The saying is “you are what you eat,” but I believe a more accurate phrase is “you are what you spend your time on.” And because of that, I think you can learn a lot about a person by looking at their schedule and what activities they choose to prioritize.
To open up a big part of my life to you, I’m going to share a typical day in my weekly schedule from Monday through Friday. The only time I deviate from this schedule below is Friday night, where I immediately write parts of my new book for an hour after work, and then I usually scratch the rest of the typical night’s activities to do something fun.
Check it out to get to know me:
6 am Wake up. Move from my bed to my desk to read or write new parts of my upcoming book. I usually get my best writing done in the morning because my willpower is at a high and I know I can’t afford to lose focus in this short 45-minute window.
6:45 am Shower, get dressed, and eat eggs with a glass of water.
7:25 am Drive to work listening to a podcast or Audible audiobook.
8 am Work my outside sales job at RR Donnelley. My daily activities include researching prospects, calling and emailing contacts, and meeting in person to consult on organization’s needs and desires for their digital and print communication.
12 pm Scarf down lunch while I work on Take Your Success. Usually at this time I’m either preparing future blog posts through my calendar plugin, or finishing up a blog post I wrote earlier in the week.
1 pm Back to my sales job to close out the workday.
5 pm Drive home and call an out-of-state friend to talk about life or business. If I don’t have a call scheduled, it’s back to another podcast or audiobook.
5:45 pm Eat dinner and catch up with my family. I live at home to save money, and I’m not ashamed of it. To be real with you, I’m actually proud of it because it takes financial discipline and patience.
6 pm Publish a new blog post that I worked on days before and finished up at lunch. I share the post on different social media sites. Then I start working on a new blog post by thinking of interesting topics and what’s most relevant for my readers at this time of the year.
6:45 pm Workout at Life Time Fitness with my training partner Bobby. We work out around four to five days a week, and I love it because this exercise energizes me for the rest of my night.
7:45 pm Drive home with the radio off to mentally prepare and switch gears for book writing time. During this drive I’m reflecting where I last stopped writing and my plans moving forward on the draft. If I come up with something really good, I’ll write it in my phone so I don’t forget it.
8 pm I grab a coffee, glass of water, and visit the bathroom before I start writing so I don’t get distracted by needing to do something when it’s time to focus. I turn my iPhone on Airplane mode and start the timer for 60 minutes as I write a section of my upcoming book.
9 pm While every other hour is structured, the time slot from 9 pm to 10 pm is basically my flex period. Sometimes I continue writing for my book or a blog post. Or I’ll read and comment on other blogs, or request guest posts. And sometimes I’ll spend the hour researching business and investing ideas, which often are bad ideas. But sometimes I find what I think is a diamond idea in the rough.
10 pm Write tomorrow’s to-do list on a post-it note and stick it to my laptop. My productivity thrives based on my to-do list and crossing out completed activities. Check my emails and respond to both Take Your Success and personal emails. Email is one of the least important tasks of my day, so I schedule it late where it doesn’t matter if I’m tired.
11 pm Catch the end of a sports game, watch Netflix, or scroll through Instagram. Or if I’m smart that day, I’ll read to relax my mind and body before bed.
12 am Sleep
Some people are going to read this and definitely say, “How do you have any fun in life,” “You’re a workaholic,” or similar sentiments. But, honestly this schedule works for me and I intentionally designed it this way.
I don’t write books and blog posts because I have to or for money, but because I love working on them and this schedule is needed to reach the goals I set for myself.
Plus, the process of starting with only an idea in my head and then creating something of value excites me! I love the ups and downs during the process of creation, especially because I know my mission of sharing my knowledge to help others achieve is always enough fuel to finish the job.
So I absolutely enjoy the process and schedule hours in my day to do it.
And then when the reward of the finished product comes out, that’s just gravy.
Do you design your schedule to work for you?
