How Fox Valley Residents Are Winning Their Mornings

The internet is full of extreme morning routines — cold plunges, two-hour workouts, journaling, meditation, and all of it before sunrise. Most people try them for a week and quit. A handful of Fox Valley residents have found something different: simple, sustainable habits that actually stick.

Tom Kessler, a 44-year-old project manager from Aurora, starts each day by making his bed and brewing coffee before looking at his phone. That's the entire routine. "I spent two years trying to build elaborate mornings and failing. This one thing — not touching my phone for the first 20 minutes — changed my stress level more than anything else I've tried."