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Designing a Routine
Thoughts on how to get things done when optimizing for creativity
Martin Berg
November 12, 2024
This post is a slight deviation from the regular programming, but it's one I felt like writing. Every once in a while I'll be dropping a post like this. Writing about the journey itself, my approach to writing and other related meta things. I'll dub this the "Forever Endeavour" series.
Feel free to drop me a line letting me know what you think of these meta-posts.
Below is the first Forever Endeavour post on Routine Design:
Context
A few weeks ago I started a next chapter in my career. The TLDR; I was the CEO of a SaaS in the entertainment industry for the past six years. I've worked in that industry for a decade and a half. It was time for something new. Now I've gone independent. I want to spend most of my time at the frontier of entertainment/consumer and technology.
For now, my work resolves around a few key tenets:
Writing (a lot)
Reading & Researching
Connecting with interesting people (and finding ways to be helpful to them)
(I'll also be looking to invest in and work with promising companies, protocols and builders. If that's you, reach out!).
This represents a meaningful shift in how I (get to) plan my days. I've been intentional about this shift, redesigning my daily routine to promote the things that are important to me now.
I've always been a fan of routine design. Especially when running a company, having some idea of how you structure your day/week/month is necessary to avoid only being caught up in the fires that are burning right here and right now.
Routine design is a powerful tool. If you can first answer the question "what's the most important outcome for me right now?" you can design a routine around promoting that. Without this clarity, progress will be accidental.
For me, routine design accomplishes a few things.
Remove friction and reduce energy spent on structural things and planning
Create a foundation for doing the work you want to be doing
Designing a New Routine
When setting out to create a routine for my next phase, I designed it around two core elements. These are the ones I optimize for, and everything else fits around that:
Health (exercise, meditation, journalling)
Writing consistently
My daily routine now looks like this ish:
7-8.30 am: Family time, get kids to school and kindergarten
8.30-9.30 am: Workout (running or strength training)
9.30-10 am: write morning pages for 15 minutes, meditate for 15-20 minutes
This is the morning routine that sets me up for the rest of the day.
10am-12pm: Work block #1: Writing and/or reading. Uninterrupted for two hours.
12-1 pm: Lunch + walk
1-4 pm: Work block #2: Typically some admin work, research, calls etc.
I've made a few simple rules: I don't take any meetings or calls before 12.30pm. I also listen for what I feel like doing; if the weather is nice and my head full of ideas I might do an hour long walk instead of 30 minutes, for instance.
A few times a week I also schedule a few hours of work in the evening, typically for US timezone meetings (I'm in Europe).
My schedule is loosely inspired by the structure that author David Kadavy proposes in his book "Mind Management, Not Time Management":
In my todo list, I label tasks according to these activity types, making it easy to pull up relevant tasks.
Breaking the Habit
Establishing a routine is helpful. Breaking out of it when it makes sense is equally important. For instance, every once in a while I don't feel like writing in the morning. I don't beat myself with a stick for it, instead I do something else. Life happens etc.
It's also helpful to recognize when parts of the routine doesn't make sense (anymore). Consider it a product, always iterating.
I'm now a month or so in with this routine. It's working well for me. And, just yesterday a routine-breaking character moved in to our house.
That's Louie, a nine week old heartbreaker.
It's a great example of practicing iterative routine design as I find the flow with him over the next few weeks.
My routine is surely not going to be the right routine for you. But, hopefully getting some insights into mine might give inspiration as you design and iterate on yours.