Over the years, I’ve tried a lot of different lifestyle hacks to be more productive. Today, I’m going to share my exact routine that allows me to get everything done and show you how to manage your day if you want to make it in the world of 7 figure incomes.
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5 am – Start
Yeah, you read that right, my day starts at 5 am. If you are wondering why I would get up at such an ungodly hour, it is purely because I like to get a yoga routine before I start my day. This is a time for mindfulness, meditation, and caffeine. This is my quiet time of the day and I use it to get my head clear.
6 am – Beauty routine
If you don’t have a beauty routine, you need to get a workable routine that can be done every day. For me, this means a shower, getting dressed, putting my clothes and make up on. I break it into 15 minute sections. 15 minutes in the shower to wash my face, wash my hair, and clean my body. Depending on the day, I might be using a face scrub and a body scrub (3 times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday). Twice a week, I use a hair mask (Tuesday and Thursday). Once I’m done in the shower, I put on the clothes that I picked out the night before. I have a basic everyday makeup routine so I don’t need to spend ages on my face, plus having my eyelash extensions makes my face a lot easier to manage. The longest task is my hair. My hair is highly coloured and bleached. It costs me a small fortune every other month. And it can be a tangled mess after it has been washed so I need to take care of styling it.
7 am – The Kids
I have four kids, ranging from 20 years old to 3 years old. The 20 year old is capable of looking after herself. The little ones need some help getting ready. Now that I have gotten ready, I can focus purely on getting them ready for the day. This means breakfast, packing lunches, getting them into their uniform. Being able to focus on them means that we can get ready with no real distractions. It can take around an hour to get them all sorted. If they are heading out to school (which tends to be the norm on the days that I work from home), then we head out to school with no drama. If they are in the house and I need to work, I plan out the tasks and activities for them.
8 am – Getting Ready
This is the part of the day that can sometimes go wrong, mainly because I tend to take on more than I can handle at this time of the morning. At this point, I’m cleaning up breakfast dishes, tidying up, making the beds, throwing a load of washing on, and trying to give the bathrooms a quick wipe over. Depending on what I am having for dinner, I might need to prep things in the morning by throwing stuff in my slow cooker. I try to be out the door by 8:30 am so that I can be back in the house before 9 am. It takes around 30 minutes for the school run.
9 am to 2 pm – School time and work
The kids are off to school, and I’m back at home to start my work for the day. My kids are in school until 2 pm each day, so I have around 4-5 hours to focus on my work. If my husband has a day off, he will do the school runs and give me a bit more time to work.
This is the important bit, I have my work broken into four sections. Blog, social media, study, and book. Each section is broken into two hour slots. If you focus on the task at hand and don’t get distracted by your phone, you can achieve a lot in this time. The order that I do the work sections in can vary. I like to start with working on my book first, followed by some studying. Why? Because the first four hours of my work day are completely quiet and I can blow through a lot without my attention being broken. Once I get these first two tasks sorted, I have around 30 – 45 minutes to focus on the blog.
2 pm to 5 pm – Work and Dinner prep
Once the kids are in the door, my attention has to be divided between them and the work that I still have to do. At this point, it is normal to focus on social media and getting some blog posts prepped or finished. While my attention can be divided, it is also a great time to run the hoover over quickly (if I didn’t get it done first thing in the morning) and throw another load of laundry on. We try and get the homework out of the way as soon as we get in so the kids can play, have snacks, and watch a bit of TV before dinner. They are not a fan of doing their homework sometimes but it is worth it to clear the afternoon for them.
6 pm – Dinner and Chill
It’s been a long day, we all deserve a rest. At around 6 pm, we turn off the electronics, sit our butts at the dining table, and have a family meal. There is no pressure to sit and talk, we don’t need to discuss our day, but it is always great for the kids to open up freely and tell us what is happening in their day. I love sitting at the dining table, it is better for our digestion, and it keeps the living room cleaner, especially if you have small kids that miss their mouths.
7 pm – Bath Time
I get cleaned up in the morning, so the kids get cleaned up at night. The two youngest are at the age where the bath is the best place for them, the oldest two have showers and don’t need me to supervise them. Thankfully, we have two bathrooms, so the bigger ones can take turns getting showers in one bathroom while the little ones take turns getting bathed in the other. I try to make bath time fun by using good quality products. Towels are warm, fresh pj’s, and some room spray help to set the tone of comfort for bed.
8 pm – Bed Time Kiddies
Bed time for the kids is a quick affair. Once they have their fun the bath, they get a story, and off to bed they go. They know and understand the routine, so there is generally no grumbling from them. Even the 20 year old takes herself off to her room as the house is shut down for the night. Once they are in bed, I do a quick run around the house, and get stuff ready for the morning. This means laying out school uniforms and my own clothes for ease in the morning. I’ll maybe throw another load of laundry on before bed. If you have been keeping track, that’s three loads of laundry completed without breaking a sweat.
9 pm – Grown Ups to Bed
By 9 pm, we are down for the day. I’ve been up for 16 hours and I like to get a full 8 hours of shut eye. This means no phones, no laptops, no work. Instead, I like to read (if you follow me on Instagram, you will know that I like to post about the book I am currently reading). I normally only read for a short while, maybe a chapter or two because I am tired by this time, I need my rest, and I know I have to do it all tomorrow.
Variations
So far, I’ve shared my exact routine that allows me to get everything done and have shown you how to manage your day. There are exceptions to this routine, such as during the school holidays (throw the whole thing out the window and pray that you have done enough prep work that you can coast by). There are days that I have appointments and can’t commit to this routine, so I pick and choose what is important to me. For example, if I have a hair appointment, my hair takes four hours to do, so I make sure that I have my social media and blog posts sorted. This way I can sit back and relax knowing that I have done the work and have earned my time in the stylists chair. I will bring my text book or reading material with me so I can study while I am there.
The importance of the 2 hour blocks
Do not let the 2 hour block system fool you, you can get a lot done in this time when you choose to manage your day. So I’m going to show you how this ends up working with a typical 2 week span.
Monday– 2 hours of social media (social media is ready for the next few days, until lunch time on Wednesday). 2 hours of blog posts (one post completely written and published, two others prepped with the bones, just needs some content). 2 hours of studying (depending on the subject, you can stay ahead). 2 hours of writing (that book isn’t going to write itself, it’s possible to get around 1,000 to 5,000 words written in this time). This is the beginning of how you will manage your day for the rest of the week.
Tuesday– 2 hours of social media (social media is ready for the rest of the week). 2 hours of blog posts (finish up the two posts from the day before, get them ready to publish for today and tomorrow, maybe start on a third that could be published on Thursday). 2 hours of studying (building on the knowledge from the day before). 2 hours of writing (building on the words you wrote yesterday, your count could be 2,000 or 10,000 words).
Wednesday– 2 hours social media (social media is ready for over the weekend so you don’t have to worry about it and can take time off from it at the weekend). 2 hours of blog posts (You polish off that draft from yesterday, and prep two more posts). 2 hours of studying (again, building on the studying you done the day before). 2 hours of writing (you now have 3,000 words minimum, maybe as many as 30,000 words. If you are hitting the higher end of the scale, you have written around half your novel).
Thursday– 2 hours social media (you start getting posts ready for next week, Monday and Tuesday are ready). 2 hours of blog posts (blog posts are sorted for the rest of the week, including the weekend. You can relax over the weekend). 2 hours of studying (building more knowledge and becoming smarter). 2 hours of writing (do you have 4,000 words or 40,000 words?).
Friday– 2 hours of social media (social media is sorted completely for the following week). 2 hours of blog posts (you have ideas of what you what to put on the blog for next week, and draw up five drafts, making a proper start with one or two of them). 2 hours of studying (you have now studied for 10 hours this week on your chosen subject, you will be a bit of an expert at this rate). 2 hours of writing (5.000 or 50,000 words so far? Either way, you have more words on the page than you did at the start of the week).
Saturday and Sunday– You take the days off from work because you have your social media and blog posts prepped. Yep, your weekend is free unless you have something dropped on you at the last minute.
Monday– 2 hours of social media (social media is already completely sorted for this week, so you start on next week’s posts). 2 hours of blog posts (you get working on those drafts and get three of them finished, that’s content ready until Wednesday). 2 hours of studying (building on that knowledge from last week). 2 hours of writing (you could be hitting 6,000 words or 60,000 words).
Tuesday– Oh no! You have several appointments that will eat up at least three hours of your day! But your social media is sorted AND you have blog posts at the ready. Go, do your appointments with a clear head knowing that you have prepped and can take a step back today. Maybe you can squeeze some studying later but will have to ditch the writing for the day.
Wednesday– Back to normal, you are at your desk, still a head of yourself, and have the time to get ahead of yourself even more. Do your 2/2/2/2 and get your stuff sorted.
How it all comes together
This is an ongoing schedule that will keep you ahead of what you need to do so that you have time to do what you want. There are hours and hours of work that go on behind the scenes of every successful business. You need to work out what these tasks are so that you can manage your day and your business better.
Of course, your business is not the same as mine, you will have other tasks that need your attention. One thing that you will need to do is work out what you need to do everyday to make this work for you. Not everyone will study every day but it is something that I recommend for a variety of reasons. My main goal is to help grow my business by learning the skills that I need, and you can’t do this if you are not putting part of your day towards studying. Maybe you only want to do an hour, that’s fine too.
Breaking your day into bite-sized chunks helps you to get more done, will help you to manage your day, stay ahead of yourself, and gives you some wiggle room if you need a day off. I don’t recommend spending one day a week dedicated to one task because if you need to take a day off, you might fall behind. Smaller chunks everyday make it easier to control when things don’t go your way. I have tried to dedicate full days to a task but it rarely works, especially if you have a busy family life.
How will you break your day down to help you manage your day? Let me know in the comments!