My Routine

Recently, I’ve been about as productive as I’ve ever been. One reason for this is my current routine, which can roughly be described as “systematize literally everything”. I currently work from home. Here’s a snapshot of what my routine currently looks like.

• Monday-Saturday
  • ~0800: wake up
  • 0800-0900: eat breakfast, respond to messages, anki, clean various mouth and face parts, and change
  • 0900-1000: work (count: 1)
    • all work is general done in pomodoros of 25 minutes work followed by 5 minutes break
    • I find coworking helpful for productivity mostly because it makes breaks more enjoyable
  • 1000-1030: stand-up
    • This is a thing where I get together with some of my friends and we write down the goals we have for the day. It’s been pretty useful for accountability.
  • 1030-1400: work (count: 4.5)
  • 1400-1500: lunch
    • I generally read while I eat, although I’m not sure if this is a good thing
  • 1500-1600: take a walk, a nap, or both
    • I often listen to podcasts on walks, although sometimes I think
  • 1600-1800: work (count: 6.5)
  • 1800-1900: exercise
  • 1900-1930: dinner
  • 1930-2000: shower
    • I often choose what to think about in the shower, but sometimes I try to shower quickly because I don’t start showering until 1950
  • 2000-2200: work (count: 8.5)
    • I usually have calls during some of the work hours so I don’t actually do 8.5 hours of work a day for 6 days a week
    • I think it might be psychologically impossible for many people, potentially me included, to do more than ~5 hours of focused work a day
      • fortunately (unfortunately?) there are many tasks that need doing that do not require focus, e.g. responding to emails, making Facebook events, doing laundry, etc.
  • 2200-2230: clean mouth parts, meditate
  • 2230: sleep
• Sunday
  • weekly review
    • questions I ask myself
      • what did I want to spend time on last week?
      • what did I spend time on last week?
      • what do I want to spend my time on next week?
      • how can I make it more likely that I spend time on the things I want to spend time on?
    • examples of answers to the 4th bullet:
      • block my phone during exercise time
      • created 10am stand-up
      • planning my exercise routine
      • adding a non-work hour after lunch
  • life maintenance
    • laundry
    • basic cleaning
    • miscellaneous accumulated tasks like short reports that need written, emails that need responding to, Amazon purchases that need returning, etc.
  • rest of the time is whatever I want
    • generally I still go to stand-up and eat lunch around 1400
    • I often do some amount of work, but it’s less focused/directed than normal
    • I try to have fun calls with friends on Sundays
  • I sleep at the same time on Sunday as all other days
    • sleep consistency is very important
• Other bits
  • Exercise routine
    • Monday, Friday:
      • 4 set of 12 reps of
        • squats
        • bench press
        • dumbbell rows
        • deadlifts
    • Wednesday:
      • 4 sets of 12 reps of
        • squats
        • overhead press
        • chin-ups
        • Romanian deaflifts
    • Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday:
      • generic cardio
        • my knee hurts occasionally, so right now this is mostly Beat Saber
      • core
        • 3 sets of 3 reps of 30 seconds of:
          • planks
          • russian twists
          • crunches
    • Every day ends with a ~8 minute stretch routine
  • Helpful software
    • Todoist
      • I put many more things into Todoist than many people think is reasonable, including all parts of my exercise routine, showering, checking my email, doing anki, meditating, etc.
        • Basically everything I do consistently that doesn’t happen at a precise time is a recurring task
          • also most of the time everything I potentially want to do in the future is in my Todoist backlog
            • notable exceptions include readings, which are in Instapaper
        • I also put 8 25-minute pomodoros to make sure that I’m doing at least 4 hours of focused work
        • Often times “work” in my calendar involves calls or events
    • Google Calendar
      • I schedule more things than many people think is reasonable, i.e. literally everything.
      • I find it very helpful to not have to wonder what I should be doing at any given moment because I can instead just check my calendar
    • Freedom
      • Distracting websites are blocked outside of 0830-0845 (except for Sundays)
      • All websites are blocked during 1800-1900 (exercise time)
    • RescueTime
      • Helps me track computer usage to see if I’m complying to my routines
    • All my electronic devices don’t work after 10pm, except for the specialized ones
      • this is accomplished through various cron jobs, Apple screen time, freedom, and Lock Me Out
      • specialized devices include
        • Freewrite Traveler
        • Remarkable 2
        • iPod Touch
          • has very limited functionality after 10pm. Roughly only Todoist and google calendar.
        • Kindle
    • MultiTimer
      • useful for exercising and stretching
  • Other tricks
    • I take 0.3 mg Melatonin at ~1900 every day
    • I change into pajamas after I shower
      • I’m not sure this does anything, but it sure feels like it might
    • I don’t use an alarm in the morning
      • the logic is that if I oversleep, that means I needed it
    • All my clothing is approximately the same, so I don’t really make decisions on that front
    • If I notice that I don’t really want to do any particular bit of work, then I switch to doing something else
      • This blog post is being written because I felt tired when I tried to revise a research write-up
    • I have a pair of noise canceling headphones that I try to wear if and only if I’m working
    • I place large importance on respecting the work/break cycle of the pomodoros, e.g. when it’s time for a break, I take a break at that instant even if I feel tempted to work for just one more minute
      • similarly, even if I’m talking about something interesting with a friend during a break, I cut off the conversation when the break is over
      • I think this is pretty important for avoiding the trap of co-working becoming co-not-working
    • my room is very bright during the day, but my lights are orange at night
    • I wear earplugs to sleep