This chapter, we’re going to discuss mastering your daily routine. First topic mastering one’s time. Two, types of management. Three, chunking. Four, chores versus progress. Have a broad idea every day what are your chores and what is your progress for that day. Number five, analyze your day. Number six, the most important part of your daily routine. Number seven, you need to find sleep equilibrium. And number eight, the learning machine mentality.
Managing One’s Time
What separates the great from the average is time management. Everyone has the same 24 hours. So if you were to sleep eight hours, work 10 hours, have family time for four hours, you still have two hours in a day. Manage your time better than the average person and you will have an above average life.
Now, numerous people talk about time. Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his most famous viral videos, he discusses time a lot. He discusses how, when he was working to become Mr. Olympia, as we have discussed in previous chapters, his time management was impeccable. He was working a full-time job in construction, he was working out five hours a day in the gym, and then also going to acting classes. So he was able to accomplish all of this and become Mr. Olympia and then on to star in action movies and become governor of California. So how do you be able to become above average? Do above average things.
Now in numerous of my writings, I always talk about trying to create two days in one. So if your overachiever only has one day and he feels that he is a complete overachiever, well, to me, he’s only half of my day because I’m trying to overachieve in more than one day. Now, managing one’s time, this is not the place where I’m going to go into multiple details because that could be a book in and of itself. You need to understand yourself first and foremost. If you do not understand yourself, what you can and cannot do, you will never understand your time. You need to understand how long you can focus to begin with.
Everything begins at the beginning. I can focus much longer now than before, guaranteed, much more than I was before. But at this point in time, I can focus for hours and work for hours upon hours upon hours. But that took a lot of time. But first I had to recognize where I started from, because if you don’t know where you’re starting from, you’ll never know where you’re going.
Types Of Management
When we dive deeper into our time management, let’s jump into the three different types of management that you have. You have a strict military every second of your day is planned. You have the structured. You have a very basic structure for the day, but also a degree of spontaneity, no schedule on the fridge. And then you have the free person, no structure, no purpose, just free willy-nilly, wakes up whenever you want to, doesn’t really have a plan, more sporadic. If someone gives them a call, and is like, “Hey, let’s go do this.” And they’re like, “Yeah. Why not?” Because they have no structure, no purpose. They’re free, of course. It’s always good to have a friend like that if you want someone to join you doing something. It’s great to have a friend who’s free and has no structure and has no purpose in life because they’re always willing to do anything.
The Structured
Structured is where most of your overachievers are. Your overachievers are more in the structured environment. Why do I say that? They have some spontaneity. They write their goals out. They accomplish their goals. They have a schedule that everything’s very structured, but it’s not rigid like the military, like military discipline. So that’s why it’s structured, but they’re just the overachiever. They’re above average. Remember, all you need to be to be an overachiever is be 1% better than the average and you’re over average. That means you’re an overachiever. But if you want to be in the top 1%, then you have to have a strict military every second of your day planned.
Strict Military
I’m not there yet either. It is extremely difficult, this means every second of your day, you’re doing something productive. Now, if you follow me and you dive into my life, you might be like, “He has a strict military mindset. He’s always structured or has a very strict structure.” But in my mind, I can recall every minute of the day where I was not being efficient.
Every day I go over the list and I’m like, “Okay, could have been more efficient here, could have been more efficient there.” That’s the military every second of the day is planned. It’s from structured into strict, because I’m not all the way strict. I still have times where I’m unfocused. But at nighttime, at the end of the day, I review the times and see if I can become more efficient.
Chunking doing the big picture
Separating the day into chunks. First thing in the morning, you have the most energy. So do the things that require the most amount of energy. So today … Oh, my neck is killing me. However, today, creating these chapters requires the most amount of energy. So I had to start the day off early. We talked about this in earlier chapters. Your energy level depletes throughout the day. So if you want to be most optimal, you have to do the hardest thing first thing in the morning, and then easier and easier and easier. That’s why by the end of the day, I’m more into strategy sessions. It’s complex. It’s a lot of mind work, but it’s fun. It’s just strategizing. It’s not stressful. It’s not difficult. It’s just brainstorming.
Then administrative work. After you get all your errands done, do administrative work, check email, do the things that you need to do like that. Something a little less strenuous than the first. Then in the afternoon, do your daily rundown, check the news, the markets, do your personal phone calls, do the dishes, whatever you didn’t do. If you have to go grocery shopping, do that. If you have to go pay the bills, do that. If you’ve got to go talk to the accountant, do that, during administrative work. That starts when the business day starts around eight. Then in the afternoon, around like one or two, then come around the house, check the news, check your emails, make sure everything’s good, do the last little bit of personal phone calls, business phone calls. Then in the evening, develop your new ideas, learn new things, and play a strategy game.
During this period of time at the moment, I can’t play because I’m consumed with analyzing and strategizing to complete a lot of projects. However, the game that I would recommend everyone to play is the game called Civilizations. The only reason I say this is because you have to manage so many things at once. You have so many variables.
How I can manage things in life and I can manage a lot of things comes from playing that game. If you forget one thing, then it can destroy your entire civilization. So that game is the best game to show you that every action that you do has a consequence, whether it’s negative or it’s a positive, it’s still a consequence, and then prepare for the next day and then go to sleep.
Here’s a little hint that I do, that I don’t think very many people do this. Actually I’m positive, a majority of the people don’t do this. And this is why I can accomplish way more than the majority of people. I sleep when I have accomplished my goals for the day or when I can tell that my brain is slowing down and not processing information as fast as it was when it’s fresh. I don’t stay awake longer than I need to be. When it’s time to go to sleep, and my brain is done for the day, I’ve planned everything, I’ve accomplished all my list for the day. Not every day do I accomplish my list because if I accomplish my list every single day, then I’m not challenging myself.
So a good amount of days, I don’t accomplish the list. On those days I work until my brain is like “Battery dying, battery dying. Abort.” At that point in time, it’s bad. I need to recharge, no matter what. I don’t waste my time watching TV or wasting time before I go to sleep. Before people go to sleep is probably the most wasteful time that every human has. I’ve learned this. And so I figured I don’t understand once you’re done with your mission, what else is there to do for the day? Nothing. So I’m ready to start tomorrow so I go to sleep.
Chores Versus Progress
Have a broad idea every day what your chores are and what your progress is for that day. You need about a ratio of one to three. For every unit of time spent on chores, you need three units of time on progress. So your chores would be your maintenance. If you don’t have a little maintenance daily, your stuff will deteriorate. Something small that you can maintain with a little amount of time will deter a huge problem. Your chores are to keep up the maintenance, wash the dishes, take a shower, file your nails, clean your computer, organize your files, do stuff like that. If you have too much maintenance, then you’ll never progress and burn out.
The problem is that if all you’re doing is cleaning and maintaining everything, you’re never going to move forward. I’ll use this as a perfect example. I have close to 500 videos that need to be uploaded to YouTube and processed onto the website. That is a lot of maintenance. It will take me forever to edit the videos and edit the papers numerous amounts of time. But if all I did was that, I would never be able to create a video. So what I’m doing is progressing every day. Every day I have to progress. Do a little everyday. I’m still organizing, taking a little bit of time out, one third of my time to organize my videos and put them in the right slots, so it’s organized. So I’m just not doing the complete maintenance, I’m not doing a system update, but I am consistently organizing, then I know that all I need to do is about a three day to four day system update and sit there and just do straight maintenance and I’ll catch myself all the way up, and then I can start progressing again. Does that make sense?
Analyze your day. We talked about this just a second ago, how at the end of the day I analyze what I’ve done. I sit down, I discuss with myself on where I was efficient, where I wasn’t efficient. So you have to analyze your day. What things do you consider chores and what do you consider progress? What is your maintenance? What is your progression? Without knowing the difference you might confuse the two. Have you ever seen a dog chasing its tail? If you have not defined the difference between your progression and your maintenance, then you will be the dog that’s running around in circles, trying to chase his tail. You won’t know because you’ll think that you’re doing a lot, but at the end of the day, you’re actually not getting anything done. So you need to be very careful, and that’s when analyzing your day comes in. I mean, it’s almost one of the most important things that you can do, analyze your day every day, because if you do not analyze…
Let’s say you analyze once a month, then you have one entire month of doing something that might not be working, that might not be progressing you at all. So that’s a whole entire wasted month. But if you had analyzed once a week, then you would have caught that inefficiency the first week “I’m doing this a lot, but it’s not progressing me any further”, then you will be able to stop it immediately. But imagine if you did that every day, then every day you can test something, you can see how it feels, you can try out a new pair of shoes, test drive the car, do whatever it is that you need to do. And then if you don’t like it, you can switch it fast.
There are a million things that you can do to become more efficient. So don’t waste your time on something that’s not helping you become more efficient. Don’t waste your time with busy work, running around in a circle. Stay forward, stay progressive.
The Most Important Part Of Your Daily Routine, Becoming A Learning Machine
Sleep is a very important part of the day. Einstein proclaimed he needed 10 hours a night. Arnold Schwarzenegger swears by four to six hours. For me, it varies. When I took these notes, my alarm went off at 2:27. I was not creating enough time in the day for myself. So now my alarm goes off at 1:45 in the morning. And by 2:30 in the morning, I am already awake. I’ve already been moving around.
Summers I sleep less because there’s more day. I mean, in the wintertime, it’s dark at five. So it’s easy to go to bed at seven o’clock at nighttime, because it’s dark outside. There’s nothing else to do. But at summertime it doesn’t get dark until nine o’clock. So it expands my day. So I’m able to accomplish more. In winters, I’m more like a bear and my environment shrinks. I sleep more because it’s dark. I get tired when it gets dark outside. So I tend to go to bed. But I also wake up a lot earlier in the winter as well. And it’s cold, so I’m usually trying to warm up and work. The more active you are, the warmer that you are or the more your blood’s warming up. So you have to look out for yourself. But again, this goes with analyzing every single day. How do you know you need eight hours? Have you tried 10 hours? Have you tried six hours? Have you tried four hours? Or are you just saying you need eight hours because you’re lazy and that sounds like a good number? I understand for me, it varies on how many hours I need. Like I said, the summer and the winter, it varies. But then it also depends on the work that I’m doing. If I’m doing a lot of mental work, where I do a lot of calculations and things, I might need a little bit more sleep, or I might nap throughout the day because my brain’s tired. But if I’m doing a lot of outdoor work, maybe I need to sleep a little less, depending on the temperature outside. If it’s really, really hot, I might need to sleep a little bit more.
You see how there’s so many variables that come with sleep and your daily routine. So you have to test it, and you have to go over it every single night and analyze, strategize. That’s the way to survive. You have to analyze and strategize every single night on which is best for you, which is most optimal for you.
Needing To Find Sleep Equilibrium
How much sleep do you need to maintain maximum efficiency the next day? You need to find, depending on the assignment, the next day, you need different amounts of sleep. And I just went over that, but we’ll go over just a little bit more.
You need to test yourself because you will find out that even with what you’re eating … So if you have a large day ahead of you tomorrow, figure out maybe if you eat some meat and you sleep four hours, then tomorrow you’re more optimal. Well, maybe if you eat pasta and sleep eight hours you’re most optimal. I’m not quite sure. But you need to figure that out and then follow accordingly, do what you’re supposed to do. And then here’s another one. This is part of the reason I talked about. Sometimes I take a nap, but part of the reason why I can wake up at one o’clock in the morning, 1:45, is my first alarm, but I don’t always wake up at 1:45. I’m usually awake before then.
Have you ever considered taking a nap? Okay, hypothetically speaking, you need your eight hours. Well, who said you have to sleep eight consecutive hours? Nobody. No one told you, you had to sleep eight consecutive hours. The day is 24 hours. You can break it up. Have you ever considered a power nap? Test what amount of time works best for you and what time of the day. I know for myself, if I power nap longer than an hour, I am counterproductive. Sometimes I might only need 15 minutes. Anything over an hour, I get into that deep sleep and I’m going to need two to three hours because I’m groggy and I can’t get myself up. 45 minutes, I’m good. 59 minutes and 59 seconds, I’m good. It hits that hour, it’s over. I’m done. I’m done.
Now again. Now I wake up a little bit earlier. So 6:30, 7:00 is also, like depending on what time and depending on your schedule, if you’re trying to have two days in one, then if you wake up at 1:45, around 6:30, 7:00-ish is a good time to have your nap if you’ve done your exercise. But it all really depends. Everything is always evolving. So the more that you do this, the more that you practice, the more that you’re evolving, then you’re going to find out that if you do take on the vice of a power nap, your power nap, depending on what you’re doing, again, your power nap might be from eight o’clock at night until midnight. That could be a power nap. Just be creative and don’t think so traditional that I need eight hours consecutive and that’s it. And I will never change anything. Just be creative and be open to different things. Whatever can optimize yourself better, go for that.
The learning machine mentality, the reason people cannot hold on to a routine is the inability to focus and see the bigger picture. Your main focus every day should be to add fire to the learning machine, add fuel to the fire. The more you learn, the faster and more efficient you become. If a chore or progressive act takes two hours to accomplish, think of a way to be more efficient and accomplish that same chore or progressive act in an hour and a half, then try to figure out how to do it in an hour. Try to always shed time and be more efficient.
Once you can break that two hours to an hour and a half, I guarantee you can analyze at the end of the day, again, remember to analyze at the end of the day, and look at the times that you were not optimized. Look at the times where you were slowing down. Look at the times that you were on the phone longer than you should have been. Look at the time that you were on Facebook scrolling at worthless stuff. Look at a time that you were doing things that you were not supposed to be doing during those two hours, and then shed accordingly.
Make sure every night to go to bed a little smarter and faster than the night before. We’ve talked about this numerous times. Always try to make yourself 1% better than the day before. Now, 1% is a lot, but it can be 0.01% better. As long as you’re a percentage better tomorrow than you were today, that’s the main goal. That’s the learning machine mentality.
What is the opposite of being a learning machine? We talk all about what is the learning machine, but what is the opposite? So you know if you have any of these, you need to stop because you’re being counterproductive towards the learning machine. Stubbornness. When you’re stubborn about something, you’re closing yourself off to being able to learn. Being stubborn is not something to be proud of. Being closed off, having convictions we know nothing about, never studied or tested. It goes with that eight hours of sleep. How do you know that you need eight hours of sleep? And you have a conviction about needing eight hours of sleep, even though you’ve never tested anything else.
Defaults To The Word No
So if you always say no to everything, you will miss out on millions of great opportunities. Even if it is with somebody that you cannot stand, and in your mind, you’re like, “No, I cannot go with this person. I can’t stand this person,” try saying yes. And then also tell yourself, tell your mind you’re going to have a good time and say no to the negative attitude and say yes to the positive attitude. Say yes to everything for a year and notice the difference. But as long as it’s legal, it must be in a financial budget and not too time consuming. And you’ll see how much different and how much joy you’re bringing into your life.
No Is A Negative Thing. Yes Is A Positive Thing
Now, like I said, as long as it’s not financially bearing on you, as long as it’s legal, as long as it’s moral, then do it and try it. What’s the worst that can happen? You’d be miserable? What if you don’t? You’re already miserable. So what does it matter? Life is a personalized plan. Everything in life needs to be tested to know what is optimal for you, just like with sleeping. We’ve talked about this four or five times now. If it’s good for you, it will work fast.
Like in trading, how do I know when I have a good trade? When it’s immediately making me money, immediately making me money. In order for you to understand this, you have to take early cues so that you don’t waste your time. Because if you’re not taking the early cues that something’s not working, this is another reason why you analyze every single night. Because if you don’t analyze every night, then you’re not going to be aware of the early cues of something that’s not working or the early cues that a relationship isn’t as optimal as it’s supposed to be, or as beneficial as it’s supposed to be.
Experiment until you find out what you’re good at. The only way to truly find out what your value can be is to experiment and test everything. Test everything. You have no idea what you’re good at until you try it. Now with that, keep your mind on being a learning machine. Don’t be stubborn and try new things. And most importantly, analyze your day every single night.