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You are the sum of your habits. I've always had "sort-of passable" ones, but they were never chosen by design, only by what had accreted with time. I had played with some systems and apps, but nothing had really worked until I took the time to write out in excrutiating detail what I would be doing for every minute of my morning and evening. At first I had to follow my schedule, but that didn't last long.

With the birth of my son, daycare, and a new job, I was finally forced to actually plan out a morning and evening routine. I wish I had done this in university.

Every day for the last 6 months, I have now a routine I don't have to think twice about:

* Woke up at 5 AM,

* Exercise hard, take a shower and have breakfast,

* Get to work before 7:30 AM with my day's tasks already in mind.

Similar for the evening preparing my breakfast, lunch and clothes. It's liberating to do these now without thinking. It took about a month, and my brain is now free to plan out the day or listen to an audiobook.



Read and fully implement Getting Things Done by David Allen. It’ll free up your mind even more.


How do you get to work before 7:30am with a child? Does daycare start that early?

I struggle to get my kids up, fed, clothed and in kidnergarten before 8:30 myself (which means I can be at work around 9).


My wife and I’s schedules are staggered. She takes mornings, I take the afternoons.

I don’t think the actual hours at which you start your day matter much, though. I find the value is in being constant at it.


Yes. Every time you take the low road, that part of you wins and gets a little stronger (even neurologically speaking). The reverse is true as well.




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