We are the product of the choices we make each day – which means we are the product of our habits, as character is habit. Our daily routine is nothing more than a series of habits.
What is your daily routine? What is one change you could make to your daily routine that would improve your life?
I don’t have a routine as much as I have “blocks” of time. I have one, four-hour block of time that is crucial to my productivity.
Wake up around 8 a.m. Check emails. Check blog stats. Check Amazon. Make sure the stats are trending properly so that I will meet my metrics.
Drink 16-32 ounces of water. (I judge my water intake based on urine color. Clear urine means 16 ounces. Yellow urine means 32 ounces.)
Alpha male posture stretches. Morning walk. Iced coffee, black.
NOTE: I don’t eat for 16 hours of the day. No breakfast, and I’ll have my alphacinno in the afternoon.
9 a.m. – 2 p.m. – Varies.
Generally includes the following: Read blogs, catch up on Twitter, answer readers emails, catch up on blog comments, read The Otherground, think about how I am going to inflict massive pain on my enemies, drive up Pacific Coast Highway, listen to house music, post on Internet forums, text with people, talk shit, discuss product ideas with Big George (working on a nootropic), outline some post ideas.
I “goof off” a lot (Danger and Play.) But even my goofing off is productive.
I keep my finger on the pulse of what men are looking for. I get a lot of blog post ideas from reading Internet message boards.
I avoid reading the news, although sometimes it sucks me in. Caring about world affairs is beta.
When I read a good question, I file it away. “How can I answer this question in a comprehensive way?”
This is ADMIN time. These are tasks that require some thought, but it’s nothing magical.
The Four Hour Workday
I believe a man only has 4 real hours a day where his brain goes on full blast. These four hours are when the magic happens. (Charles Murray, in his most recent book The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don’ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life (Amazon), says the same thing.)
Most men squander these four hours with distractions. I focus intensely during these 4 hours.
Noise canceling headphones go on and I get some weird looks if at a coffee shop, as I go deep into my mind like a warg from Game of Thrones.
Primetime for me is generally 2 to 6 p.m. Phone gets flipped upside down. Girl is told to stop gchatting me.
This is when I am writing my 1,000 to 2,000 words a day and am on Twitter driving traffic to D&P.
I do a lot with Twitter and believe in it.
I can drive a lot of traffic with it. I also use it to throw out ideas. Tweets that get a lot of retweets and favorites are filed away for future research.
My Tweet asking about sleep habits got dozens of replies. Sleep is a major issue and thus I’ll put the extra work into a good post.
Some tweets are sentences from blog posts I am drafting. I can get an immediate reaction to whether that sentence is good or bad. It’s a real-time focus group.
NOTE: 4 p.m – Cut off stimulants. I do not have any caffeine after 4 p.m., as I want to be tired by bedtime.
6 p.m. Lay down on the couch and do nothing. Daydream.
Activate right cortex of brain by imagining vivid images of sex and violence.
I don’t watch television (except for one hour each week when Games of Thrones or Mad Men is on). I let my brain unwind. Girl comes home.
8 p.m. Go to gym with girl. Film some videos for my YouTube Channel.
9 p.m. Post-workout meals, sex (if she’s lucky), and more winding down time. Read some actual books on my Kindle or iPhone.
Midnight – Bedtime.
Turn on ceiling fan.
Imagine spectacular scenes of sex and violence.
Fall asleep.
2:30 a.m. – Wake up as skin is bothering me.
(I haven’t had more than one or two full night’s of sleep in over a year and am lucky to get 4 straight hours of sleep.)
Fall back asleep.