How to Build a Daily Routine That Really Works for You

How I found an optimal pattern of work and self-care

I’m a bit envious of those complaining about getting bored in this quarantine. I have never had more work to do:

I have my main job as an AI researcher that is very demanding.
Recently someone convinced me to take on a freelance job, even though a few months ago, I decided to quit freelancing for good.
I began working on a new startup.
I started to constantly write on Medium.

How do I manage to do all this? I have tried for years to build a system to do everything more efficiently while taking care of my own mental health.

The lockdown gave me more uniformity in my days, and I was able to experiment more. Finally, I found a routine that works.

Even if I originally intended to better manage the workload, my routine doesn’t only revolve around my work. It takes into account my general wellbeing, too.

The choices I made may not be the best choice for you, but it’s worth considering how you might improve your daily routine. Here’s how I came to find that this daily pattern works for me, and how you might run some of your own experiments.

How to Kickstart Your Day With a Powerful Morning Routine

Now, I have to confess something. My actual routine is not exactly the routine I want. For example, I don’t like the very way it begins: repeatedly snoozing my alarm.

While I mastered several aspects of my routine, when it comes to waking up early, I really can’t help it. I have a serious case of Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome (DSPS) or, in other words, I’m an incurable night owl.

So I set my alarm at 7.30 a.m., but when I wake up I postpone it several times. I usually end up getting up sometime between 8.00 a.m. and noon.

This is both a bad thing and a good thing. It’s bad because I waste most of my mornings. It’s good because I still get most shit done. I accept that it’s not perfect. When I do get up, I loathe the effort it took for a while, and then I make myself some coffee. Caffeine seems to have zero effect on me; I only drink it because I like it, and I need some time to be fully awake.

I start by reading the news. Most productivity gurus tell you not to read the news first thing in the morning. Some even suggest that you shouldn’t read it at all. I find both cases an exaggeration. I only read news stories for five minutes and they don’t have a strong enough emotional impact on me to compromise my day.

Then, my real morning routine begins. The morning routine is something magical — a ritual that I have to repeat every single day to feel like the best version of myself. I followed this routine consistently in each of the last 81 days.

This routine consists of three parts: journaling, working out, and meditating. In that order. I suggest you have a similar morning routine to kickstart your day.

Journaling

I actually started journaling years ago. It helps me clear my thoughts and put things in the right perspective. I have experimented with different methods of journaling, both structured and free-form.

I finally found a good template. I won’t be necessarily perfect for you, but it could be a good starting point:

Unstructured part. Here I can talk about anything I want. I usually fill this part with relevant events of the previous day.
Monthly goal and status point. I like reminding myself every day of my monthly goal and how much of it I have already achieved. (I’m thinking about removing this point since I’m gradually abandoning the “goal of the month” philosophy. My journaling practice evolves over time.)
Gratitude point. I force myself to write something I’m grateful for every day. I won’t lie, I’m a big whiner sometimes. Every day, several bad things happen and I complain about them. But I have to find those little good things I take for granted — things as simple as a cup of coffee, a chat with a friend, a good shower.
Bonus: Elimination point. Every day I forced myself to find something to cut from my life to simplify. It might be something as complex as a whole project or as simple as a redundant task on my Trello board. Ironically, the last thing I eliminated was the elimination point itself, because I ran out of things to eliminate.
Focus points. There are two: one that I call High-Focus (HF) and one that I call Low-Focus (LF). These are the two main (and only) things I have to accomplish for the day. More on that later.
Question point. Every morning I challenge myself with a question. Should I do this project? Should I quit my job? Should I start writing on Medium? Should I buy masks for those in need? How will my life be in ten years? Will I have any major regret before I die? What if I die in seven days?
Project idea point. Every day I have to brainstorm an idea for an app, a website, a book, a startup — anything that can I can potentially create. The ideas are usually very dumb. For example, one recent idea was the following: “program a GAN to generate Medium posts with high curation probability” (a GAN, or a Generative Adversarial Network, is a “creative AI”, like the type of AI that generates deepfakes). But every once in awhile, I come up with a very good idea and I may even start to work on it.
Story idea point. This is very recent since I’ve been on Medium for less than a week. But every day I generate an idea for a Medium story. Again, it can be dumb, it can be beautiful—the important thing is to develop a habit of generating ideas.
Recap point. I fill this point only at the end of each month. I basically recap everything that happened in the last month, what I achieved, what I learned, and what mistakes I made. At the beginning of each year, I write a Best Case Scenario (BCS) and Worst Case Scenario (WCS) for the following 12 months. In the recap point, I compare my current situation to both the BCS and the WCS.

It may sound a lot. I admit that it’s hard. Some points require a creative effort. So if you want to follow a similar template I suggest you start slowly. I didn’t come up with this structure overnight, but it evolved from a simpler one. Even if it can be hard, it usually doesn’t take me more than 30 minutes each day.

Work out

The second step in my morning routine is working out for anything between 10-60 minutes, depending on how I feel and how much time I have.

I don’t always follow a workout plan. I mostly do free body workouts, like those on Darebee. My workouts aren’t very intense. I don’t work out to get a beach body; I mostly work out to stay healthy.

Meditation

Finally, I meditate. I practice ten minutes of mindfulness meditation every day.

I tried to meditate more, up to 40 minutes, but then it would take a lot of time, and honestly, I would get really bored after a while.

I don’t consider myself a good meditator, even if I have meditated for years, although not as constantly as the last three months. Honestly, I can’t even say if it’s really working. I don’t feel anything zen-like. Maybe I’m just a bit more aware of my emotions. I think that the constant stress throughout the day undoes the benefits of meditation sometimes, at least for me. Probably, I should just get better at it.

This routine takes about 50–100 minutes of my time every day, but I think it’s worth it. After that, I usually feel good. So I shower and get ready to work.

Making the Most Out of Work Time

I divide my workday into two sessions: a before-lunch one and an after-lunch one. The after-lunch session is usually longer and more focused. Since I often get up late, I have less time to work before lunch.

As I said before, in my journal, I write a High-Focus task and a Low-Focus task. I usually work on the LF task in the before-lunch session and on the HF task in the after-lunch session.

This, once again, goes against what most productivity gurus preach: that you should do intense work first and shallow work last. But since I get up late and have so little time between my morning routine and lunch I find that this method works best for me.

LF tasks usually include Skype calls and handling bureaucracy stuff. HF tasks include anything that requires actual focus, like writing a story on Medium, coding a feature, writing a research paper, etc.

How do I choose the LF and HF tasks for the day? It’s actually pretty easy.

I have two lists on my main Trello board. I write my generic to-dos on my LF list and my projects on the HF list.

I choose the daily LF task simply by taking the first from the LF list in a FIFO fashion. I usually try to stick to one LF task per day, but some days I have to do more. (Overall, I treat my routine more like a guideline for organizing a standard day rather than a strict list of rules to follow.)

I do the same for the HF task, except that I order the list according to a deadline (imaginary or real) that I give to the current task of each project.

Notice one thing here: for each HF project, I write the current task and a deadline, but not a list of tasks. When I finish a task, I record the next one to do. This is because I got completely rid of plan-based approaches since I find plans never work. For example, here are some of the tasks on my LF list:

Skype with prof for start-up.
Skype for DWC project.
Rent contract termination.
Skype with business consultant.

And here is my whole HF list:

Medium: Write new story.
Andrea project: Conclude.
Startup: Finish pitch presentation.
DWC: Revise paper.
Dedalus project: Fix documentation.
CT project: Finish feasibility study.
CV project: Fix high error on test set.
TP project: Finish paper.

Notice two things here:

Some LF tasks are related to HF projects. When I said that I write the current task associated with each project, I actually mean the current HF task, while if there are any LF task they go into the LF list.
I don’t work on different projects on the same day. I tried this too, as I tried allocating specific weekdays to specific projects. For now, the best approach is the one I described.

You may think that it’s unwise to ignore so many projects for several days. But this system is actually working for me. I can focus so deeply on one project, that I can get much more done, and deadlines now tend to be farther in the future than they were before.

I do my LF task first, then I have lunch, then I commute to my office, and then I can finally do some deep work on my HF task. During HF time, I rarely respond to messages or procrastinate (at least, not now that I’m back in my office, unlike some weeks ago).

Lunch and commute are not “wasted,” since I listen to audiobooks. When I commute from home to the office, I usually do it by bus. When I go back home, I usually walk there. It’s a 3 km walk, so I can also get some exercise while listening to audiobooks.

I was skeptical of audiobooks until some weeks ago. When I finally started listening to them, I was surprised at how much could I learn during this time.

I still read “normal” books, especially those more technical and practical. But I do it in the evening, before finally cooling down and binging tv shows. I usually go to bed at 2.00 a.m. or 3.00 a.m., or even later, since I’m insomniac.

Developing Your Own Routine

Of course, this is my routine, and what works for me may not necessarily work for you. But there are some important points that I want you to consider:

You should have a morning routine. Morning is the perfect time to develop habits, mostly because we already have some rituals early in the day. We make coffee, we wash, we get dressed. It’s relatively easy to integrate new habits into this routine, while it would be more difficult to do so later, while we are busy working or simply tired.
You should journal, even if it’s just one sentence each day. Writing your thoughts helps you clarify them. You can easily review them later. Every day, I read my journal page of one year before. I learn more by reading my own journal rather than writing in it.
You should find a system to get work done. We all procrastinate, but procrastination becomes more manageable when we have clear goals for the day. For me, it’s a Low-Focus and a High-Focus task. For you, it may be something else. But it should be a clear focus.
Focus on action rather than planning. Plans never work; that’s why I got rid of them. I’m getting more done and I procrastinate less now that I went plan-free. Maybe you should too. At the very least, you should be more flexible in your personal organization and focus on action rather than trying to control everything.
You should take care of your time. As I said, it’s incredible how much time can be better used while commuting and doing other mundane activities. It’s difficult even to realize it. But you should find a way to not waste this time. Listening to audiobooks is an option, but it’s not the only one. You can use this time to make Skype calls, practice mindfulness, or generate ideas, to name a few.
You should take care of yourself. You should balance work with self-care. That’s why I work out, I meditate, and I watch TV shows for entertainment. I think I would be way less productive if I didn’t.

Being in quarantine is hard. But given that you have more control over your time now than you will ever have again, this is the best time to experiment with new ways to make the most out of it. Make sure you don’t waste it.