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My Daily Schedule
By Brick | March 3, 2008
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About two weeks ago, I became inspired by two 4-Hour Workweek blogs which posted on the topic of creative daily schedules: The Great Schedule Experiment and A lifestyle design experiment… working 7 days a week. While these schedules don’t address the issue of reducing one’s working hours, they do discuss rearranging one’s typical 40 hour workweek in ways that compliment one’s own daily rhythm and therefore enhance productivity. Given that I have been largely successful in developing the habit of waking up early, I figured it was time to thoughtfully rearrange my own working schedule based on my new waking hour:
Early Start
When I wake up, I go straight into work. The first benefit is that there is virtually no traffic so the commute is completely minimized. My job requires a fair amount of heads down work, and this work is performed faster and better early in the morning when there are no distractions. I take a break at about 7:30 to eat and/or grab a coffee (or two!). By 8:30 I am back at my desk and process my email. I am nicely prepared for the day before most people have even arrived. Also, no matter what happens in terms of “emergency” meetings and other distractions, I get two and a half hours of absolutely solid, productive work accomplished every single day.
Gym
When I started waking up at 5:00 am, I figured I would work out first thing in the morning and get it out of the way early. This would ensure that I exercised every day, and perhaps more importantly, put my own needs first. The reality for me has always been that too many things pop up in the evening and after work workouts often get ignored or forgotten. I still think that this was not a bad plan, but I made a couple observations during the first month of early rising:
- My gym does not open until 6:00 am so I had to do something from 5:00 am until 6:00 am. It started to feel like wasted time.
- The period after lunch was definitely my least productive. I attribute that to my becoming a little physically lethargic by that point in the day.
By working during the lunch hour or shortly afterward I found that I got a boost of energy that made the rest of my day more productive and enjoyable. I end up being more awake and energized for activities after work. Crucially, by simply ensuring the workout occurred before the end of the traditional work day, it was pretty safe it would always happen.
Wrap Up
I go back to the office after the gym and work for about one more hour. This is an excellent time for me to process my email, my inbox and set priorities for the next day. It also gives me a window to support afternoon meetings or phone calls if required. Leaving at 3:00 pm ensures that traffic is still reasonable and I now pick my kids up from school every day - a huge bonus.
Bedtime
As I mentioned before on how to wake up early guaranteed, I go to bed when I am tired. It could be 8 pm or 12 am, it does not matter. I sleep when I am tired - so simple!
Wednesday is the New Saturday
Jed at The Newly Rich turned me on to this practice. In his own words:
Although Tim (in The 4-Hour Workweek) applies the “break up your work and play” principle to long-term career planning and mini-retirements, the same principle can bring benefits on a micro level. Why save your weekend for the weekend?
Source: The Newly Rich.
If we are not out of town on the weekend, I will work on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 5:00 am to 7:30 am. My kids and wife do not wake until after 7:30 am so this is easily accomplished and basically goes unnoticed by my family. By putting in 5 hours on the weekend, I can leave the office at 8:00 am on Wednesdays! Besides breaking up the week, it makes Wednesdays a great day to run errands and do the grocery shopping (which I only do once a week because of our menu planning).
I have been at this new schedule for almost two weeks and it is great! I would love to read some comments about how you might have reengineered your work week.
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Topics: Time Management Tips |
March 14th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
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March 17th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
Wow - you are really disciplined. I’m assuming there’s personal time at the end of the day?
March 18th, 2008 at 7:06 am
@Matthew: Yes, anything after 3:00 pm is personal time. Sometimes there is a happy convergence where something I am researching or reading for personal benefit can also be applied to my day job. I never hesitate to schedule those sorts of things during working hours.