IMAGE: Morning walk along the beach to our co-working space, BizDojo.
I often get people asking me about my daily routine. People want to know what a typical day looks like, how I start and end each day and how I fit everything in.
I’ve outlined a “typical” day below. But let me emphasize that not every day is exactly like this and I make changes to my routine based on my workload and priorities.
Here goes…
6:30 – I usually wake up about 6:30 as my first client calls usually take place at 7:30 onwards. I have an Elgato Avea wifi light bulb set to start lighting up the room with an artificial sunrise about 15 minutes before I need to be up. As we’re coming into winter, it’s harder to wake up while it’s still dark, so this is a nice way to ease into the day.
6:30-7:00 – Shower, eat breakfast and leave the house. I end my shower with a minute of cold water. Read more about how I’ve experimented with cold therapy.
7:15-7:30 – Arrive at our co-working space, BizDojo which is about 15 minutes from home. The building is right on the waterfront, so I often walk along the beach to get to work. I have a permanent desk where I can keep my computer etc. and it’s nice coming to work in a focused environment without the distractions of a home office. If I were at home I’d probably end up cleaning or distracting myself with other things. Whereas at BizDojo, everyone is here to work and it helps you to keep motivation high throughout the day.
7:30-12:00 – My mornings usually consist of the following types of work:
- Email – If I don’t have any calls, I get into my email inbox first thing. I’m the kind of person who likes to start my day with email. A lot of my clients are in the US and because New Zealand is so far to the east, it’s usually the afternoon (the day before) in the US as I’m starting work. I like to address all my emails first thing so I can get responses out and back before the end of the US workday. My email philosophy is to get to “inbox zero” by converting emails into tasks, archiving stuff I don’t need to keep and responding/archiving to active email threads. That way I can empty my inbox and clearly see new things coming in that haven't been dealt with.
- Client calls – Often my day starts with clients calls. That’s just the nature of my work; I spend a lot of time on Skype or Zoom, essentially selling my time and expertise. I use Calendly to book all my calls and this saves a massive amount of time as I’m not having to go back and forth to book all my appointment. As bookings get made, my availability fills up so the next person can’t take the same time slot.
- Project work – When I finish email and client work, I get into some project work. This could be any number of things e.g. writing for this blog, working on products/updates, business administration etc. Basically, this is simple task-based work that’s not related to clients. I use a time blocking method to plan my time and add appointments to my calendar for the tasks that I’m working on.
NOTE: On Wednesday’s I have my Calendly scheduling system block out the entire day so I can’t be booked for calls. I like having at least one day per week where I can focus 100% on “project work” without having to take client calls.
12:00-13:00 – I take an hour at midday to eat, play table tennis or if I can, go for a walk along the beach.
13:00-14:00 – The afternoon usually consists of more client calls and project work as described above. Because the US workday is ending by now, I usually have more time to myself in the afternoons for my own work and tasks.
Work Shutdown checklist – At the end of the day I run through a “Work shutdown checklist”. This is a reminder to myself to tie up all my loose ends for the day so I can pick up where I left off the following day. This consists of checking email, my calendar, and tasks to make sure I’ve planned all my upcoming work.
17:00-18:00 – Most weekday evenings I go to CrossFit or Olympic Lifting classes. It’s nice at the end of the day to throw some weights around and blow off some steam.
18:00-onwards – Evenings usually consist of Netflix until about 21:00 and then I read for about 30 minutes before bed (yep, I’m usually going to sleep around 21:30).
NOTE: I’m trying to get into the habit of every now and then taking the afternoon off and spending some time relaxing or playing golf. Part of the motivation to work for myself was to have some flexibility to do this kind of thing. I don’t do this every week but aim to have some “me time” every now and then.
So, that's my current routine. Nothing flash…