on habits

How I set up my work days

I want have good habits, since it is my strong belief that good habits is the key to success. The greek philosopher Aristotle said it best:

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

So, I work from tuesday to friday - about 10 hours per day. On mondays I am home with my daughter and I love it. It gives me and her solo time where we can do whatever she want.

So, what does a typical work day look like? Here is what I like to do:

  • 05:45 - Wake up, get ready for the day.
  • 06:45 - Show up at work. I make coffee and make sure my desk is clean and everything is in place for starting the day. Normally I am the first one there.
  • 07:00-08:00 - I spend time on my current side project.
  • 08:00-11:00 - Project management, client meetings or sales depending on what is needed right now.
  • 11:00-13.00 - Gym time and lunch. Maybe I have time for a game of Fifa on PS3 if Alex is in the office.
  • 13:00-17:00 - More project management, client meetings, programming or sales
  • 17:00 My alarm rings and tells me to go home and see my family. Or else I would stay the whole night since I really love being at the office.

Training

I used to go to the gym every monday, wednesday and friday. That confused both my body and mind. Are we training today or aren’t we? Now I know - when I am working I have gym scheduled for 11.00 every day. It is easy to remember and work fine for me. The three days when I am not working my body gets a good rest.

Waking up

I like to wake up relatively early and meet the day before most other people. It gives me a good feeling to see the world wake up, and I can focus on my own stuff before anyone else comes to the office and starts asking questions about projects.

My alarm is set on 06:00, but I usually wake up by myself at 05:45.

Calling it a day

The only thing that is working against my early rising is that I can not stop working if I am in the middle of something exciting. I can work through the night. So I’ve set up an alarm at 17:00 that reminds me that I really should go home. If I can not do what I am supposed to do in the hours I have scheduled I am probably doing something wrong.

‘Real work’-time

As you can see I have two main times when I do ‘work’. 08-11 and 13-17. That is 7 hours of focused work.

Gym time is considered work hours at my office, but is not ‘real work’ that we can change clients for. On the other hand, keeping your body in shape is a good way of not being ill all the time and perform a little better every day.

Side project

I used to do this at home, and I would if I lived alone. I would proably set aside an hour in the evenings for side projects. In reality that does not work for me. My wife, who is very supportive of my work and business, needs all the help she can get as she does most of the work at home during the days. Seeing me in front of my computer when we could do things together as a family is not a good thing.

I am not counting side project time as work time unless it is something that is wanted by one of our customers and we can charge for it.