Ask HN: Daily schedule

One thing you should consider is that the successful people you want to imitate are probably partially successful because they did not imitate others, but did what worked for them.

Everybody is different and will work best under different conditions. Try to find out what schedule works best for you.

I get the most work done later in the day, but I still find myself most productive if I get up reasonably early. So I allocate easy / non-thinking work in the morning, and do stuff that really requires creativity and brainpower in the afternoon / evening.

Slightly all over the place too, but recently it's something like:

(optional)

5:40 wake up and drive my girlfriend to some networking breakfast event

7:00 crash back into bed

(/optional)

8:00 Wake up, breakfast, browse HN, catch up on email, etc

9:00 or so, real work begins

13:00 start to get uncomfortably hungry, locate some nutrients, and absorb them orally. Usually about half an hour or an hour.

Between 17:00 and 20:00, varying depending on the day brain begins to emit SIGHUP signals and I end up doing something else, whether that's going for a run, watching some brain-dead TV, reading a book, or even spending the evening with my girlfriend.

Rarely, I go out to networking events or other social functions. Most of the time, though, I stay in, and go to bed by about midnight.

I think the most important thing I learned about working from home was that you have to act as if you had work hours, and protect that time so you don't spend it doing stupid chores like laundry or shopping or whatever. I do my shopping in the evening, like everyone else. I do my bills in the evening, like everyone else. Daytime is reserved for real, productive work.

Here's mine. I like to get an early start. My eyes are generally open before the 5:00 AM alarm rings.

4:55 AM - Eyes open

5:00 AM - Out of bed

5:10 AM - 6:30 AM - Deal with email and eat breakfast, create TODO list for the day

6:30 AM - Get showered and dressed

7:00 AM - Drive or walk to bus (if not working from home that day)

8:00 AM - 5:30 PM - Work

6:30 PM - Home

6:30 PM - 10:00 PM - Random (dinner, gym, walk with wife, help kids with homework, personal projects, etc)

10:00 PM - 11:30 PM - Watch a few random episodes of Seinfeld or Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives on DVR

11:30 PM - Fall asleep in front of TV

12:30 AM - Wake up and go upstairs for actual sleep

My time on the bus is spent reading or resting.

A few specific habits that could be more important than the right routine:

- Learning how to get yourself into a creative state - Automating non-creative, repetitive tasks - Discerning when one should delegate or seek help from others and picking the right way to do that for the situation. - Taking the time to learn principles/foundational material for a new tool. In other words, RTFM.