As I browsed Quora one day, my cursor stuck on a particular question…

“What are the morning routines of highly productive people?”

I became obsessed with the routines of successful people a while back when I had no routines in my life to speak of. No morning routine, no evening routine…not even a daily routine.

I used to play online poker professionally and hunted the players that would give me the most return on my time, so my life was just a total mess as far as consistency goes.

After I quit, it became obvious that I had no clue how to actually structure a day when taking the money of unskilled frenchmen at 2am was off of the table.

So I started to study.  What I found was that there was nearly no consistency to the routines and habits of productive, successful people. They seemed to do what worked for them, using what they had and working around their weaknesses.

Take a look at some of the routines below and you’ll see what I mean.

Churchill drank his way through his day and dictated to his secretaries for 3-4 hours in the morning while he laid in bed.

Darwin had his wife read to him for hours a day.

And so on…

Charlie Munger

I have absolutely devoured Poor Charlie’s Almanack, which I would consider a must-read for anyone who wants to delve into the life of a very original thinker. Despite this, I haven’t found much on Charlie’s actual routines, at least not later in life. From what I can tell, his routine is just, “Read. A lot.” But this excerpt from The Snowball paints an illuminating picture of Munger’s outlook early in life:

Charlie, as a very young lawyer, was probably getting $20 an hour. He thought to himself, ‘Who’s my most valuable client?’ And he decided it was himself. So he decided to sell himself an hour each day. He did it early in the morning, working on these construction projects and real estate deals. Everybody should do this, be the client, and then work for other people, too, and sell yourself an hour a day.

Michael Lewis

The author of some of my personal favorite reads (The Big Short, Liar’s Poker, Moneyball), seems to buck a lot of common writer’s routines.  I couldn’t find anything on his morning routine in particular, but this excerpt from The New New Journalism is pretty fascinating:

How do you begin writing?

Fitfully. I’ll write something, but it won’t be the beginning or the middle or the end — I’m just getting an idea out on the page. Then, as the words accumulate, I start thinking about how they need to be organized.

What is in front of you when you begin to write?

Nothing, except for the computer screen. I write from memory, as if I were writing a novel. When I finish a day’s writing I go back and check the text against my notes to make sure the facts and quotes are right, and that I haven’t inadvertently made anything up. The quotes are almost always accurate because by that point I’ve gone over the material so many times in my head.

Is there any time of day you like to write?

I’ve always written best very early in the morning and very late at night. I write very little in the middle of the day. If I do any work in the middle of the day, it is editing what I’ve written that morning.

What would your ideal writing day look like?

Left to my own devices, with no family, I’d start writing at seven p.m. and stop at four a.m. That is the way I used to write. I liked to get ahead of everybody. I’d think to myself, “I’m starting tomorrow’s workday, tonight!” Late nights are wonderfully tranquil. No phone calls, no interruptions. I like the feeling of knowing that nobody is trying to reach me.

Is there anywhere you need to be in order to write?

No, I’ve written in every conceivable circumstance. I like writing in my office, which is an old redwood cabin about a hundred yards from my house in Berkeley. It has a kitchen, a little bedroom, a bathroom, and a living room, which I use as as study. But I’ve written in awful enough situations that I know that the quality of the prose doesn’t depend on the circumstance in which it is composed. I don’t believe the muse visits you. I believe that you visit the muse. If you wait for that “perfect moment” you’re not going to be very productive.

Charles Darwin

The famed scientist and author of the absolute titan of scientific literature The Origin of Species had quite an involved and interesting routine. His wife Emma seemed to dote on him and care for him quite a bit as the day chugged along. Have a look:

• 7am: Rose and took a short walk.
• 7:45am: Breakfast alone.
• 8-9:30am: Worked in his study; he considered this his best working time.
• 9:30-10:30am: Went to drawing-room and read his letters, followed by reading aloud of family letters.
• 10:30am-12pm: Returned to study, which period he considered the end of his working day. Walk, starting with visit to greenhouse, then round the sandwalk, the number of times depending on his health, usually alone or with a dog.
• 12:45pm: Lunch with whole family, which was his main meal of the day. After lunch read The Times and answered his letters.
• 3pm: Rested in his bedroom on the sofa and smoked a cigarette, listened to a novel or other light literature read by Emma Darwin.
• 4pm: Walked, usually round sandwalk, sometimes farther afield and sometimes in company.
• 4:30-5:30pm: Worked in study, clearing up matters of the day.
• 6pm: Rested again in bedroom with Emma reading aloud.
• 7:30pm: Light high tea while the family dined. In late years never stayed in the dining room with the men, but retired to the drawing-room with the ladies. If no guests were present, he played two games of backgammon with Emma, usually followed by reading to himself, then Emma played the piano, followed by reading aloud.
• 10pm: Left the drawing-room and usually in bed by 10:30, but slept badly.

Winston Churchill

Churchill’s routine is so odd that I decided to share his entire day:

• 7:30am: Woke up, ate breakfast, and read in bed. Dictated to secretaries for a few hours, still in bed.
• 11am: Bathed and took a walk around the garden. Drank whiskey and soda.
• 1pm: Joined guests and family for a lunch. Drank champagne.
• 5pm-6:30pm: Got up, bathed and got ready for dinner.
• 8pm-??: Had a long dinner, sometimes not ending until after midnight.

P.G. Wodehouse

From Wodehouse: A Life (I have underlined the important parts of his routine):

On most days, he would get up at half past seven, go out onto the porch at the back door, and do the “daily dozen” sequence of calisthenic exercises he had performed every day since 1920. While Ethel, always a late riser, was still upstairs in bed, Wodehouse would prepare his regular breakfast — toast and honey or marmalade, a slice of coffee cake and a mug of tea — and, as part of the early morning routine, he would read a “breakfast book,” for example a Rex Stout or Ngaio Marsh mystery. Then he would light the first pipe of the day, crumbling the cigars Peter Schwed sent him into the bowl in preference to pipe tobacco. At nine o’clock, after a short walk with some of the dogs, he would retire to his study, a spacious, pine-clad room overlooking the garden, for the morning’s work. His writing methods had not changed in years. He would sit and brood in a favourite armchair, draft a paragraph or two in pencil, then move to the typewriter.

Rise, wash, and address Powerful Goodness! Contrive a day’s business, and take the resolution of the day; prosecute the present study, and breakfast.

Kevin Espiritu

Founder / CEO of Epic Gardening. Gardener, business-builder, curious.

www.kevinespiritu.com

Kevin Espiritu -

Set goals

• How well do you know what you want most out of life?
• What are your most important goals?
• Are you good at setting your goals?
• How confident are you that your assessment of you ability to set goals is right?
• If you are confident of your self-assessment, why should you be confident (e.g. because you have a demonstrated track-record, because many believable people have told you, etc)?

Identify and don’t tolerate problems

• How good are you at perceiving problems?
• How confident are you that your assessment of your ability to perceive problems is right?
• How much do you tolerate problems?
• How confident are you that your assessment of how much you tolerate problems is right
• If you are confident of your self-assessment, why should you be confident (e.g. because you have a demonstrated track-record, because many believable people have told you, etc)?

Diagnose the problems to root causes

• In diagnosing problems, how willing are you to “touch the nerve” (i.e., discuss your and others possible mistakes and weaknesses with them)?
• Are you willing to get at root causes, like what people are like?
• Are you good at seeing the patterns and synthesizing them into diagnoses of root causes?
• How confident are you that your assessment of your ability to diagnose is accurate? If you are confident of your self-assessment, why should you be confident (e.g. because you have a demonstrated track-record, because many believable people have told you, etc)?

Design a plan for eliminating those problems

• How good is your ability to visualize?
• How confident are you that your assessment of your ability to visualize is accurate?
• If you are confident of your self-assessment, why should you be confident (e.g. do have an excellent track record of visualizing and making what you visualized happen, have other believable parties told you that you are good at this)?

Do what is set out in the plan

• How good are you at pushing through?
• How confident are you that your assessment of your ability to push through is accurate?
• If you are confident of your self-assessment, why should you be confident (e.g. because you have a demonstrated track-record, because many believable people have told you, etc)?

Weaknesses

To repeat, the best advice I can give you is to ask yourself what you want, then ask ‘what is true,’ and then ask yourself ‘what should be done about it.’ If you honestly ask and answer these questions you will move much faster towards what you want to get out of life than if you don’t! Most importantly, ask yourself what is your biggest weakness that stands in the way of what you want.

• What do you think is the biggest weakness you have that stands in the way of what you want – the one that you repeatedly run into?

Kevin Espiritu

Founder / CEO of Epic Gardening. Gardener, business-builder, curious.

www.kevinespiritu.com

Kevin Espiritu -

Everyone homebrews their own workflow and it’s always changing.  This is good…none of us are alike and we all do slightly different things on a daily basis, so the types of programs, methods, and extensions that we use should fit us and us alone.

That said, here’s what I’m currently rolling with:

• Breevy – Amazing text expander for Windows.  Works wonderfully for sending templated emails with some personalization.
• ShareX – Screenshotting on steroids.
• Trello – Use for all task and team-based activities, including management of almost all company activities.
• LinkClump – Super-fast URL copying and opening.
• Chains.cc – Habit tracking, making sure I don’t fall off the wagon.
• Strict Workflow – The Pomodoro technique + blocking of time-wasting websites rolled into one Chrome Extension.
• Google Calendar – Self explanatory.

Kevin Espiritu

Founder / CEO of Epic Gardening. Gardener, business-builder, curious.

www.kevinespiritu.com

Kevin Espiritu -

Instead, make friends with people who have done exactly what you want to do and learn from them.

I’ve had an obsession with learning, improvement, and generally getting better at stuff ever since I was little kid, so it’s no surprise I stumbled into the self-development scene as I grew up.

As I made my way through book after book, took on leadership roles in organizations like Toastmasters, and checked out personal development blogs, I ran into the concept of a life coach:

…a person whose job is to improve the quality of his or her client’s life, by offering advice on professional and personal matters, such as career, health, personal relationships, etc.

The Problem With (Most) Life Coaches

The most succinct way to sum up the issue with most life coaches is this simple question:

Imagine the change you most want to make in life is losing some weight and gaining some muscle. You can pick one of two people to help you:

• A well-meaning, positive person with no particular fitness expertise to guide you through the process of transformation.
• An asshole who has lost weight and gained muscle but has no coaching experience whatsoever.

Who do you choose?

The answer is obvious on paper — go with the person who has done it before. This is kind of like hiring a nice chef that’s half as good as Gordon Ramsay, or Gordon Ramsay. If you’re smart, you’ll choose Ramsay and work around the parts of him you don’t like so much.

Unfortunately, many people make the opposite choice.

Looking at a life coach as a panacea for all issues that you’re facing doesn’t make any sense. The chances are extremely slim that you’re going to find someone that has direct experience with the issues you want to improve in your life, and is a life coach.

A Better Strategy to Improve Your Life With The Help of Others

I’ve never considered myself to be in the top 1% of people in any particular field…but I am very good at figuring out how to both find and help that top 1%. As a result, I’ve been fortunate enough to:

• Learn how to play poker from players pulling in millions per year
• Learn the ins and outs of building and running businesses from people whose successes still dwarf mine by 100x
• Figure out exactly how to fix the biomechanical issues I have with my body, and how to get in amazing shape
• Become a much more social and engaging person after growing up thinking I was a total introvert

Instead of hiring a random, relatively unaccomplished person to guide you through the longest journey you’re ever going to take in life, why not seek out the best people you can find in each area of your life you want to improve and figure out how you can help them?
By doing this, you’ll be getting the absolute best advice in that particular area from someone who is very qualified to give it…and it’ll usually cost you your time rather than money.

Some may argue that time is more important than money — and I’d agree — but it’s time well-spent if you’re building friendships that last for years, decades, or a lifetime.

Kevin Espiritu

Founder / CEO of Epic Gardening. Gardener, business-builder, curious.

www.kevinespiritu.com

Kevin Espiritu -

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.”

Kevin Espiritu

Founder / CEO of Epic Gardening. Gardener, business-builder, curious.

www.kevinespiritu.com

Kevin Espiritu -