managing drop-off and work calls, office workers telling you how to squeeze in exercise.<\/p>\n
More recently, the robots are getting involved, and they seem prepared with uniform suggestions. @UpgradingKatie<\/a>, an influencer who focuses on integrating A.I. into her life, shows us what ChatGPT tells her to do each morning: Drink a \u201chuge glass of warm water\u201d and \u201c10 minute zone cleaning\u201d are among its instructions.<\/p>\n ChatGPT tells Kendall Sieber<\/a>, who focuses on \u201cgadgets and tech that actually make life easier,\u201d to take her dog outside, then take her shoes off and let her bare feet touch the earth to calm her nervous system. \u201cMake me the ultimate prework routine that I can do before my 9-to-5,\u201d @alex.careerqueen<\/a> says, which leads to a stretching regimen. The routines produced are often consistent: practical and health-conscious, but also strikingly simple in their suggestions of eating, getting dressed and heading to work. What else, really, would you do in the morning?<\/p>\n