Routine - Passion for Aviation and Travel

After setting your priorities, building a sustainable routine is vital to success, and more importantly, happiness
Why build a routine?
- No matter how disciplined you believe yourself to be, all humans only have a limited amount of willpower to spend each day. Each time you have to make a decision or push yourself to do something, especially between multiple things that are important to you (e.g., going to the gym or working on a personal project), you spend some of your willpower. Without a routine, you likely don’t have enough willpower to make all the little decisions that can show up every day and still have the energy to live life to the fullest. This is one of the reasons why most people find solace in TV, drinking, etc. at the end of each day: They just don’t have the willpower to fight it
- Also, if you spend all your willpower on the little, arbitrary things that really don’t matter that much (but seem like they do), you will not have enough willpower to do the things that are actually important (like working on hard projects)
How to build a routine
- Building a routine seems very complicated, but it’s actually very easy: It’s just a simple math problem! You have 24 hours in a day, 168 hours in a week. A good routine is supposed to answer the question, “How can I fit the most important things in my life [i.e., my priorities] into every hour that I breathe on this earth?”
- This is an iterative process, so while you definitely don’t need to make the perfect routine the first time you try it, you need to be willing to be honest with yourself and update it as your circumstances change
- Here are the basic ideas for making your routine:
  - You need to sleep and wake up at the same time every single day (yes, even weekends). You need at least 8 hours of sleep, so let’s just say you agree to sleep at 9 pm and wake up at 5 am (this can change later; just use it as a placeholder for now)
    - Why can’t I sleep in on weekends?
      - Simple: It’ll mess up your circadian rhythm for the rest of the week, and you won’t be able to sustainably keep your routine going
    - But waking up at 5 am is impossible!
      - Trust me, it’s not; I have done it for 90% of the days for the last 2 years. At first, it will take some willpower, especially if your normal sleep schedule is super erratic. Use melatonin to help AT FIRST; discontinue as your body gets used to sleeping and waking up at the same time. Soon enough, perhaps after a week or two, your body will naturally feel tired at 9 pm and will naturally wake you up at 5 am. This is especially true if you follow my advice later in this article about having the same routine every day for the hour before you sleep and the hour after you wake up
    - Why is sleep even important?
      - I hope this isn’t a question you have, but if it is, I’ll answer it like this: If your body requires it to function as its intended, then it is MORE IMPORTANT than anything else that exists in your universe. This includes eating well, exercising regularly, and yes, sleeping enough
    - But I find that I need more than 8 hours of sleep!
      - That’s fine, if you can set up a schedule to sleep for longer than that, then that’s up to you. However, I’m one of those people who naturally need to sleep around 10 hours a night, but I forced my body to accept 8 hours of sleep a night. And you know what? I’ve never felt more rested or energetic in my life, because my body adapted to the environment and gets everything I need within those 8 hours
  - You need to set the first and last hours of the day to be the same every day to help your body know when it’s time to wake up and go to sleep
    - I think it’s incredibly important for your circadian rhythm that you gradually go from sleep to wakefulness, and vice versa. And of course, the best way to do this is by planning it out and doing the same thing every day; otherwise, you’ll be sleepy all day or you won’t fall asleep when you want to
    - Some tips on how to spend the first and last hours of your wakefulness:
      - First of all, DON’T USE ANY ELECTRONICS. Blue light is hell for your circadian rhythm and will seriously mess things up. You can use your electronics all the rest of the day, DO NOT USE them for at least the first 30 minutes after you wake up and for at least the last hour before you sleep
      - Second of all, you don’t want to immediately go from bright lights to darkness when you go to sleep, or vice versa. So for the first and last 30 minutes of your day, make sure that it remains somewhat dark; about halfway between if you had your main room light on the brightest setting and if you turned all lights off entirely. If you have a dimmer switch, that’s perfect! If not, then think about turning on another light in an attached side room (bathroom light, walk-in closet) or even a nightlight to get the optimal dusky light setting
        
        If you live in an area where some parts of the year have sun until very late in the night, then make sure to get blackout curtains
      - For the first 20-30 minutes of the day, I suggest practicing meditation, stretching, or yoga (and perhaps a combination of all three). I find it’s the best way to prepare your body and mind for the day slowly, allowing you to come into the day with energy. Then, I would spend the next 10 minutes doing all your morning routines (brushing, hair styling, preparing your backpack, etc.), and then the final 20 minutes preparing a small, but hearty, breakfast
      - For the last hour of the day, I highly suggest doing things like: preparing food for the next day (I’ll talk extensively about an optimal diet in another article), writing a checklist for the next day (I’ll talk extensively about optimal task writing in another article), doing all the nightly things (like brushing, showering), etc. And then, right before you sleep, spend just 5-10 minutes reading in that half-dim light I mentioned earlier. Trust me, reading like this will really put you to bed!
      - Also, note that you should NEVER eat or drink anything less than an hour before bed. You could even consider not eating for less than 1.5-2 hours before bed. Why? Because either your digestion will be on overdrive, and will prevent you from sleeping while lying down, or you will really have to go to the bathroom during the night, which also prevents a good night’s rest. If you stop drinking and eating like I mentioned above, likely all your movements will come right before you go to bed and right after you wake up, which is ideal
  - Next, I highly suggest doing strength training for the first 1-1.5 hours of the morning (after the first hour of slowly waking up) and cardio for the last 1-3 hours of the evening (prior to the hour of slowly winding down). While you may not necessarily be doing the same thing every day while working out (obviously), it’s important that it’s at the same time every day and that you come up with a plan (I’ll talk extensively on working out in two other articles, one about strength training and one about mountaineering training). Instead of going through my workout plans in this article, I’ll explain my reasoning for why you should exercise consistently:
    - First of all, ALL humans need to exercise. ALL animals were made to exercise, and whether you believe it or not, you were evolved to run extremely long distances for days at a time to hunt prey. Exercise has been shown to have many physical and psychological health benefits, and it’s really a non-negotiable. You can never reach your true potential in any facet of your life without consistently exercising
    - Second, why do strength training in the morning and cardio in the evening? The main reason is that strength training (done right) generally gives you more energy for the day, while cardio makes you very tired. You want to gather as much energy in the morning as you can while depleting as much extra energy as possible in the evening so that your wakefulness and sleep times are spent as productively as possible
    - Third, why both of them? Why not one or the other? Like point one, you can never reach your potential without exercise. And we have three main ways to exercise: stretching (which we already do in the mornings), static training, and dynamic training. Static training is like strength training, where you’re just pushing weight (whether your bodyweight, dumbbell, barbell, etc.) in a predefined motion, and dynamic is like when you run, and every step is going to be slightly different. As humans, we need to get a healthy balance of all three to realize our potential.
    - Fourth, how do I figure out what to do for my strength training and cardio times? Frankly, I think strength training is simpler, so I would plan that first. It’s really just splitting up the muscle groups evenly into different workout days based on how many days you have, figuring out workouts that will hit those muscle groups, and progressively overloading them over many years. For cardio, it wholly depends on your goals. I highly recommend just finding a cardio-based activity that you like (running, triathlon, mountaineering, etc.) and then building a plan to accomplish some goal within that (completing a marathon, etc.)
  - The part in between your two exercise periods (roughly 8 am to 5 pm) is totally up to you in how you want to spend it.
    - Non-coincidentally, these hours align (or at least encompass) the normal working day. For most people, this is probably when you will want to spend your time actually working
      - For those who work a fixed 8-hour day, this is likely perfect for you: commute starting at 8 am, start job at 8:30-9 am, take a 30-minute lunch break (or eat while working), leave at 5 pm, and then commute back home to continue the routine. Obviously for remote, you can cut out the commute times and have some more “free time”. I’ll suggest ways to fill that time later in this article.
      - For those with a flexible schedule, or in any way that doesn’t follow a traditional 9-5 job, I would still suggest setting your work hours to be 9-5. Why? Simple: That’s when everyone else works! I firmly believe that these will be your most productive hours anyway (especially in the morning) and will allow you to stay focused and connected if you have a team that is used to following a more traditional schedule. This is especially true if you started your own company and have to set your own hours (and therefore the rest of the company’s as well)
  - If you have some extra time (for example, since I work remotely, I have about 1.5 hours before I start work at 9 am), here are some ways to consider how you can spend it:
    - First, look at your priorities list. Hopefully, there is more to your life than just sleeping, exercising, eating, and working. If there is, then here’s the time when you can focus on some of your other priorities. For me, I spend one day working on these articles, two days working on real estate investing, and another two days working on some new skill (e.g., juggling). These follow priorities 7, 5, and 6, respectively
    - While it is often said that “10000 hours of work makes you a master at something,” what’s not told is that, “100 hours of work makes you better than 95% of people who do it.” With 2-3 hours of week working on something, you could be better than 95% of people in the world in just a year of following your routine! So don’t worry that it seems like only working on each of these things for a short time each week; it will add up to a lot in the end
  - Ideally, on the weekends, you would do a very similar schedule for the mornings and evenings. Of course, things might change (for example, your gym might open later in the day than 6 am), and hopefully, you are not working toward your main job on the weekend
    - I would try to think of my weekends as days in which I can work on all my various hobbies or other priorities for a few hours each week. It’s also the main time in which I dedicate time to hang out with friends, and if I travel, I try to keep most of it on the weekends. I would try to think of it as “I’m going to plan out my weekend to work toward some of my priorities, but if I have to skip them to go on a spontaneous trip with a friend, it’s not a huge deal.” The catch is, though, that you can’t skip what you planned every week. If you do, then you will feel really bad, because you will still have planned activities that are based on priorities that you should work toward!
    - Here’s what I do on weekends (with the priority they represent for me in parentheses)
      - Saturday
        
        Learning to Dance (6)
        
        Learning to Draw (6)
        
        Mountaineering Skills Development (1)
        
        Working Out (1)
        
        Research Work (6)
        
        Flying Lessons (6)
        
        Hang Out With a Friend (2)
      - Sunday
        
        Travel Planning (8)
        
        Working out (1)
        
        Playing Bass Guitar (1)
        
        Updating my personal website (7)
        
        Updating my company’s website (7)
        
        Learning about personal finance (5)
        
        Working on real estate (5)
        
        Learning about entrepreneurship concepts (4)
        
        Learning about photography (6)
        
        Going on a walk outside and calling family (1)
    - You can see that most of what I do on weekends is a bit lower on my priority list, so if I have to skip it, it’s not that big of a deal for me. However, there are still some things that if I skipped every week (working out, planning my mountaineering) that I would not be happy about, so I make sure to plan my trips to be, at most, once a month