There is a lot of interesting people on this website who are nothing short of my idols (and I can imagine that I am not the only one who feels that way). Without a doubt, one way to mimic the successes of these people is to do what they do. So I was just wondering if some of you guys cared to share what does your normal day schedule look like.
Sorry if this is a repost, I tried to find if a similar topic had been done before but I did not find anything.
6:00 am: Rise from bed.
6:15 - 6:30: Dumbbell exercise and wall-scaling.
7:15 - 8:15: Study electricity, etc.
8:30 - 4:30: Work.
4:30 - 5:00: Baseball and sports.
5:00 - 6:00: Practice elocution, poise and how to attain it.
7:00 - 9:00: Study needed inventions.
11:00: wake up, shut off alarm
12:00: wake up again, shut off second alarm
13:00: phone rings/roommate knocks on door to actually wake me up
13:30: stumble into shower, check email, catch up on RSS
14:00: lunch (or breakfast)
14:30: actual work, prepare for product launch
19:00: dinner
20:00: more work, TV on in background
05:00: go to sleep
one way to mimic the successes of these people is to do what they do
Disagree. Thinking like that is a common logical fallacy. Suppose you find a relation "isHacker?" <~> "schedule type". Then you have NO evidence at all that that these are related since your whole sample are hackers. Also you don't know anything about the causality.
Even if there is some relation (which I doubt) probably there are some other reasons and "reasons" ~> "isHacker?" and "reasons" ~> "schedule type"
I've been using an app called Infinity on the iPhone to track and optimize my time, and I learned a few things that surprised me. For example:
- I was spending almost 2 hours a day on chit-chat with friends at work. This time is usually counted as work, but it really isn't. So now I stay in the office less, and go out with friends more. Same productivity, more fun.
- I was spending way more time than I thought on email, facebook, and reading news. Now I use a tool called StayFocused to limit my email/facebook time to 1.5 hours a day.
- I spent way too much time on technical support, so I went ahead and hired an intern to handle that.
Overall, I now work less and get more done, which is great.
Slightly all over the place too, but recently it's something like:
(optional)
5:40 wake up and drive my girlfriend to some networking breakfast event
7:00 crash back into bed
(/optional)
8:00 Wake up, breakfast, browse HN, catch up on email, etc
9:00 or so, real work begins
13:00 start to get uncomfortably hungry, locate some nutrients, and absorb them orally. Usually about half an hour or an hour.
Between 17:00 and 20:00, varying depending on the day brain begins to emit SIGHUP signals and I end up doing something else, whether that's going for a run, watching some brain-dead TV, reading a book, or even spending the evening with my girlfriend.
Rarely, I go out to networking events or other social functions. Most of the time, though, I stay in, and go to bed by about midnight.
I think the most important thing I learned about working from home was that you have to act as if you had work hours, and protect that time so you don't spend it doing stupid chores like laundry or shopping or whatever. I do my shopping in the evening, like everyone else. I do my bills in the evening, like everyone else. Daytime is reserved for real, productive work.
12pm: ~30min of running, shower/cleanup, protein shake or small meal
1pm: Review ToDo list, usually 40/60 mix between reading/research and coding/implementation
~4-6pm: Get food, eat, watch some TV (but mostly read RSS/HN/Reddit/etc on my iPad), possibly gym/workout
7:30-8pm: Continue working through ToDo list
2-5am: When I'm ready to fall over at the keyboard I head to sleep. If I hit a really good stride I might keep going through to the morning, which wrecks my schedule for the next day.
On weekends or other nights that I go out (~3 nights a week), I usually stop working around 8-10pm.
> Without a doubt, one way to mimic the successes of these people is to do what they do.
Careful with that thought. If someone creates their own path, following in their footsteps after the fact will be an entirely different journey than the one they took.
That said, I'm curious as well. With the crowd that HN attracts, personal anecdotes can get pretty interesting.
Sure but that is dependent on how low-level your definition of "mimic" is. I did not mean that I would do the very same thing. This might not be the most instructive example, but for example if someone said "I work hard all day long", you can certainly get successful as well by doing that. I guess I should have said "get inspiration" instead of "mimic".
A few specific habits that could be more important than the right routine:
- Learning how to get yourself into a creative state
- Automating non-creative, repetitive tasks
- Discerning when one should delegate or seek help from others and picking the right way to do that for the situation.
- Taking the time to learn principles/foundational material for a new tool. In other words, RTFM.
6:30AM Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, make coffee
7:30AM Catch the bus to work
5:00PM Finish work
5:07PM Catch bus home
6:00PM Get home, make more coffee, change clothes, eat dinner
6:15PM-10:00 Program or socialize. So far this has been a 50/50 split.
10:30PM Sleep
On weeekends I try to get up early and hit a coffee shop from 9:00-3:00. I get somewhere between 15-20 hours of programming in per week (outside of my job).
I'm not sure if you want to do that (I'm not THAT interesting) but here it is. Oh and I'm 27, in Paris, single, C++ dev. (I think it's important, most of the schedules here, I think, depend on the age !)
9:30 wake up, brush teeth
9:40 leave my appt, ride my scooter
9:55 arrive at the coffee shop near the office : take my coffee outside, with first cigarette of the day.
10:00 login to my computer, check emails, review todo list.
10:05 start working
13:30 eat a sandwich at my desk: check HN,Reddit,google news,specialized french newspapers, watch "le zapping of canal +" (a mini video of 5 minutes with funny tv cuts from the day before)
14:00 work
16:30 coffee with my 2 coworkers
19:00 leave the office
Then either I go to have a drink somewhere with some friends, or go&eat at some friend place.
If I go directly to my place, then it's
20:00 switch the TV on to watch the news while cooking (If I didn't take away on the road back)
21:00 watch a movie or some TV series
22:00 SHOWER TIME § YHAHOO !!!
23:00 reddit, HN, techcrunch, everything...
24:00 go to sleep and continue doing nothing very interesting, on my iPhone
5:30 wake up, meditate, breakfast, spend time with my wife
7:00 bike to office
7:15 works begins. no distractions.
9:00 check email, open IRC, continue work
11:30 lunch
14:45 bike home
15:00 spend time outside (walk, hike, swim, garden, study in hammock)
18:00 work out ~1 hour (alternate days olympic weightlifting/powerlifting
with rowing)
19:00 dinner, time with friends, study
21:00 meditate
21:30 sleep
no caffeine or drugs, drink very little alcohol (a couple of drinks once every 1-2 weeks)
i am very pleased with this schedule and very productive. i'll probably wake up later in the fall/winter.
10:30: get to work (now my home office), check email
10:30-noon: procrastinate
noon-1:15: lunch then 45 minute walk
1:15-5:00: procrastinate
5-7pm: 2 hours of amazing productivity
7-8:30: Cook & eat dinner
8:30-midnight: Take rest of night off or perhaps have another couple hours of productivity.
It's not as bad as it sounds cause usually the "procrastination" is me experimenting with new code or programming languages (or reading HN), just not what I'm "supposed" to be doing.
I suspect that many who have posted so far are younger than I am, more single than I am, and either in school or self-employed. Here's my typical schedule:
6am-7am: wake up, feed the dog, get ready for work
7am-8am: commute into NYC
8am-4:30pm: work in office; fit lunch in somewhere often at desk
4:30pm-5:30pm: commute back home
5:30pm-12am: mixed bag; dinner, dog, time with wife, time with tv, email (work and personal), sometimes more work, etc
12am-6am: sleep
My commute is mostly by train, so I spend that time reading or on computer+WiFi, depending on my needs. I often work from home too, which shifts things around a bit but I basically keep the same work hours so I'm in sync with colleagues.
One thing you should consider is that the successful people you want to imitate are probably partially successful because they did not imitate others, but did what worked for them.
Everybody is different and will work best under different conditions. Try to find out what schedule works best for you.
I get the most work done later in the day, but I still find myself most productive if I get up reasonably early. So I allocate easy / non-thinking work in the morning, and do stuff that really requires creativity and brainpower in the afternoon / evening.
shower, exfoliate, moisturise, floss, brush teeth, mouth wash, hair product, get dressed by 7.45
drive to work (its important to listen to music at this time), arrive at 8.00
breakfast (fruit + croissants + green tea) ~ 9.00
work, lunch for ~45 mins at 12
finish work at 19.00
home by 19.15, snack at 21.30, work/read/music/video games till 1.30, exercise & stretch, sleep by 01.30.
repeat.
I've recently given up caffine and most sugars, and try to sleep only 6 hours a night and have been a factor of ten more productive. Also, only checking twitter on iPhone, heh.
[+] [-] chaosmachine|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ambulatorybird|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] speek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kngspook|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bkrausz|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] patio11|15 years ago|reply
8:30~9:00 wake up, stumble into shower
9:15 turn on computer, check email, do non-work
10:00 work begins
13:00 lunchtime!
15:30 shouldn't have brought a book! work resumes
17:30 ~ 18:30 creative impulse dies, work ceases for day
+ 1 hour go to gym
+ 2 hours eat dinner
+ 2.5 hours evening plans
22:00 ~ 2:00 AM read/game/movie/etc, check email, maybe write some goals down for later, go to sleep
[+] [-] zavulon|15 years ago|reply
9 AM: Wake up, go to the gym
10 AM: Shower/shave/etc, get dressed
11 AM: Arrive at the office
- As soon as get to the office: check my goals for today, do the most important thing (before checking emails)
- Lunch at some point
9 PM: Finish work, get home, dinner, relax
11 PM: Go out/socialize
1 AM: Get home, answer some emails, write down goals for tomorrow
2 AM: sleep
[+] [-] callmeed|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aspiringsensei|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mitko|15 years ago|reply
Disagree. Thinking like that is a common logical fallacy. Suppose you find a relation "isHacker?" <~> "schedule type". Then you have NO evidence at all that that these are related since your whole sample are hackers. Also you don't know anything about the causality.
Even if there is some relation (which I doubt) probably there are some other reasons and "reasons" ~> "isHacker?" and "reasons" ~> "schedule type"
~ is for probability.
[+] [-] anemecek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] waleedka|15 years ago|reply
- I was spending almost 2 hours a day on chit-chat with friends at work. This time is usually counted as work, but it really isn't. So now I stay in the office less, and go out with friends more. Same productivity, more fun.
- I was spending way more time than I thought on email, facebook, and reading news. Now I use a tool called StayFocused to limit my email/facebook time to 1.5 hours a day.
- I spent way too much time on technical support, so I went ahead and hired an intern to handle that.
Overall, I now work less and get more done, which is great.
[+] [-] swombat|15 years ago|reply
(optional)
5:40 wake up and drive my girlfriend to some networking breakfast event
7:00 crash back into bed
(/optional)
8:00 Wake up, breakfast, browse HN, catch up on email, etc
9:00 or so, real work begins
13:00 start to get uncomfortably hungry, locate some nutrients, and absorb them orally. Usually about half an hour or an hour.
Between 17:00 and 20:00, varying depending on the day brain begins to emit SIGHUP signals and I end up doing something else, whether that's going for a run, watching some brain-dead TV, reading a book, or even spending the evening with my girlfriend.
Rarely, I go out to networking events or other social functions. Most of the time, though, I stay in, and go to bed by about midnight.
I think the most important thing I learned about working from home was that you have to act as if you had work hours, and protect that time so you don't spend it doing stupid chores like laundry or shopping or whatever. I do my shopping in the evening, like everyone else. I do my bills in the evening, like everyone else. Daytime is reserved for real, productive work.
[+] [-] tdfx|15 years ago|reply
11am: Wakeup, check e-mail/stats/missed IMs, water/hydration
12pm: ~30min of running, shower/cleanup, protein shake or small meal
1pm: Review ToDo list, usually 40/60 mix between reading/research and coding/implementation
~4-6pm: Get food, eat, watch some TV (but mostly read RSS/HN/Reddit/etc on my iPad), possibly gym/workout
7:30-8pm: Continue working through ToDo list
2-5am: When I'm ready to fall over at the keyboard I head to sleep. If I hit a really good stride I might keep going through to the morning, which wrecks my schedule for the next day.
On weekends or other nights that I go out (~3 nights a week), I usually stop working around 8-10pm.
P.S. if you couldn't tell, I work from home.
[+] [-] csomar|15 years ago|reply
03:00-PM Wake up
03:15-PM Eat something (lunch, breakfast, drink {soda, coffee})
04:00-PM Watch TV (Aljazeera, BBC, RT)
05:30-PM Go to coffee and meet with friends, discuss useless things
08:30-PM Back to home. Dinner and shower and TV.
12:00-AM Open Computer. Check email, currencies, stocks, read HN, forums
02:00-AM Start Work
03:30-AM Finish Work - Read HN, Facebook, TC and RSS
05:00-AM Close Windows - Open Ubuntu - Learn WordPress
06:30-AM Close PC and Sleep
Not joking, my real daily schedule.
[+] [-] ritonlajoie|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pclark|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] gdl|15 years ago|reply
Careful with that thought. If someone creates their own path, following in their footsteps after the fact will be an entirely different journey than the one they took.
That said, I'm curious as well. With the crowd that HN attracts, personal anecdotes can get pretty interesting.
[+] [-] anemecek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] stretchwithme|15 years ago|reply
- Learning how to get yourself into a creative state - Automating non-creative, repetitive tasks - Discerning when one should delegate or seek help from others and picking the right way to do that for the situation. - Taking the time to learn principles/foundational material for a new tool. In other words, RTFM.
[+] [-] tsally|15 years ago|reply
6:30AM Wake up, shower, eat breakfast, make coffee
7:30AM Catch the bus to work
5:00PM Finish work
5:07PM Catch bus home
6:00PM Get home, make more coffee, change clothes, eat dinner
6:15PM-10:00 Program or socialize. So far this has been a 50/50 split.
10:30PM Sleep
On weeekends I try to get up early and hit a coffee shop from 9:00-3:00. I get somewhere between 15-20 hours of programming in per week (outside of my job).
[+] [-] ritonlajoie|15 years ago|reply
9:30 wake up, brush teeth
9:40 leave my appt, ride my scooter
9:55 arrive at the coffee shop near the office : take my coffee outside, with first cigarette of the day.
10:00 login to my computer, check emails, review todo list.
10:05 start working
13:30 eat a sandwich at my desk: check HN,Reddit,google news,specialized french newspapers, watch "le zapping of canal +" (a mini video of 5 minutes with funny tv cuts from the day before)
14:00 work
16:30 coffee with my 2 coworkers
19:00 leave the office
Then either I go to have a drink somewhere with some friends, or go&eat at some friend place.
If I go directly to my place, then it's
20:00 switch the TV on to watch the news while cooking (If I didn't take away on the road back)
21:00 watch a movie or some TV series
22:00 SHOWER TIME § YHAHOO !!!
23:00 reddit, HN, techcrunch, everything...
24:00 go to sleep and continue doing nothing very interesting, on my iPhone
01:00 sleep !
[+] [-] enduser|15 years ago|reply
i am very pleased with this schedule and very productive. i'll probably wake up later in the fall/winter.
[+] [-] johnharkes|15 years ago|reply
10:00 Get out of bed
10:00-10:30 have a piss whilst showering, brush teeth
10:30-10:45 Breakfast
10:45-11:00 Walk to work
11:00-13:00 Work
13:00-13:30 Lunch Break
13:30-18:00 Work
18:00-18:15 Walk Home
18:15-19:00 Read Newspapers engage with family
19:00-22:00 DVD / TV / Radio / Computing
22:00-22:30 Watch porn
22:30-23:00 Have sower
23:00-00:00 Read in bed / Listen to Radio or Podcast
00:00-09:45 Sleep
[+] [-] gprisament|15 years ago|reply
9:30: wake up
10:30: get to work (now my home office), check email
10:30-noon: procrastinate
noon-1:15: lunch then 45 minute walk
1:15-5:00: procrastinate
5-7pm: 2 hours of amazing productivity
7-8:30: Cook & eat dinner
8:30-midnight: Take rest of night off or perhaps have another couple hours of productivity.
It's not as bad as it sounds cause usually the "procrastination" is me experimenting with new code or programming languages (or reading HN), just not what I'm "supposed" to be doing.
[+] [-] pclark|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|15 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] DougWebb|15 years ago|reply
6am-7am: wake up, feed the dog, get ready for work
7am-8am: commute into NYC
8am-4:30pm: work in office; fit lunch in somewhere often at desk
4:30pm-5:30pm: commute back home
5:30pm-12am: mixed bag; dinner, dog, time with wife, time with tv, email (work and personal), sometimes more work, etc
12am-6am: sleep
My commute is mostly by train, so I spend that time reading or on computer+WiFi, depending on my needs. I often work from home too, which shifts things around a bit but I basically keep the same work hours so I'm in sync with colleagues.
[+] [-] LeBlanc|15 years ago|reply
Everybody is different and will work best under different conditions. Try to find out what schedule works best for you.
I get the most work done later in the day, but I still find myself most productive if I get up reasonably early. So I allocate easy / non-thinking work in the morning, and do stuff that really requires creativity and brainpower in the afternoon / evening.
[+] [-] jeffbarr|15 years ago|reply
4:55 AM - Eyes open
5:00 AM - Out of bed
5:10 AM - 6:30 AM - Deal with email and eat breakfast, create TODO list for the day
6:30 AM - Get showered and dressed
7:00 AM - Drive or walk to bus (if not working from home that day)
8:00 AM - 5:30 PM - Work
6:30 PM - Home
6:30 PM - 10:00 PM - Random (dinner, gym, walk with wife, help kids with homework, personal projects, etc)
10:00 PM - 11:30 PM - Watch a few random episodes of Seinfeld or Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on DVR
11:30 PM - Fall asleep in front of TV
12:30 AM - Wake up and go upstairs for actual sleep
My time on the bus is spent reading or resting.
[+] [-] anemecek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pclark|15 years ago|reply
shower, exfoliate, moisturise, floss, brush teeth, mouth wash, hair product, get dressed by 7.45
drive to work (its important to listen to music at this time), arrive at 8.00
breakfast (fruit + croissants + green tea) ~ 9.00
work, lunch for ~45 mins at 12
finish work at 19.00
home by 19.15, snack at 21.30, work/read/music/video games till 1.30, exercise & stretch, sleep by 01.30.
repeat.
I've recently given up caffine and most sugars, and try to sleep only 6 hours a night and have been a factor of ten more productive. Also, only checking twitter on iPhone, heh.
[+] [-] runjake|15 years ago|reply
Note: You are awesome if you catch the reference.
[+] [-] pyb|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] snikeris|15 years ago|reply