[Beyond Borders]

I'm curious about the daily routine for other guys on here that are running businesses on the internet. For employed guys or those running a physical business, your hours are often kind of decided by the nature of the business. For those working over the web, not only the schedule but the number of hours we work are pretty flexible. This can be a double-edged sword.

So what are your strategies for structuring your day? Regular sleep schedule? Weekends off? What about work hours? Take them as you feel it or a set schedule?

Where does reading, working out, and other hobbies fit in? And what about gaming, spending time with women, and overall socializing?

Do you have tactics you use to keep yourself to your routine and not get distracted?

Just curious about what type of routine, if any, other location independent entrepreneurs follow to stay focused. And most importantly, whether your tactics been effective or if you feel like you're flailing just to stay afloat.

Let's talk scheduling.

[Vaun]

The work load doesn't change, its the ebbs and flows of life that, for me, disrupt the consistent outflow of work. When life gets out of whack, I cant focus, and my output goes to shit. I have to focus more on the process of churning out daily work.

Consistency is always a seductive fantasy. Wake up at 6, read, work, gym, eat, sleep, repeat. Go out a few times a week, day game everywhere, bang here and there, work 6 days a week 10-14 hrs p day. In my fantasy world, this is every day. It gives me health and happiness. I spend less money. I make more gains in the gym. I eat well. I sleep well.

But its not reality, for the last six months, about 4 months were this. It was great. Life was sailing along. I was doing everything right, consistently.

Then about a month ago an old LTR came back into my life. I got sick. Clients are slow to pay. People flake. Had to take a break from training, and from gaming. And from my consistent schedule which made me happy. Anger, insomnia, bad eating. Relationships and people who came in are gone.

Now I am getting back to it. I find the more I say no to things now, no to meetings, no to bullshit, the better I recover. Went out with a buddy in from Brazil last weekend to the clubs here, and it was one of the best things for me. Out all night, danced and had fun with a bunch of girls, ate tacos at 5am from a taco truck and drank a gallon of horchata, feelin good. Back in the gym, worked all day yesterday and today, new clients, new proposals, getting paid. Starting to reset.

A shrink told me in 1989 that I was ADD. I always believed it but never did anything about it, but I have to focus on the process, and when life gets like this I avoid the process. I read somewhere the other day that following your passions is bullshit and if you are not in love with the process of doing something, you probably shouldn't do it. When life throws me out of whack, I drop the process. And this is the most important thing. The process is what gets you paid. The process is where the work is.

[OSL]

-

I've found that it's important to figure out when your mind and body are most productive at certain things and schedule more based on energy than anything else.

I am a morning person who can't work for a 4 hour period after lunch. Thus, my schedule looks something like this:

6 AM - wake up, coffee, breakfast / news and emails

7 AM - 12 PM - Daily administrative work tasks knocked out such as paperwork, content creation, product creation, marketing/sales deliverables, research, creating systems for delegation

12 PM - Lunch

1 PM - 4 PM - Running Errands, Paying Bills, Fitness

4 - 6 - Education and Reading (duolingo, team treehouse, acquire digital skill sets and languages)

6 PM - Dinner, try to eat out with individuals as often as possible

7 - 11 - Work - usually conference calls with US as this is when they are awake

[Beyond Borders]

I make my fulltime living online and do have somewhta of a schedule. I normally 'work' on my business from 7am to 11am. After that it's all leisure time. Weight lifting, wrestling, bjj. I have time to prepare nice meals, catch up on reading etc. I love the lifestyle that it affords me and pretty soon I am goinf to internationalise my life big time, I have quite a bit of dough saved up now.

It's a great way to make money, it gives you financial and lifestyle freedom. I will say though, keep your mind occupied and stimulated. With so much free time your mind can atrophy through disuse.

[artur jedi]

yep, mine is technically speaking 9-6 job, but...
I just have to be on skype and available by email (except of the day with weekly report and when I'm negotiating new deals, which takes no longer than 2 days a week). So I can do pretty much anything with having my android phone on. Routine is to work 9ish till 2pm, then lunch, and keep on until 5ish. After that I don't give a damn, so hitting the gym (twice a week), doing muay thai (twice as well) at 6 pm till 8 pm leaves me room to eat well 3 times a day and occasionally night out during the week (Nothing bad will happen if I sleep till 10 say once a week, and start working while still having my breakfast). In the work time have tons of time to read (my personal stuff), develop the sales strategy and so on.

[scandibro]

No, I work at all hours including all nighters at the moment, but I do not recommend it. It becomes that way because I do not set clear enough productivity goals every day.

Imo, it is by far the most important to not work after a certain hour every day, and then simply don't do it, no matter what. Evenings off for sure.

That being said, I am clearly most productive between 10.30-14.30 and 4 hours of concentrated work (using Leech Block -https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/leechblock/ for firefox), gets more done than 7-10 hours of semi-working.

I am moving into a coworking space soon though, because working alone at home is very difficult and working in Starbucks is too distracting. Shared office is the way to go.

[paninaro]

(09-20-2013 07:54 PM)scandibro Wrote:  

No, I work at all hours including all nighters at the moment, but I do not recommend it. It becomes that way because I do not set clear enough productivity goals every day.

Imo, it is by far the most important to not work after a certain hour every day, and then simply don't do it, no matter what. Evenings off for sure.

For me, I write out to-do lists for today, this week, and this month, and update the first two every day. I try my best to accomplish all goals in the daily list and then call it a day, but that doesn't always happen.

RescueTime.com has a program you can install on your computer and it notes what you spend your time doing each day and gives you a nice weekly report. They charge for detailed reporting, but I've found the level of reporting in the free version sufficient for my purposes. For example, knowing I'm spending 10 hours a week using Excel tells me that I'm spending too much time on a certain type of task.

[pitt]

Mornings - Jog in the beach, work a bit online, reply to emails, make phone calls, go to the gym

Afternoons - In the last 2 weeks I have been playing draughts and read on kindle while I wait for my turn.

Night time - I finish playing draughts around 9pm and then go fuck my chick all night..

I need to change my schedule, I have been spending lots of time playing draughts (checkers) and I used to be mad at people who were playing video games all day. Shit needs to change, I need to be more productive. I also need to game more because i haven't approached for 4 or 5 days now, this is completely new for me. I am also looking to start boxing.

Great thread, it would be good if other rooshers participate on this thread, I need more ideas to stay productive.

[VincentVinturi]

Typical weekday:


11:00 - Wake up, shower, walk to coffee shop near my apartment

11:30-13:00 - Drink coffee, munch on some eggs, write in my notebook (usually working on content for an eBook or some kind of digital product)

13:30-15:00 - Check emails, poo poo

15:30-18:00 - Work.

19:00-21:00 - BJJ training

21:30-22:30 - Dinner

23:00-01:00 - Come home, shower, wash my kimono, check email, fuck around online

01:30-02:30 - Take a ZMA, Write a bit more, read in bed, sleep like a baby


...I wish I could say I was more productive than that but if I'm honest, that's about how much real work I do on a weekday.

But since my weekdays or so slack, I tend to put in about 10-15 hours over the weekends, especially if I don't have any dates booked.

And with contract work, sometimes you have to pound out 8-10 hour days and then you sit on your thumb for a week.

Having said all that, I *feel* very productive without being overburdened so my stress levels are really low. That right there is priceless as far as I'm concerned.

[travolta]

Lately my schedule has been all sorts of fucked up. I don't really follow a schedule. I usually wake up around 11 AM or 12 PM, and immediately after waking up I'll check on things that MUST be checked up on. I'll usually take care of vitally important tasks for the first hour of my day (time sensitive shit, and things related to banking). After that I'll eat, then possibly do some more work for a few hours after eating. This depends on what has to be done.

On some days I'll work for 8 hours straight, and other days I'll just walk around whatever city I'm in and only work for about 20 minutes that day. This is obviously not healthy, but it's really pretty difficult when you're traveling and working on your computer. I've been making good money, seeing the world, and occasionally banging new girls, but I've also gained some weight and probably shortened my lifespan a bit from all the stress I've put myself under.

Next week I'll be going back home for a couple months, so I'm planning on getting back into an exercise routine and planning out my days a bit better. I'll likely be traveling again in January, but this time I'll stay in 1 place for longer than I did this time. Staying in a city for longer than a few days will allow for me to find a gym, and to not waste days sitting on trains/planes.

I suppose what I just wrote isn't very useful if you're looking for ideas on time management, but the point I'm trying to make is that it's WAY easier than you think to really fall into an unhealthy routine. Be careful not to let this happen to you.. I never thought I would get lazy and put on weight (I used to be a gym fanatic and worked as a personal trainer), but it happened, and now I look pretty bad. It's going to be fun getting back into shape...

[Beyond Borders]

Since I started this thread, I might as well add in my new schedule. A lot has changed for ole' BB these last few months. Need to tighten it up so I get more of the important stuff done early on in the day, and that's my main focus for the next two weeks, but overall I get solid days in.

I have a productivity group with two other guys where we monitor our daily tasks in a spreadsheet (Google Docs) so we can all see who is fucking up. Here's my schedule:

Up Before 8am (been getting up a little later than I wanted this past week but will rein it back in on Monday)

Morning Ritual:
Wake Up, Splash face w/water, Brush teeth, turn on music, drink 1/2 liter water, clean & Tidy hotel room, strength-training, Jog or long brisk walk, Shower/Groom, Meditate 10-15 mins, Visualizations and/or affirmations for 5 minutes, eat healthy protein-rich breakfast, down supplements

Read 1 hour nonfiction (business or personal development)

Work for 2 hour block

30 minute break (so far the length is not set in stone, but that will change now)

Work for 2 hour block

Read 1 more hour (usually nonfiction but sometimes I cheat with fiction. That is study for me though too since I'm an author.)

Write (stream of consciousness via light meditation, nonfiction books, or fiction. for as long as I can hold the zone)

Journal (usually do this over dinner. Just make plans about business, brainstorm, or write my thoughts, a lot of lists aka James Altucher's advice)

2nd Workout (1 hour before bed, I throw my gym gear on and 20 - 30 minutes brisk walk or jogging. More just building the habit for now.)

Typically read fiction just before bed (until tired enough to fall asleep easily).


Not routines but these two rules play a big role in getting shit done:

Social Media/forums Rules (no personal social media shit on weekdays)

Email Rules (no checking email until I've already done 2 hours of work, and no checking email during focused work blocks)

[pitt]

Beyond Borders maybe you didn't mention it but how is your social time? Are you practicing any hobbies? Do you do any group activities? Have you been gaming? Going to bars? (I have stopped doing the last).

I think life is more enriching when you have a social activity on the side. For example, I am always playing draughts and apart for being good for memory and concentration, through this game I get to know a bunch of other young people and I am having social fun at the same time, plus I get to know better the local culture and learn new local slangs. I am actually trying to work on my social activities more, I will probably join a boxing club real soon.

[Beyond Borders]

(11-09-2013 05:03 PM)pitt Wrote:  

Beyond Borders maybe you didn't mention it but how is your social time? Are you practicing any hobbies? Do you do any group activities? Have you been gaming? Going to bars? (I have stopped doing the last).

I think life is more enriching when you have a social activity on the side. For example, I am always playing draughts and apart for being good for memory and concentration, through this game I get to know a bunch of other young people and I am having social fun at the same time, plus I get to know better the local culture and learn new local slangs. I am actually trying to work on my social activities more, I will probably join a boxing club real soon.

Yep, I agree socializing is important, man. Very important. But right now I'm on the lock-in - this is a decision I've made, and it's very deliberate.

I don't care about anything right now but work and self-improvement.

I do have my weekends completely off and go out to socialize and play pool then though. And if something spontaneous comes up I'm able to get all my stuff done still - I showed back up at my room at 2am a couple times recently and I still sat down and got my writing done before fading out. Just sleep a little less, maybe miss the 8am rising.

I'm not saying this is ideal, but it's what I'm doing right now because I feel it's the best way to radically transform my life. And it is working - it even feels like a fun project, to be honest. The biggest holes in my life had to do with my health and my money, so that's where I'm focusing my attention.

I do have quite a few hobbies, actually; they just all happen to be things that either improve me or have the potential to make me cash. On the weekends I go bicycling or hiking. Fuck around and catch a movie.

I will be adding more hobbies back into my schedule in three weeks to a month. I've been talking to a few martial arts instructors and plan to start when I'm in a bit better shape and meet some smaller fitness goals. I plan to start language lessons again. And I'm starting to be more proactive about seeing the local sites, though I confine it to weekends at the moment. Want to do some networking. A few other things in mind but I obviously can't do it all. lol

Game is very low on my list of priorities right now. As in it really holds no place of importance. Not even banging anything right now as I cut all the hoes I had going off when I stopped drinking.

Bishes can fuck off at the moment. Seriously. Becoming a more focused person is WAY more important to me and will give me WAY more long-term life satisfaction than busting a nut.

This is temporary so don't think I've taken a vow of celibacy. LOL I have been on a couple dates lately but not really gaming proactively at all. If work continues to go good for the next week, I will work in the habit of approaching at least five women every day to work on my day game and get my dick wet again. The only thing I can see steady pussy fucking up is fiction before bed and I'm okay with that.

The way I see it is after I build the foundation I want then I will work the "extras" back in. It's more enjoyable to socialize, game, and fuck when you have loot, feel confident, and are in shape anyways. And my "market value" will go up quite a bit too - I've already noticed a huge increase in response to me when I'm walking around town after some weight dropped off, looking more energetic, and some more confidence in my step.

All that said, even the schedule you see above is extremely doable with a social life and side hobbies. Note that I only work four hours a day (although I often work on my websites in spare time as I feel like it). Starting this week, I will be building the habit of always having these four hours completed by 2pm (and everything mentioned before work on the list too).

That leaves me a huge chunk of day to do whatever the hell I want.

It might all sound restrictive, but compared to how the average 9 to 5er lives, I'm still sitting pretty nice. And the end result will allow me a lot more freedom than any 9 to 5er ever gets or ever will.

[Enigma]

Good shit BB. Do you notice an increase in productivity waking up early? I've done the early rising thing in the past but I never notice much difference in the amount of work I get done. My body and mind just naturally gravitate towards the night time though so maybe it just depends on your personality.

[Beyond Borders]

(11-09-2013 06:47 PM)Enigma Wrote:  

Good shit BB. Do you notice an increase in productivity waking up early? I've done the early rising thing in the past but I never notice much difference in the amount of work I get done. My body and mind just naturally gravitate towards the night time though so maybe it just depends on your personality.

Yeah, I definitely noticed a difference. And I've always been a night owl, so this was a big surprise for me. I woke at 4pm for years on end, and one of the biggest challenges was resetting my sleep schedule. In fact, I had to completely reverse it when I made the change, and it kept flipping back. So it does take some time to adjust. I'd say you need a week or even two before you really start to feel the difference, as your circadian rhythm takes that kind of time to adapt.

For a while recently I was steadily getting up at 5 or 6 in the morning every day, with no alarm, and the productivity gains were huge. I still don't set an alarm but have been getting up just around 9 and even 10. I plan to stick with around 6:30 or 7.

Maybe later on I'll try later risings, but it's nice to get off work and still have daytime left. When I sleep in too much, I don't get off until evening, so it feels to me like the day is already gone, even if I sleep just as many hours.

My method is just leaving the curtains up (blinds still down) so I wake naturally to the sunlight. So I try to hit the hay at a reasonable hour and wake when I've had enough sleep. If I'm short, I'll take a 30 minute nap in the day time sometimes.

I also notice that even if I'm short on sleep, if I focus my mind on waking up at a certain time (just before I go to bed), I tend to wake at exactly that time or just before.

Speaking of sleep, I've been up all night and better catch a few good hours before I throw next week completely off.

[Enigma]

(11-09-2013 06:54 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

Yeah, I definitely noticed a difference. And I've always been a night owl, so this was a big surprise for me. I woke at 4pm for years on end, and one of the biggest challenges was resetting my sleep schedule. In fact, I had to completely reverse it when I made the change, and it kept flipping back. So it does take some time to adjust. I'd say you need a week or even two before you really start to feel the difference, as your circadian rhythm takes that kind of time to adapt.

I've adjusted my sleep schedule many times before and maintained for months. I just inevitably fall into the old routine if I don't HAVE to be up at a certain time. I just don't get tired. Granted, I'm not talking waking up at 4pm like your lazy ass haha more like 10-12. I still wake up to an alarm, just a little later in the day.

Not trying to knock your schedule at all, just curious how it's working out for you.

[Matt3B]

Great thread. I really can't wait until next month when I get into working online full time. Having worked 4pm-2am for the past 20 months or so, my life has been in a massive imbalance and I really can't wait to get into a normal sleeping pattern again.

I look forward to waking up in a European town or city at around 8am, getting showered, going out for breakfast with that new day feeling. You know when it's about 8am and everything is semi-quiet before the buzz of the day? I really miss that. I wake up half way through the day and I abhor it.

My plan is to do that. I don't have to rush anything. Then strolling back to my apartment or going to a coffee shop, doing work for a few hours and then having lunch and hitting the gym. Again, taking my time and not rushing around before heading back to do whatever work needs doing and planning my nights accordingly.

I've been dreaming of those days for months and months now.

[Saladin]

I start my day off with breakfast, 1 hour of reading and 20 minutes of meditation. I find that usually gets me focused for the rest of the day.

In terms of reading I spend 30 minutes reading something that directly benefits my business skills(I just finished reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, which is a great book for anyone who has to deal with other people). I spend the other 30 minutes reading whatever else interests me. Been currently reading the Jed McKenna trilogy.

I also do 30 minutes of Spanish each day. I consider that a long term investment into both my social and business lives(if you speak multiple languages thats a definite advantage). I usually do that in the evening.

In terms of business, I do it throughout the day depending on the tasks. Sometimes I may need to be up at 5 am to make a 7 am networking meeting. Sometimes I need to be up late to deal with web developers from India. Sometimes I have an awesome idea and spend 4-5 hours late at night executing it and getting to bed at 5 am. So it can vary a lot.