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I’ve been obsessed with productivity for the past 3 years.

One of the areas that fascinate me the most is daily routines - how to plan and structure your day.

I’ve tried every way of structuring your day possible.

• Early morning gym sessions

• Late-night gym sessions

• Mid-day work blocks

• 12AM work blocks

You name it, I’ve tried it and every other possible combination.

But with every combination I've tried, there's always been something missing. I never felt productive or fulfilled with my day.

It was eating me up so much that I even tried having no structure with my day, I would get up when I woke up and just wing it.

Obviously, this didn’t work (even a blind man could’ve seen that coming).

And it turns out, this is how most people live their lives.

With no structure. No routine.

Then they wonder why they can’t make progress and never feel as if they’ve done enough come the end of the day.

The Paradox Of Routine

Routines are a paradox.

The idea of a structured day sounds limiting.

But that’s only true if you’re following a crap routine. A well-structured and organised routine creates freedom, (as Jocko says “discipline = freedom”). AND it creates progress.

You see, progress requires consistency.

Consistency requires replicability.

Replicability requires clarity.

Clarity requires structure.

So as you structure your day, crafting your routines and optimising them for your situation, you create clarity. You create replicability. You create consistency and then you create progress.

When you lack structure, you’re forced to wing it.

You have no other option but to get up and decide on the spot what you’re meant to do and when you’re meant to do it.

You feel lost.

And ultimately, you lose the most important thing - the morning.

Your life is nothing but a combination of days and to win the day, you need to win the morning.

To win the morning, you need structure.

So if you want to lose in life, forget about routines.

If you want to win in life, build routines.

Build, Sweat, Learn

 

Now the big question, how do you structure your day?

Over the last few months, after being fed up with the lack of all encompassing routines out there, I’ve crafted this (in my humble opinion, perfect) daily structure.

All you’ve got is 3 parts.

• Build

• Sweat

• Learn

Part 1: Build in the morning.

So whether that’s creating content, doing outreach or whatever you have to do to build out the project you’re working on (and if you’re not building out a project, you need to be). Get it done in the morning.

This does 2 things:

• Allows you to get your most important task of the day done, hence you can’t make excuses for not doing it later in the day

• Allows you to win the morning, building momentum for your day and over time, win in life.

Part 2: Sweat in the afternoon.

Once it hits 4pm I’m in the gym, lifting heavy ass weights and imagining Goggins is standing beside me screaming in my ear.

Why the afternoon?

• I intermittent fast, so I don’t eat until ~1PM, by 4PM I’ve got carbs in me and I’m fuelled to pump some iron

• I’ve got all my work done for the day and so my training session signals the end of my day. I train, eat some food and get into part 3.

Part 3: Learn in the evening

Whether it’s a course, a book, a podcast, YouTube or all of them, after 6PM, I’m relaxing, unwinding, gathering information, and noting down ideas, to be in bed for 9PM.

Most people forget the learning part. They forget that the quality of what you build in the morning is limited by the knowledge and ideas you have.

Whether it’s business, content, or anything else - you need fresh ideas and proven strategies. Things you can only get through learning and introspection.

I love this structure.

It covers all basis, you challenge your mind and body. You expand your skill and knowledge base. You open room for productivity, progress, creativity, daily challenge, and of course, you win the morning.

It also leaves enough room to fit things into your own schedule and life so that you’re not just following some cookie cutter, half assed structure that doesn’t feel right.

So, my friend, go build, sweat & learn.

Ross.