What does a day in your life look like? (Daily and Weekly Routines)

[JDE]

Hey fastlaners - so I am at a point where I will be transitioning to entrepreneurship full time in a few months, after working a traditional job for many years.

I believe very strongly that we become what we repeatedly do, and that our daily routines and habits have a big impact on our success and happiness. This being said one of the things I've found intimidating is the idea of having days, months, years ahead where I am fully responsible for creating the structure for my own life from scratch. Most of the work I do is not tied to a specific location (ie most can be done on my phone and computer) so I have massive flexibility.

I don't have many entrepreneurs in my own life that I can look up to / model after and I'm very interested in how you guys structure your days and weeks? I'm talking about the absolute mundane nitty gritty stuff ie

How many hours a day do you work?
How many days a week do you work?
Do you work at home, or a coffee shop, or a coworking location?
Do you split your work up into a few chunks throughout the day, or all at once like a traditional job?
Do you work by yourself or with others? Do you have a team around you? Was this on purpose?
Did you try working the typical 9-5 hours, or did you find working on a completely different timeline to be more effective?
Is every work day the same? Is every week day the same?
What do you do when you aren't working? Does your free time and recreation look any different from a slowlaners?

Obviously everyones situation will be different but I'm fired up to hear about your routines - especially from a happiness perspective. I've tried the 'work 24/7' strategy but it wasn't sustainable long term and I'd love to have a routine that I look forward to and is both enjoyable and sustainable.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Brrr]

I think the answers you might get will be really way too varied to maybe apply. What I would say is, I start my day at 8pm, not 8am.

What do I mean by this? I take 15 minutes to schedule my next day in the evening. I have a document open where I write out all the tasks that need doing under categories like Admin/Production/Shop/Wholesale/Personal/etc.
I then info-dump everything that I can think of under these categories, if I have written out reminders on my phone or starred emails I will transfer all this to this master document.

I then take a piece of paper and I write out the order in which I will do the tasks, the start time and the approximate length of time it will take to do each thing. A lot of my day is filled with things that I have to do just on a daily basis, things like setting out what we need to make for the day, time to drop things off in said locations, catch up with staff, set people up, etc. But there is normally an end time to this where I can get on with admin tasks and work on the business growth and projects that are happening.

Having a piece of paper, means I cross off the tasks as I complete them and then move onto the next thing, I then can see in real time if I am behind or (rarely) ahead of schedule.

When busy, I spend more time working in the business, because of necessity, with days that take up 12-14 hours and no time to do any of the other tasks. I still try and keep the master document so as to not lose track of things.

Having the master list and a daily list helps me move things forward all the time, and I think is invaluable.

 

[Johnny boy]

My alarm clock is set for 6am

I wake up, lay in bed, cuddle with the girlfriend, watch the sun come up over the lake, check my phone.

She gets up and makes bacon and coffee just before 7, around 7 I come downstairs and have bacon and coffee and pop open the laptop.

I make the schedule for my employees. If I see some message saying "Hey I can't come in today my dog is getting an abortion" or some other random shit then I have to get dressed in work clothes and I go work. If that happens then I'll be out mowing some lawns for 5 hours. If not then I make the schedule for the guys and plan out my day. I "work" about 1 day a week. If someone quits I'll be out there training a new guy for a few days. It happens. Not the end of the world, just a headache.

I'll get dressed and take care of something that needs doing. I'll do a little admin work, address customer complaints or something, and other than that I'll relax.

I'll head to the golf course and practice a bit and maybe play a short round by sneaking on at the local course. I'm not going to pay $30 every day just to golf.

I'll check in on the guys and make sure everything is running smooth. I'll have a light lunch and find something to do. Today I'm gonna lay out on the dock with my girlfriend and then pickup some stuff from the store with her.

At around 530 I'm gonna give a quote to a customer and hopefully sign them up. I'll come back home and eat some salmon and veggies then hit the gym at around 830 tonight. I'll come home and relax until 11ish and then go to bed.

My job is to keep the company running smooth, and be the backup employee if necessary.

I don't spend too much. I try to avoid going out. I hate it. Lets get fat and spend $300. F*ck that. I'm not at the point yet where I can spend lots of money on hobbies and not be spread too thin. I will just wait until I've got twice as many crews working before I change my spending habits. I will focus everything on improving the company, and have enough employees that I'm never out there working again, THEN I'll start enjoying spending more money.

"Not worrying" is a big part of my focus since it's easy to be stressed when you have employees doing the work, and if things go wrong you are the one who has to deal with it. If you are afraid of things going wrong, you will still have things go wrong, except you will be stressed out in the meantime. Accept that things will go wrong, do what you can to keep things going smooth, and don't worry.

My daily habits are to check in, be the backup employee, focus on my health and fitness, enjoy the sunshine and not get too complacent. I remember how hard things used to be. I work to make sure I don't have to do those things again. I enjoy these good times and it reminds me if things ever get hard, that there's good times coming soon. Always staying calm, having perspective, staying healthy, enjoying the sun a little, doing a bit of work, and reminding yourself of why you're doing everything and what your long term goals are. That's the daily agenda.

 

[fridge]

Wake up at 6 am, throw myself out of bed, workout, shower, then start my weekdays WFH. I'll work from 8-5 and sneak in some time to work on my side hustles (I have a few) and research new business ideas for the long term planning during this time, and occasionally run errands if necessary. After work I'll play guitar for a bit, read a book, or more recently start packing (I'm moving soon). Then depending on the day I'll either go to jiu jitsu or work on a side hustle project. I wrap up around 8 pm and then spend the rest of the night with my girlfriend, meditating, or just doing some light research that I find interesting. On weekends it's the same routine except I'm pressure washing for my business from 8 pm-4 pm~. Still trying to get out of the 8-5 life but not too desperate to leave since WFH gives me the privacy to work on my hustles.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.