Having a Routine
There’s never enough time in the day for us to achieve everything we want and I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon. Instead, I’m trying to make the most of my time and I’ve found having a simple routine helps me do that. Today I’m going to share my simple daily routine that I attempt to stick to whenever I can (obviously there’s going to be plenty of days where that’s not realistic) and explain why I’ve broken it up this way.
Get working! (8.00am – 6.00pm)
Pretty self explanatory, these are the hours that I try to do every day at Pitch. I don’t subscribe to the theory that you need to be pulling 12-14 hour work days consistently to build a successful business. I believe having a happy balanced life and maintaining your motivation is far more important in the long run than pulling ridiculous hours which burn you out within 6 months. Marco Arment has similar thoughts.
The holiday. (6.00pm – 9.30pm)
This is my time to do whatever I want. I might end up going to soccer, relaxing with a movie, going out to dinner with friends or blowing something up on Xbox Live, it doesn’t really matter as long as I’m enjoying myself, I’m relaxed and I’m not thinking about work.
As I mentioned in my post that covered my new goals for the year; I want to maintain my hobbies and ensure that I don’t desolve into someone who can’t talk about anything but work and this period of the day helps me get that balance.
School time. (9.30pm – 11.30pm)
Everyone loves to learn, we might not have realised it when we were are at school (I know I didn’t), but we crave new knowledge and ideas constantly. However when we join the workforce it becomes increasingly easy to let this part of our lives slip by as we do the same job each and every day, so this part of my day is devoted to preventing what I call ‘brain rot’. It doesn’t matter what I’m learning about as long I’m absorbing new and fresh information.
It’s worth noting that two hours seems to be a good balance of behing able to make good progress on whatever you’re learning about without over doing it each night.
That’s it…
So that’s my average weekday, weekends don’t have a routine, I just generally go with the flow without worrying about what I’m doing with my time. I’m also aware having a routine such as this can seem a bit OCD but I can honestly say that it helps me feel productive whilst maintaining my hobbies and social life. Each to their own right?