Transcription
When it comes to routines and habits and productivity, I personally have tried everything under the sun.
Over the last 10 years, I've made more than $30 million with an online business. And to do that, you have to be ridiculously productive. And I've really tried everything. Everything in morning routines, afternoon, evening routines, eating schedules, exercise regimes, habits, journaling—you name it, I've tried it. And I have found a routine and a linear chain of behavior through time on a daily basis that is so conducive to productivity and helps me become so productive that I want to share it with you today. I call this my factory reset routine because anytime that I venture off to try a different routine or different habits, I always default and factory reset back to this one. It is so simple and it's made me $30 million more at this point.
So, the way it starts is it starts in the morning, obviously, and it starts at 6:00 a.m. So, 6:00 a.m. is when I wake up, and I don't have an alarm. This is just my default brain wake-up time. So, it's more of a range. Sometimes I wake up at 5:30, sometimes I wake up at 6:30. Um, I don't have an alarm. The discipline in sleep is going to bed on time, not waking up on time. Because if you go to bed at 10:00 p.m. and you fall asleep within 15 to 30 minutes, then you're going to wake up between 5:30 and 6:30 a.m. because your body typically doesn't need more than 6 hours of sleep. Sorry, 8 hours of sleep. Um, so I'll wake up at 6:00. What I'm doing immediately is taking a cold shower. Okay, so brush, wake up, go to the toilet, brush teeth, cold shower. What this does, the reason I take the cold shower is basically to reduce inflammation in my body that came overnight. So, you know, when you wake up and like sometimes you're a little too hot and your face is all kind of puffy and you get a little bit brain foggy and it, you know, you don't quite feel awake. Well, that's just inflammation in your body and cold water is basically a massive um component to reducing inflammation in the body, at least post-wake-up inflammation. And what this does is it basically um it gets rid of any brain fog. So any brain fog that you have, like any sort of like fogginess or fatigue, any any fatigue um you have goes away and any soreness you have goes away. And also like anything any like that's sat on your lungs. So this is this is kind of disgusting, but like if you have congestion or anything like that, like just a quick four to five-minute cold shower will reduce brain fog, reduce fatigue, snap you awake, reduce any soreness, and you you feel like you you can actually breathe properly if you if you live in a city where you've had like bad air quality or you've been smoking or whatever the hell you've been up to, right? Works a charm.
Okay, so we wake up, take a cold shower off the rip. I've been doing cold showers religiously for uh years and you know I wouldn't be without them. Now to take to take a warm shower in the morning feels horrible. It makes me feel all like slow and foggy and fatigued like I could basically just go back to bed. So we wake up and we take a cold shower. Within 15 minutes of me waking up I am at work. This is I'm not and this this surprises a lot of people. They think like, oh, but what about like journaling and gratitude and meditation and affirmations and all this stuff? No, that you have a window of optimal focus in the morning. And really for the first like three, four, five, six hours of the day, you can get more done in a third of a day than most people get done in like 3 or 4 days or maybe even a week. So basically between between 6:15 and really between 12:15 or usually probably about 12:30. Um I am just working and for the first um really I would say five hours here. So from 6:00 to like 11 I'm not even checking Slack. I'm not checking emails. I'm not checking my phone. This is deep work, right? So these first six hours of the day, 5 hours of the day are dedicated to proper deep work where I'm working on intensive projects. I'm not opening messaging apps. I'm not replying to people, like nothing. They're not even checking my phone or my my family group or anything. I'm just straight into the work. And you know what this does is it basically means that no one disturbs me and it gives me a completely focused chain of thought on one thing. It is how you build insane things and get insanely productive.
So at 12:30 I'm eating food. Now what you eat at lunchtime is crucial to the productivity that you experience in the afternoon. And so once again um it all comes back to this one word: inflammation. So, a lot of people what they do is at lunchtime when they eat is they just completely nuke their gut and they'll eat crap, right? So, they'll eat sugar, they'll eat um gluten, they'll eat dairy, you know, they'll eat loads of carbs, they'll eat whatever the hell, right? And they'll eat loads of seed oils and all sorts of crap. And what this does is when you when you consume like food that's not conducive to productivity, which is basically food that just inflames your gut, your your body has to deal with this thing. So when you eat a big meal, like a big carb like a pizza or burger or like sandwich or something like your body has to deal with that. And so what it does is it sends loads of blood to your gut to deal with to digest all this stuff that you've just eaten. And what that does is it takes blood away from the rest of your body and your brain and all the other components of you that would be productive. And so if you ever have like a post-lunch slump where you just feel like you can go to sleep and you just don't feel like you can be productive or focused at all, it's because of what you're eating.
So, if you're wondering what I eat in the afternoon or for lunch, basically, I will have times one ribeye steak and I will have times four to six eggs and I will cook the steak in beef tallow and I will cook the eggs in olive oil. Okay, so we got olive oil and we got beef tallow and this is I think probably about uh 1,200 to 1,300 um calories. Um, sometimes I'll add avocado if I'm feeling a bit cheeky, bit fruity, but not always. Um, if I need the fiber, then I'll do it, but not often, more often than not, um, I won't. So, this is like, you know, you might be thinking, but a steak and eggs, that's like that's like six eggs and oil, that's going to like But no, once you once you get used to this lunch, like you you have a little slump for maybe approximately like 10 to 15 minutes, and then you just you snap back into gear. Like, it's so easy, you don't have this like multi-hour long period of just darkness that you'd have if you ate like carbs. The main thing to avoid here is carbs and sugar because what happens is if you eat carbs and sugar at this point of the day then you have this temporary spike and then the rest of the day you're just basically chasing the dopamine of the spike and you want to go and eat snacks and it's not good for you. Um that's that. And then with this I'll basically just drink a ton of water.
Now, the other thing in terms of hydration, um, when I wake up, um, I'll drink about a liter of water. Um, and with that liter of water that I have at 6:00 a.m., um, I will have an electrolyte sachet. So, like magnesium, potassium, sodium, just Element LMT electrolyte sachet. Um, just an unflavored one. And then I'll have a um some creatine as well, like a scoop of creatine. Those those are really the only um supplements I take in the morning, right? They're not even supplements, but that's that. When you eat lots of steak and lots of eggs, you don't need to supplement because ribeye, eggs, and also salmon, fun fact, are the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. I actually I've been on carnivore um eating steak and eggs and nothing but that for um a year. And I recently got my bloods done to check my vitamins and my deficiencies and everything came back completely clear and I didn't need to supplement a thing. So that's just some food for thought for you. So we hydrate at that point and obviously throughout the day I'm continuing to hydrate. I've got this big 1.3 L bottle with a straw in it and it's cold and it's gorgeous.
So that's lunch. I eat at 12:30. Now you'll notice a couple of things. Um a few things about this. No coffee and no breakfast. So, you know, I won't eat I don't eat breakfast, so I fast until 12:30 because the I'm telling you, once you get used to it, the the state of focus that you can get for this first 6-hour work block when you haven't eaten anything is obscene. And I don't drink coffee. I I got rid of caffeine I think three or four years ago. And you you don't need it. You you've probably convinced yourself you do. You're addicted to it. Um if you get rid of it, you'll have hell to pay for about a month. And then what happens is you no longer become reliant on it and your focus becomes insanely clean and your stress levels go down and you feel less anxious because coffee is a stimulant and it you know it messes with your adrenal glands and your stress hormones. You don't know this, you don't realize this because you've become so accustomed to it. Um but try and get rid of coffee and see how anxious and irritated you get. It's terrifying.
Um so we eat at 12:30. Now I'll usually break at this point. This is like a 30-minute um affair. So to cook this and eat it and you know I basically you know at that point that's that's my lunch break. So it's 30 minutes. Um around this point is when I'm also checking my phone. So at this point the only app I have on my phone that I check is WhatsApp. I don't have any social media on my phone. I don't have any work or any any emails on my phone. So it's just WhatsApp. So at this point I'm just catching up with friends, family if there's anything that I need to attend to at this point. Um so then I come back. So, 13:00. Um, this is when I'll come back to work, but this is when my meetings usually begin. So, I'll usually do um meetings up until about 3:00. Um, sometimes a little longer, maybe 3:30 um because, you know, it depends what I've got going on and, you know, got to talk to my managers, I got to talk to the team, etc., etc. So, there's usually like 2 or 3 hours of meetings a day that happen um which can be annoying, but whatever.
Now, at this point, at 15:30, when my meeting's finished, um this is when I will go to the gym. Now, this is interesting because I'll either go to the gym or I'll sleep. Um depending on my recovery levels from the gym and the intensity of my morning work. Um I have a um a gym routine where I'll train four days a week. Um so, I do an upper-lower split. I used to do full body, but I'm doing upper-lower at the moment. And um you know, so I I'll go to the gym if it's gym day. If it's not gym day, or if it's gym day, but I'm exhausted and my my CNS isn't recovered, I'm really sore, then what I'll do is I'll just nap. And I'll I'll nap sometimes for an hour, like a whole hour. Um and and this is basically what I'm talking about here is going into my room, closing the blinds, turning the AC on, getting into bed, and just closing my eyes, putting an eye mask on for and I'll just let my and I won't set a timer. I'll just let my body again sleep for how long it needs to. Sometimes I'll nap for 20 minutes. Sometimes I'll nap for 40 minutes. Sometimes I'll nap for 50. It never it never goes beyond an hour. Like my body never naps beyond an hour. Um you can set a timer if you're afraid you're going to sleep through it. But this if you've got like a heavy afternoon ahead or you you've got this a project that is just gnarly that you're just working on that you just need to work non-stop. Napping in the afternoon for like 30 minutes or an hour, it's insane; it like it's like a factory reset on your body and your mind and your your productivity capacity.
Um, so I'll sleep for about an hour if if I'm not tired, which is honestly more often than I might nap like twice a week, three times a week max. This is like this is when I'm like I've just come off two training days, work's been madly intense, and you know, I I haven't got the gym to go to and I'm just staring at my laptop after these meetings like I just can't comprehend even pressing buttons on a keyboard. I'm that tired, right? Um, this happens when you when you push yourself and get burned out. So, yeah, I'll nap. If I don't, I'll go to the gym and, you know, the gym's only an hour. So, you know, usually I'm I'm back um by 16:30 or I'll wake up at 16:30 and then it's basically back into work. Um, and just to do another sort of deep work block. Um, and then I'll usually finish work at about 7:00 p.m. And, you know, at 7:00 p.m., um, this is when I will eat. And well before before I do this, I will PTT plus eat. So PTT stands for plan tomorrow today, which basically means I will plan out what I'm going to do tomorrow. So I'll tick off what I've got done today. Anything I haven't got done today that I need to get done today, then I'll move it to tomorrow. And that's pretty much the day. And then what I'll do is I'll eat. And you might be curious as to what I eat in the evenings, which would be a reasonable curiosity to have. Um, it's the same thing. So, I'll eat at this point two steaks, two like two ribeyes and then usually like another like four to six eggs.
Okay. So, you know, this this comes to I think 1800; this comes to like another like 2,000 calories, maybe a little bit more. Um, but what this means is like with my morning with my lunchtime meal, um, I'm usually on any any average day eating like between 3,300 calories, maybe 3,500 calories cuz I'm including avocado sometimes. So, like typically my my average calorie consumption a day is like, you know, between 3300 to 3,800 calories, give or take. And I find that is enough to put me in a surplus to build muscle and grow. But at the same time, because it's so clean, I don't have that bulk slown the bulking slowness that people people get and people receive. And also, because there's no carbs and you're only eating lean meats and lean foods and you're in ketosis, you stay shredded. So, this is I found a way to basically bulk non-stop whilst also losing fat and well, not losing fat, but whilst also staying very lean and staying incredibly productive. Because what most people do when they try and bulk or when they try and cut is it interferes with their work; for me it doesn't because the the diet is just so streamlined.
Um now this is basically this routine is Monday to Saturday, but the difference is on Saturday I won't do um I won't do this work block. So I take off Saturday afternoons um from basically the time I go to the gym. Um and you know so really I'm I'm kind of if you think about this here like this is kind of like an 11 maybe 12-hour workday depending on how much I'm getting done, like 10 to 12 hours typically um Monday to Saturday. And then if you're wondering what I do on Sunday, it's basically just relaxing. So what I do in the evening, so you know, at 19:30, this is when I get to chill uh chill. And I go to bed at uh when do I go to bed? 22:00. So I go to bed at 10:00. Um so if you're wondering what I do to relax and wind down, um usually I'll go and hang out with friends. Um, I'll play sports. I'll socialize. Um, might go to the pub just to chill. Or maybe I'll read a book, like I'll I'll read history or like a biography or I'll watch a movie or something like that.
Um, in case you can't tell, this is boring. Like, my life is from an outside-in very boring; like it's engineered and optimized to just do as much work as possible whilst also being as healthy as possible with as few moving parts as possible. I don't do anything besides this. Like, you know, I'll have holidays and I'll have like the days off if I need them and stuff. Um, but for the most part, like this is basically my life and there's there's no shyness. I don't I'm not meditating. I'm not journaling. I'm not edging or whatever the hell people do these days in their routine. There ain't no gooning going on over here, my friend. It's just wake up, cold shower, work for six hours, eat really clean. Um, do meetings, go to the gym or sleep, work again for a couple of hours, plan what I'm going to do tomorrow, eat really clean again, relax, and sleep. And I've been any time that I stray away from this routine, I become less productive, more anxious, and weirder. So, this this thing for me is just like this is the old reliable. It might not work for you. This isn't going to be for everyone. Um, but there is no there's nothing there's no room for anything else and it's optimized for work. So, yeah, works for me, might not work for you. Let me know what you think in the comments.
By the way, if you happen to be a marketing agency owner or a coach or consultant and you sell like an online high-ticket product B2B, there's a link in the description you can click. It's basically a client acquisition um system that we can help you with. I am trying to sell you something for transparency. I don't really care if you click it or not cuz it's probably not even you. But if you need help getting more clients, you can check it out. It might not be you. I don't care. Anyway, have a good day.