Morning

I have really gotten in the groove of my new morning routine.  It’s great to wake up and know exactly what to do to get your day started right.

It all starts with a 4-item checklist on my Productive Day Doc.

The first task is drinking a cup of water and doing a 10-minute yoga flow.  I generally just focus on breathing and doing basic yoga poses and sun salutations.  I just do what feels good and don’t push it too much.  For me, this is a great way to warm up my body and wake up my mind.

I then brew up a cup of good tea or heat up a cup of bone broth and sit down with my journal for 15 minutes and just write what’s on my mind while I sip my hot beverage.

I always set a small digital timer for the times I’ve outlined for the tasks.  And I highly recommend not using the timer on your smartphone as this will entice you into opening up email and throwing your whole routine out of whack.

Next comes daily affirmations.

I’ve written down my favorites in a notebook and I’ll usually pick two of them, repeating them out loud and with conviction.  Really driving the intention deep into my being.

After that’s finished, I’ll take my supplements (probiotic, high-vitamin/fermented cod liver oil blend, vitamin D, and B-complex), which I always follow up with a snack to slow the absorption of the vitamins.

Now my checklist is complete and I’m ready to shift my focus to my projects.

Each day I decide to only focus on one project from about 8am-2pm.

So I take out my project binder and decide what I’m in the mood to work on that day.  These days my options are my web marketing company, etsy business, or online content creation business.

So I write out what my focus will be and what one task I want to focus on as well as a backup task once I finish that one.  If I complete them both, I move on to whatever other tasks need done.

Now the morning section of the Productive Day Doc is complete.  Time to get to work.

Afternoon

At 2PM my alarm goes off on my phone reminding me to take the Doc back out and complete the afternoon section.  I fill in the two sections regarding how I did on my tasks and any other constructive bits about my productivity, then move on to another 4 item checklist.

First I spend 5 minutes to update my project binder, then set my intention to eat healthily for the rest of the day (very important to me as food is my only “medication” for Crohn’s disease).

Next I clean the house for 30 minutes and then sit down to meditate to 10 minutes.

After that I fill in the section about what sounds like a good, enjoyable way to spend the rest of my day.

And that’s it!  DONE! SUCCESS!

What else?

I also use the upgraded version of the iphone app Alarmed to ding every hour of the day from 7am to 9pm as a way to reminding me to take a few deep breaths, correct my posture, and just become mindful in general.  It works very well, I absolutely love it.

I’ve also got a basic nightly “wind down” routine, though its all in my head instead of on paper.  Italways  involves shutting down electronics, and may of may not involve lighting up some candles, playing some good music, reading, discussing life with my wife Michelle, cuddling with our dogs, light stretching, or taking a epsom salt bath.

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Click here if you want to download your own copy of my Productive Day Doc in Word format.

Photo is of me and my dog Trey reaping the rewards of a productive week.

Do you have a daily routine?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments.

• We buy tons of clothes so hopefully we will look cool.
• We spend hours a day checking out pictures of our ex-boyfriends sister’s aunt on facebook.
• We wash our car every week because it makes us feel good.
• We watch hours of tv on hulu because that’s entertainment.
• We subscribe to 100 blogs because consuming sure beats producing.
• And we submit resume after resume to job postings on craigslist because we’re hoping that maybe the next job will make us happy.

Well, your wasting your time.  These are activities of the unremarkables.

Who cares what people think, get a life, torch your car, read a book, unsubscribe, and quit your job.

Instead:

• thrive with 5 really nice, classic outfits
• cancel your facebook account….like right now
• buy a bike or let zipcar wash your wheels
• go seek adventure, real life adventure
• unsubscribe to this blog
• start a business of your own

You are creative as hell.  Your brain is extremely powerful.

Are you seriously going to use your power to create a legacy of good facebook relationships and a clean car? Or would you rather create a legacy of adventurous living and meaningful work?

What else do you want to me to say?  Ohh, you don’t know how to get started.  Seriously?

1. shut your computer
2. turn off all the noise
3. grab a pencil and paper
4. write down how you’ll change the world for the better
5. work on that thing a little every single goddamn day until you die

Kiss your family goodnight and go to bed with a smile on your face, because now your doing exactly what you should be doing.

You see, after having the dog for about a year, I started to notice that we would run out of dog food and it would cause us to have to run to the store just to get said dog food.

I also began to realize (from observing my wife shop) that the price of the food in the grocery store doesn’t reflect the quality so much as that particular brands advertising budget.

So I systemized and optimized.

I went online and did some research into what makes the “optimal” dog food and then I spent about an hour locating one that met my new standards for quality, was convenient to purchase, as well as affordable.

I found one that met all the requirements and purchased a 3-month supply.

Once Trey cheerfully approved, I went into my Google calendar and set a reorder reminder in 2.5 months and every 3 months after that.

Now life is good – for me and the dog.

We always have a supply of high quality food and the only work involved is a one minute amazon checkout process every 3 months.

(In case you have a dog and are wondering, HERE is the one we choose)

Adopting it as a rule

My life has been much improved by adopting this routine.   I have basically added it to my standard operating procedures and thus far have experienced only amazing results.

And so far it seems like optimizing then systemizing can be done for about any repetitive task in your life.  We have applied it to our diet with amazing results, which made a huge impact on my health and happiness levels.  I’ll probably share those details with you in a later blog post.

As of now, anytime I notice a new repetitive task entering my life I ask, “How can I make this task painless or even enjoyable?”

I grab my notebook and go to work.

I’ve used this to drag myself out of a funk.  This routine will alter your current perception of the world and make you feel a deeper connection to your surroundings and life in general.  It will make you feel happy and healthy.

Step 1:  Brew up a glass of amazing high quality tea.  I find good tea here.  Put it in a mug you can wrap two hands around.

Step 2:  Click here to play a song by Krishna Das on Grooveshark.

Step 3:  Sit cross-legged or in lotus position on a pillow in a quiet clean corner of your home.

Smell your tea.

Feel your cup.

Sip your tea.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Smile

Whenever your ready, go enjoy your day, each present moment.  Make the best of it.

Everyone needs to create time and space in their life to create.

My main space is a spare room (the other being a field at a local nature preserve). All the room contains is a blanket, an Ipod & speakers, paper and pen, and myself.  It used to contain a million other things, but we got rid of them all – thank God!

I try to go in there every night that I’m home (for at least a half hour) and I create.

I lay on the blanket, I stand up, I stretch…

If inspiration hits, I pick up the paper and jot.  If not, I just hang with myself, get to know me, sit and breath, and become aware of whats important in life.

Its amazing the amount of energy this adds to my life – probably more than sleeping. And most of the energy feels creative.

The energy says “build, help, share, listen, feel.”

So, I just wanted to write this to let you know:  your spaces awaits

And your body and soul yearn for it.

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Picture is of my wife, hanging out at our creative space at the local nature preserve.

…recall one by one each of your own acquaintances; how one buried another, only to be laid low himself and buried in turn by a third, and all in so brief a space of time.  Observe, in short, how transient and trivial is all mortal life; yesterday a drop of semen, tomorrow a handful of spice or ashes.  Spend, therefore, these fleeting moments on earth as Nature would have you spend them, and then go to your rest with a good grace, as an olive falls in its season, with a blessing for the earth that bore it and a thanksgiving to the tree that gave it life.

This quote to me is so powerful.  It doesn’t matter what you’ve accomplished, eventually it will be forgotten. In a billion year (a speck in time) it will be forgotten.  As George Harrison says “all things must pass.”

Our only purpose then on earth is to live in accordance with Nature.

Think then for yourself what you believe Nature has intended for you and do it service as best you can.

For me (and many other Stoics) that means being just, dutiful, truthful, magnanimous, judicious, independent, and discreet.

I  will still have fun and go after mountainous goals but I know it to be trivial in the grand scheme of things.  The benefit derived from that is nothing compared to living in accordance with nature, accepting my allotted part in the universe, and then going to rest with good grace, fertilizing the earth, blessing the one that gave me life.

This also reminds me to have no fear of risk, as what am I risking but a chance to test my character or the possibility to bless the one that gave me life.

To know the shortness and triviality of life is amazing.

I believe the books mentioned below are must-reads for every human.

Important pursuits and accomplishments (all of which I’ve had a measure of success)

1. Record and tweak your daily routine
2. Purchase yourname.com just in case you need it later
3. Frequent your local library
4. Learn yoga or rock climbing (meditative (flow state), stretching, & muscle building all in one)
5. Optimize your diet (and learn where your food comes from)
6. take a digital sabbatical
7. Meditate each night on the root causes of the days negative events
8. write a book (of at least 50 pages)
9. Make it a daily habit to connect with your spouse or a good friend
10. Think before you speak
11. Compile your thoughts into a working life philosophy
12. start a meaningful blog (that has the potential to help people)

Goals I’m working (or hoping) to accomplish:

1. build a business that nets greater than $100/day for a month
2. be known as the person that helps people
3. donate 10% of all income to charity on a montly basis (I really have no excuses for why I haven’t started doing this already)
4. Organize your principles for living a good life on paper
5. Keep notes on your biggest challenges in life and how you solved them
6. study and practice mindfulness

Very Worthy Reads: (as in: read and study these several times each and continuously work to apply them!!)

1. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years by Donald Miller
2. Breakthrough Rapid Reading by Peter Kump (read at least 1/3 of it)
3. Principles by Ray Dalio
4. The Practicing Mind by Thomas Sterner
5. Letters from a Stoic by Lucius Annaeus Seneca and Robin Campbell
6. A Guide to the Good Life by William Braxton Irvine
7. The Secret of Shelter Island by Alexander Green
8. Influence by Robert Cialdini

The ultimate personal development goal of any person in life should be self control (or self discipline, or willpower, or whatever you want to call it).

Think about it.  If you have self control you can do anything.

Want to start a business?  Well, with total self control, you can easily learn as you go and plug away day after day, not worrying about the dip, just making choices based on the best of your knowledge.   When you run into roadblocks, you have the self control to seek advice and then push forward.

And you would have the self control to pick up the phone and pitch investors and customers instead of engaging in busy work to side step the fear that your feeling.

Want to be insanely healthy?  With self control you can.

You can choose to eat the most healthy foods available, sit with perfect posture, meditate for 30 minutes, and engage in intense physical activity almost every single day of your life.   With self control, you will make time – no matter what.

With self control you can choose the words you say.  You can refuse to gossip and instead use your words to build people up and spread a good spirit.  You can be amazing to your wife and constructive with your co-workers.

I could go on and on.

The primary reason we fail to accomplish our goals in life is because we lack self control.  We lack the ability to always take action on the next step and recognize when to push forward and when to honestly steer course.

To accomplish your goals you need persistence and self control is the granddaddy of persistence.

How to work on your self control

I don’t know how to master self control. I don’t think anyone does, because that would be the greatest knowledge on the planet.

I do, however, have a couple ideas for things I’m going to try:

1. I’m going to first recognize that everyday is an experiment in self control – no winning or losing, just experimenting and trying new things to see what works.
2. Every single day when I wake up, I’m going to make tea and read a short paragraph I wrote about self control.
3. When I go to bed at night, I’m going to consciously meditate for a few minutes on my progress towards self control.

We’ll see what happens.  I’m very excited about the possibilities, though I know it will be the hardest thing I ever attempt.

But I’ll push through, because that’s what people with self control do.

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What do you think, is self control the ultimate personal development goal?

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When going through everyday life, keep an eye out for problems to solve.

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to cultivate a strong desire to help people.  Help them with their everyday problems by creating a business process that gets them their help in the most efficient, brilliant, and honest way possible.

Here is how to tackle that process, distilled to the essential steps:

1.  A desire to help
2.  An idea on how to help (something to sell)
3.   Initiative
4.   An hour a day of free time
5.   Twenty bucks, maybe a little more?
6.   Discipline (i.e. – an ability to ignore your lizard brain and ship it out the door)
7.   Determination (to wait it out and work through the dip or even more likely,  steer course)
8.   Customers (finding out where those that need help hang out)
9.   A value proposition (a quick, effective pitch for how you can help)

Hope that was fast and painless.

If you continue to tackle this process, the world will be a better place, and your dreams will eventually come true.

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Think my work is decent?  Go deeper with my free e-course: Minimalist-in-a-Month

If you have any suggestions of steps I should add to this list, please leave a comment.