Skip to main content
  1. AIs/

Build a Financial Independence Morning Routine Workflow That Actually Runs Itself

Chris W.
Author
Chris W.
Owning my financial freedom
Table of Contents
AI - This article is part of a series.
Part 2: This Article
It’s 2026. Why not start fresh and automate your FI morning routine? Most morning routines fail because they rely on willpower. You wake up, check your phone, get distracted by notifications, and suddenly it’s 10 AM and you haven’t done the one thing you said you’d do yesterday.

I had the same problem. So I built a workflow.

One command. Five minutes. My entire day planned, calendar blocked, and yesterday’s patterns analyzed.

No Willpower Required

This workflow is designed to automate the planning and review process

What is this thing?
#

It’s a multi-stage workflow built in Obsidian using Claude Code slash commands. Think of it as a personal assistant that actually knows your context.

Here’s what it does automatically:

  1. Reviews the last 3 days - Creates a vivid reconstruction of what actually happened (with exact timestamps)
  2. Morning check-in - Asks reflection questions and creates a daily note
  3. Reviews your goals - Generates contextual questions based on deadlines and progress
  4. Schedules your day - Creates calendar events and a time-blocked task list
  5. Logs everything - Tracks patterns so you see what’s actually working

You run /morning-routine:main and it handles the rest.

No manual journaling. No staring at blank pages. No “what should I do today” paralysis.

Why I built this
#

Every morning I had to:

  • Remember what I did yesterday
  • Figure out what matters today
  • Manually create calendar events
  • Review goals scattered across different notes
  • Actually motivate myself to do all this

That’s too many steps.

So I automated it. Now the system remembers yesterday for me, asks smart questions about my goals, and creates calendar events automatically.

I just answer questions and make decisions. The workflow handles everything else.

How it actually works
#

Stage 1: Review yesterday (and the last 3 days)
#

Most people can’t remember what they did yesterday The workflow reads your last 3 days of check-ins and creates a reconstruction with:

Specific timestamps: Not “worked in the morning” but “9:15 AM - started to log my expenses, got distracted by email at 9:47 AM”

Direct quotes: Your actual words from yesterday’s reflections

Pattern analysis: “You mentioned being distracted 3 out of 3 days - always between 2-4 PM”

Action items you committed to: What you said you’d do yesterday vs what actually happened

Stage 2: Morning check-in
#

Once you know what happened yesterday, the workflow asks reflection questions:

  • What’s on your mind right now?
  • What went well yesterday?
  • What would make today great?
  • Any blockers or concerns?

You answer however you want. Bullet points, full sentences, single words - doesn’t matter.

The workflow accepts whatever you give it and creates a dated check-in file: 2026-01-07. Morning Check-in.md

Stage 3: Review goals
#

The workflow reads all your goal files and generates contextual questions based on:

Deadlines: “You have 4 days left on that blog post. Are you on track?”

Status: If a goal says “In progress” and you haven’t logged anything in 5 days, it asks what’s blocking you

Your own questions: If you ended a goal log with “Next review: What’s the outline for section 2?” - it asks that

Patterns: If you keep mentioning the same blocker, it asks how to address it

You’re not getting generic prompts like “What progress did you make?” You’re getting questions that actually fit your context.

It uses extended thinking mode (AI reasoning) to analyze each goal and generate relevant questions.

note

Extended Thinking Mode: This feature allows the AI to perform a deeper analysis of your goals, leading to more insightful and relevant questions.

After you answer, it updates your goal logs automatically with timestamps and your responses.

Stage 4: Schedule your day
#

Based on what you just said about your goals, the workflow creates:

Calendar events - 25-minute Pomodoro sessions scheduled sequentially using gcalcli (Google Calendar CLI)

A daily task file - Time-blocked list linking tasks to related goals

Realistic blocks -Actual time blocks accounting for breaks.

The calendar events appear immediately in your Google Calendar. You don’t have to manually create them.

Your day is blocked before you start working.

Stage 5: Completion log
#

The workflow logs:

  • Start time
  • End time
  • Total duration

Over weeks, you see patterns.

Using this for financial planning
#

You can use the goal tracking system to monitor financial habits and investment strategies:

  • Review market news and economic indicators
  • Check portfolio performance and rebalancing needs
  • Log passive income streams (dividends, interest, rental income)
  • Track spending against your budget categories
  • Review stock picks or potential investment opportunities
  • “Research 3 dividend aristocrats for portfolio”
  • “Review and rebalance portfolio if needed”
  • “Update net worth tracker”
  • “Read 2 financial articles and summarize key insights”
  • Goal: “Increase savings rate from 35% to 40%”
  • The workflow asks: “What specific expense can you cut this month?”
  • Progress bar shows: “15 days into month, $2,847 saved (32% rate so far)”

The contextual questions adapt to your situation. If you set a goal to “Research REITs for passive income” and don’t log progress for a week, it’ll ask: “What’s blocking the REIT research? Need better resources?”

I use it to track:

  • My monthly stock pick research (3 new companies minimum)
  • Weekly portfolio reviews (every Sunday)
  • Daily market check-ins (15 minutes before work)
  • Quarterly goal reviews (adjust FIRE number, check SWR assumptions)

The pattern analysis is incredibly useful. I noticed I skip my “review portfolio” goal every time the market drops more than 5%. That’s emotional investing. The data made it obvious.

important

Now I have a rule: “Review portfolio Sunday morning regardless of market conditions.” The workflow holds me accountable.

What you need to set this up
#

  • Obsidian - The note-taking app (free, open-source)
  • Claude Code - AI coding assistant with slash command support
  • A separate vault - For your morning routine (I call mine levicroutinevault)
  • gcalcli - Google Calendar CLI for automatic calendar event creation
    • Works on Linux, macOS, and WSL2
    • Install with: pip install gcalcli
    • One-time OAuth authentication required

The core workflow works on any OS. Calendar integration works anywhere gcalcli runs (Linux/macOS/WSL2).

Installation overview
#

The complete workflow is available in my GitHub repository:

You can clone the entire vault structure or just grab the .claude/commands/morning-routine/ folder and adapt it to your needs.

Quick setup:

  1. Clone the repository or download the vault files
  2. Open it as a vault in Obsidian
  3. Install Claude Code if you haven’t already
  4. (Optional) Set up gcalcli for Google Calendar integration
  5. Run /morning-routine:main to start

The repository includes:

  • All five workflow command files
  • Template files for check-ins and goals
  • Complete gcalcli setup instructions for Google Calendar integration
  • Troubleshooting guide in .claude/README.md
  • Sample goal files so you can see the format

If you want to customize it, the command files are just markdown with YAML frontmatter. Easy to modify.

Note: You’ll need to set up gcalcli authentication once (it opens a browser for OAuth), then it works automatically from the command line.

What I learned using this daily
#

Patterns you’d never notice manually
#

After two weeks, I saw that I’m consistently distracted between certain times. Now I schedule certain tasks differently.

Goals need deadlines
#

Before this, I had vague goals like “write more blog posts.” No deadline. No pressure. The progress bars and countdown timers (“7 days remaining”) create urgency without stress.

Automation removes decision fatigue
#

I used to waste energy deciding what to journal about, which goals to review, what to schedule. Now? The workflow makes those decisions. I just respond.

tip

That saved energy goes into actual work. Automate the decisions, not just the tasks.

Is this overkill?
#

Maybe.

If you’re happy with a paper journal or Apple Reminders and it works for you, stick with that.

But if you:

  • Keep starting morning routines and quitting after a week
  • Have goals scattered across different tools
  • Struggle to remember what you did yesterday
  • Spend 20 minutes every morning “figuring out” your day
  • Want pattern analysis without manual tracking
  • Need accountability for financial goals and investment research

Then yeah, this might be worth it.

The upfront setup takes an hour or two. But then you’re running a personalized morning system that adapts to your life.

A workflow that knows your context and helps you act on it.

What’s next?
#

I’m planning to add:

  • Weekly review - Aggregate the 7-day patterns and show progress on goals
  • Cross AI Platform - Make it work for AI platforms other than Claude Code
  • Financial goal templates - Pre-built templates for FIRE goals, savings rates, portfolio reviews

Want to try it yourself? Download the complete workflow from the

- everything you need is included.

Or just start simple: create a daily note every morning and write down what you did yesterday. You’d be surprised what patterns emerge.

What would you automate in your morning routine if you could? Possibilities are endless. Just think creatively

AI - This article is part of a series.
Part 2: This Article

Related