How To Create a Personalised Daily Routine

When it comes to personal productivity, we all have the chance to have good days or bad days.

Good days are those that leave you feeling good because you’ve accomplished your most important tasks. Bad days are those that leave you feeling bad because you’ve failed to do anything to advance your most important goals.

If you want a better life, you must fill it with good days. The best way to do that is to organize your day according to your personal priorities—doing the most important things first.

It’s easy to do. Yet most of us don’t.

Eighty percent of the people I know—and I’m including all the intelligent and hardworking people I work with—do exactly the opposite.

They organize their days around urgencies and emergencies. Taking care of last-minute issues that should’ve been addressed earlier. Or completing tasks that help other people achieve their goals… while ignoring their own.

Doing the first things first is a very simple discipline. Yet its transformative power is immense. It can change your life—literally overnight.

It’s the single best technique I know for a change. And it’s the fastest and easiest way to turn your life around if you’re not happy with the way it’s been going so far.

Doing first things first.

Here’s what I do:

• I get up early. Not crazy early. Most of the time at 6.30 a.m.
• I have a glass of water to start the rehydration process and then spend the first half-hour performing what I call my Morning Routine (I follow my own version of The Miracle Morning S.M.A.R.T.S.) 
• I shower, treat myself to my morning stove-pot espresso coffee, and start work early—usually, one hour after I wake up (i.e., 7.30 a.m.).
• I spend my first hour of work doing something that advances my most important but not urgent goal.
• If I’m going strong, I spend the next hour doing the same thing. If not, I switch to a task that advances a secondary important but not urgent goal.
• I spend my third hour on another priority.
• Only after four hours of doing important work do I allow myself to deal with less important work—and other people’s urgencies.

There are two things I don’t allow myself to do first in the morning:

1. Read the sporting news online.
2. Read email.

These activities are bad for you in the morning. In a nutshell, they’re mostly about problems—problems that sap your time and energy and put you in an unproductive state of mind.

By starting out with a positive mindset—and giving my first and best hours to what matters most—I’m living a much better life now than I ever have before.

I follow this daily routine strictly five days per week. On weekends, I find at least two more hours each day to devote to priorities.

In a year, this averages to about 600 hours. Six-hundred hours may not sound like much, but it is.

Six-hundred hours is 15 40-hour workweeks. That’s almost four working months! Think about it.

Here’s what you can accomplish in 600 hours:

• Learn to speak a foreign language with moderate proficiency.
• Become a reasonably skilled ballroom dancer with a good command of the swing, the foxtrot, the salsa, and the hustle (the next series of Strictly is almost upon us 
• Achieve a blue belt in Brazilian jiujitsu or a brown or black belt in one of many other martial arts.
• Develop a decent singing voice and feel comfortable singing at parties.
• Write five 60,000-word books on a subject you know.
• Write and edit two novels or 365 poems.
• Write, direct, film, and edit a 30-minute movie.
• Start a multimillion-pound side business.

Do any of these things sound interesting to you?

How I organize my workdays

Now, let me show you how I organize my workdays to tie into my long-term goals. Below is the exact schedule I followed this morning:

6:30: Woke up. Grabbed a glass of water and then performed some floor-based mobility work. 

6:45: Shower (whilst listening to Shoe Dog on Audible).

7:00: Made a pot of coffee and worked on new marketing content.

8:00: Breakfast. (a bowl of oatmeal, with apple, peanut butter and almond milk). 

8:30: Scheduled my social media for next week into SmarterQueue

9:30: Phone call with clients

11:30: Client file notes and follow up emails

12:00: Checked in with Joyce, my virtual assistant to go over calendar, task lists, etc.

12:30: Lunch

1:00: Worked on content for my new website

3:00: Dog walk with my partner, Sheena.

4:00: Fitness workout. Trained hard for 45 minutes using my kettlebell.

4:30: Check phone and returned phone calls. I return phone calls in the late afternoon. It’s not a top priority for me. 

5:00: Personal Development – worked on my Youpreneur coursework

6:00: Planned the next day.

7:00: Dinner time

None of what I’ve said so far should astound you. It’s all good common sense. But it’s one thing to recognise a good technique. It’s quite another thing to learn to use it.

Most people who read this essay will think to themselves, “I should do that. I should wake up early and spend time working on my dream.”

They’ll think it, but they won’t do it.

They may get into the office earlier. But when they do, they’ll probably turn on their computers and read their emails.

People sometimes ask me if it’s really necessary to get up early. “I’m a night person,” they say. “I get my best work done after dark.”

“Sure you do,” I think when I hear that.

I used to say the same thing. But I was wrong. And I think you’ll change your mind if you allow yourself to experience the natural, unbeatable advantage of doing your most important work when your body is fresh and strong.

Get up early. Get to work early. Do your important but not urgent tasks first.