Setting up a daily routine
It's no secret that focus and consistency are Superpowers. However something no one talks about is how you set up your day can affect your ability to focus.
I grew up watching Manga and listening to stories of people who seem to be able to achieve results because of "insane dedication" and "sleeping only 5 hours a day". Elon Musk especially, however my bulls**t radar seems to pick up this as another one of those 90% of everything is crap things. I mean this guy is basically on Twitter (just renamed to X this week) every few minutes.
I am not saying working hard and long hours is bad, in fact that's what I believed in all my life. I believed in the insane hustle culture. In fact I grinded 14-16 hour days on my first startup. I think working hard and long hours is good for short term results, definitely not sustainable long term if you want a healthy body and a happy family. Only until recently I started to think differently after listening to Rework on Audible.
The point is this:
Results always happen after long durations of consistency. So arrange your life in a way that works for you to produce the best results.
This is how I am doing it now (still making adjustments based on trying different things):
Mornings are my most protected time, no phones, no meetings, just working on code or other most important things. Because my brain is freshest in the morning. I tried working out in the mornings but that absolutely destroyed my energy for the rest of the day.
Afternoon workouts in the gym because its a break from the focus in the morning, I usually listen to a podcast during workouts to learn something new.
After gym work again until 6-7pm, this is when my brain would be more or less done.
The rest of the day is spent on learning/ writing (such as this blog) or socialising. Sometimes I would skip the afternoon workout for an evening one. However evening workouts make my muscles cramp at night (because I lift quite heavy) and that affects my sleep alot.
Weekends are usually half day working for me and I arrange 1 rest day from working out on the weekends.
How to improve this more?
I am not really a control/ optimisation freak on this and I love to travel. However I have to admit that whenever I travel, I do not feel good because my progress is always lagging. SO establishing a routine is important.
I believe Rework really gave me good insights on how to do more with just 40 hours work week. The key is just 2 things: Focus on the most important things, and spend the 40 hours on actually working, no distractions, and you get a lot done.