** #9 My Morning Routine is a new section we’re going to run once a week, most likely on Thursdays here in place of On Your Way Out. The idea was born when we received a note from our friend Sam Werberg, press attaché at the US embassy in Egypt. Sam was one of the hundreds and hundreds of you who checked out our link to the New York Times’ I’ve Interviewed 300 High Achievers About Their Morning Routines. Here’s What I’ve Learned. Herewith, a quick talk with Sam:

Who are you?

I’m Sam Werberg, press attaché and spokesperson at the Embassy of the United States of America here in Cairo. I’ve been in Egypt for a little over two years, and I’ve been with the U.S. Department of State for over 14 years. I was a librarian prior to becoming a diplomat, so how we organize things, including our own daily routines, is something I’ve given a lot of thought to and tried to work on. Prior to serving here in Cairo, I worked in Washington, Morocco, Baghdad, Thailand and Kuwait. My family is here with me in Cairo, so my morning routine has to take into account trying to help as much as I can in getting the kids out the door to school in the morning.

You said earlier you were going to read the NYT piece and see if you were “doing it right.” Are you?

I think so. I’m a guy of routine. Pretty much the same routine every day, even the same breakfast every day. That’s why I have a love / hate relationship with vacations and travel — it’s too easy to get out of the routine when you travel.

So, Sam Werberg, what’s your morning routine?

I wake at 5am. About 45 minutes of yoga, stretching and light exercises. Usually listening to a BBC Arabic or Radio Sawa podcast to keep my Arabic up. Then breakfast. I eat 2-3 boiled eggs and a grapefruit. One double espresso. We’ve got an Apple HomePod, which I love, and so while eating breakfast, I’ll usually ask Siri to play me English language news podcasts from the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, NPR, CNN, and Fox. And while all this is happening of course, I’m helping the kids get their breakfast going and making sure they’re set for school, though I give all the credit to my wife to make sure the kids are not running around feral every day. Then I catch a ride to work, where on the way I read Enterprise and my other morning news products that have come in overnight. As the press guy at the Embassy, I want to make sure that I’m not missing anything, so I really try to cram in all the reading of local news by the time I get to the office. That usually also includes a quick skim of Twitter, using a list I made for following news from and about Egypt. If I stick to that routine, it’s a good day. I also try not to deviate too much from that routine on weekends, though I’m definitely sleeping a little later.

Is that morning espresso the only caffeine you consume throughout the day?

I wish. I’ve had a lifetime relationship with coffee, and while I could maybe drink less, I’m pretty comfortable with my current consumption, which is probably around 3-4 espressos a day. I made a change a few years ago from drinking two big strong mugs of drip coffee first thing in the morning to drinking two large glasses of water first thing in the morning and then having that first espresso a little later. That one change has made a world of difference in my morning energy levels.

Anything new on the horizon in terms of U.S-Egypt investment or trade news?

We just had a great US business mission come to Egypt. I had the pleasure of sitting in on a number of sessions, and I could see that the over 100 representatives of U.S. companies who participated in this event had many great opportunities to hear directly from Egyptian officials and others about the trade and investment opportunities here. So we’re certainly hoping to see some tangible results from those discussions in the months ahead. We’re also looking forward to the participation of U.S. companies in the upcoming Egypt Defense Expo in early December. And of course, our press office at the embassy is always working on getting the good news out about what we see as strong and growing cooperation in the trade, commercial, energy, financial, agricultural and technology fields, at the government level and in the private sector