My hyper-productivity morning routine
Published Daniel– Yerba Mate carries me through my mornings.
After reading Atomic Habits, I’ve been more observant of routines that are positive towards my productivity. And I’ve landed on this morning productivity routine that makes doing chores, writing on this blog, and of course working at my day job a breeze.
Note: This is my Morning routine. I haven’t yet found one for the evening, where I tend to need a power nap to go through the evening.
So I’ll write it here so I don’t forget it, can adjust it here and there, and hoping that it helps someone find theirs.
THE ROUTINE
- Wake up at 6:45am,
- Read if any alarms fired during the night- If true, and can be easily fixed, fix them so I can just continue with my morning without distractions
- If false, create a reminder (slack, phone, pocket notebook) for around 9am
- Get out of bed at most at 7:00am
- Make breakfast for me and my wife
- Pack my wife’s breakfast and lunch
- Do the dishes
- Prepare Yerba Mate
- Sit in desk at most at 8:00am
- Write an entry in this blog
- Do a short work session:- Write tasks for the day in notebook
- Answer slack messages
- Check agents that need attention
- Kick off new agents to work
- Hand-hold agents that need it
- Eat breakfast at most at 8:30am (usually takes about 15 minutes)
- Go back to work for a long session at most at 9:00am
- Usually I see my attention drop at about 11:00am and that’s when I stand up and do some more household chores- Take the dog for a walk
- Make the bed
- Shower
- Tidy up some clothes
- I repeat steps 12 and 13 until lunch at 12-13pm where I:- Prepare my dogs food
- Heat up my lunch
- Watch Netflix or a youtube video, or play some videogame while eating to rest
Some notes
- I thankfully can work this way because I work from home. I have trouble being this consistently productive in an office setting with all the distractions they have, but also I have to recognize that I can become hyper productive in an office setting when everyone else is also silent and concentrated on work.
- More than half of these steps don’t involve work at all. But they do help me ease into either getting into the flow state or eliminating distractions. I’ve found that making breakfast, doing the dishes, and writing on this blog help me ease into the deep flow state and slowly transition into System 2 thinking.
- Whenever I don’t follow this, my morning productivity is a mess
Conclusions, and on being a night owl
I’m a night owl. This means that modern schedules work against me. My most productive time of the day is from 11pm to 6am. That’s when I’ve written my best essays, when I’ve read books most effortlessly, when I can get the most work done (I do it once or twice a semester for my day job in critical situations), when my mind is distraction-free and can get into deep deep DEEP focus.
If I could work during those hours, I would be able to be consistently hyper productive and do so much more in so much less time. But if I do, I wreck my family dynamics and everything else not productivity-related. Believe me. I’ve tried.
I don’t think victimizing myself and saying “Oh woe is me, modern life schedules are defined by 50-60-year-olds that can barely function after 9pm and can barely sleep until 5am. So I’m destined to never be hyper productive.” (sorry dad) is helpful at all for me.
So I need to come up with these routines that help me get into that hyper focus state of mind similar to the one I can get to during the night.
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