My Daily Routine to Maximize Productivity

How we spend our free time says a lot about what we prioritize in our lives.

And I’ve always struggled with free time. Should I be doing something productive with it? Am I spending enough quality time with people I care about? How am I going to accomplish my long-term goals if my time isn’t spent working towards achieving them?

If you want to really maximize productivity, it really comes down to having a why? Why do you want to be productive. How you define productivity may be different than what it means to me. But it really helps to have some sort of motivation to get up off the couch in the evening or wake up extra early and put time in to better yourself.

My main motivating factor is I want to have financial freedom so if my wife and I decide to have a kid or two, I won’t have to be working non-stop and worry about how I’ll pay the bills.

The truth is, I often feel the need to be productive and make the most of the free time I do have. Part of it is due to the career path I chose. I was super limited with my degree and it was hard to get jobs I wanted outside of the recording studio industry. So when I was working full-time as a recording studio intern, I utilized my evenings and weekends to build up my skillset to open myself up to more job opportunities.

The career path at this studio was pretty limited and didn’t seem like something I really wanted to pursue. So I found a job opening at a cool startup, but the job required a lot of Flash knowledge. Yeah, that outdated program that a lot of “cool” websites from the mid-2000s used. So when I’d get home from work, I’d teach myself Flash. After about a week, I made an interactive resume in Flash to get the company’s attention. I tried tracking down the file to show you, but it’s lost in the digital ether and all I could find were these graphics from my 2012-era website.

Now while I was massively under-qualified for the job I applied for, I did get noticed and got an interview. And while I didn’t get the job, I learned how to get the attention of employers. I applied this going forward… because even though I was under-qualified, I still scored an interview among a sea of applicants. So next, I made a video resume trying to get a job as a video editor and embedded that on my site. While just mediocre and straight up embarrassing to look at now, there was enough creativity in it to land me a job at a production company as a video editor with zero work-related experience.

I was finally making the big bucks – a solid $20 an hour. But while at this job, I spent a lot of my free time learning motion graphics in After Effects. I knew that while the video editing job I had was good – I wanted to do something more than just edit corporate and small business videos. So I’d spend my most of my weekends working on After Effects projects – like making a lyric video for my band… uh yeah, it was not good – or I’d shoot in the alley behind my apartment and then track my logo into the footage just to learn how to do it.

In addition to teaching myself motion graphics, I also picked up a job working a few days at a recording studio after I got off work at my video editing job. Later, I also worked for a real estate investor, leaving my day job at noon at Wednesdays and driving out to the Chicago suburbs to work with him… and spending a day on my weekend looking at houses.

The point of all this is I’ve always felt the need to utilize my downtime learning new skills or trying out new side hustles.

It wasn’t until my last day job in 2016 where the job was pretty cushy that I felt like I could relax a little and spend my free time playing video games or whatever. But that feeling only lasted a few months. I started the job in October and by January, Rachel and I decided to start the Mango Street Youtube channel.

I think having some sort of side venture is just a part of who I am. So whether it’s healthy or not, I’m not sure, but it’s worked for me thus far – and even though most of these side hustles didn’t bring me much or any income, I was added to my experience and skillset.

And maybe eventually I’ll be okay without feeling the need to be productive

So a lot of you were interested in knowing how I spend my time, so I thought I’d go ahead and break down an average day for me. And now I am fortunate to be working from home with my wife and our two dogs, but as I just outlined, you know that it wasn’t always like this. It took a lot of work during our downtime to get here.

WHAT I DO

Before I get into the day, here’s just an overview of what I have going on:

Rachel and I run Mango Street, where we put out one video a week on Mondays.

I also run this channel, where I also try to put one video out per week, on Mondays.

I trade stock options on a pretty regular basis. This is just a hobby for me and a fun way to make a little extra money.

I also make music, which is a creatively fulfilling hobby. I release tracks I create on Spotify and license for people to use in their videos on Artlist.

So those are the main things I have going on, let’s dive into how I divvy up my day doing them.

MORNING

When I am actively trading stock options, I wake up 15 minutes before the market open, which here on the west coast means I get up at 6:15 in the morning.

I am definitely not a morning person, so if I don’t need to actively manage trades, sometimes I’ll hit the snooze and go back to bed for another hour or two.

I usually keep a close eye on the market from 6:30 - 8:00, and I’ll usually get a couple of mugs of coffee in during this time.

Then, I usually take a break to eat some breakfast. I usually hang out with Rachel and watch some TV while we eat for about 30 minutes.

8:30 to 11 is usually a flex time of sorts. I’ll trade stock options or monitor the market for any opportunities or if it’s a slow day in the market or I am not in any trades I need to keep a close eye on, I’ll usually start work. This could mean one of a few things and it all depends on what I feel like doing or if I have any tight deadlines, that will dictate what I do. But between this channel and Mango Street, I usually have some video editing to do. I have been a video editor for many years and while I am a fast editor, the standard Youtube video takes me between 10 and 12 hours to edit.

If I don’t have any video editing to do, I’ll start planning out new videos, researching topics, outlining videos, etc. I also handle emails during this time. Mango Street gets a lot of emails on a daily basis, between upcoming projects, brand deal inquiries, and things like that. I’ll also respond to comments, waste some time on Twitter, and stuff like that.

Around 11:00am I’ll usually get some exercise in. Since gyms in LA have been closed for months now, I just workout at home. I don’t super enjoy working out so I try to do something that is quick and effective, usually a cardio and usually one from my wife’s fitness channel.

After the workout, I’m always too sweaty to really sit down and work, so I often sit with the dogs while I cool down. Then I’ll hop in the shower and be out around noon for lunch.

LUNCH

I don’t like spending a lot of time making lunch, and I haven’t yet hopped on the meal prep bandwagon, so I usually just make a salad or a sandwich. If it’s a nice day out, I like to sit in this chair with the window open enjoying the LA weather, but it’s been hot and covered in wildfire smoke lately, so then I usually just end up sitting at the computer while I eat.

The stock market closes at 1pm here, so I usually keep an eye on the market at this time as well, either exiting or entering trades before close.

AFTERNOON

From 1 until 3:45 or so, I really focus in on work. Once again, this usually means video editing, but it could also be researching, writing, or filming. Like right now, it’s X in the afternoon and I’m filming for this video.

But truly, I’m usually in front of the computer in Adobe Premiere, chopping up video. I also have more long-term projects that I work on for this channel for future videos, so depending on my priorities for the week, I’ll usually try and make progress on some of my other ideas.

Rachel likes to eat dinner early and I usually make us dinner, so around 3:45, I take a break and make dinner.

My desk is conveniently stove-adjacent, so I can usually slip in a little of work while the food cooks.

Once dinner is cooked, I’m generally not hungry this early, so I’ll either sit with her while she eats, or if she has a lot of work to do, she’ll eat at her desk and I’ll go back to work.

EVENING

Once 7 rolls around, I’m usually feeling pretty spent for the day, so I’ll then eat dinner. We’ll sit at a table and have deep and meaningful conversations –- or maybe we will just watch wheel of fortune like a couple of senior citizens.

For the next couple of hours, we’ll hang out with each other and just relax.

I usually like to squeeze a little bit more work in at the end of the night, so I usually take the dogs for a walk to help get a second wind.

The last hour before bed, I like to devote to a hobby. Often, I will take this time to work on music. If I can just get one idea for a song going, I can often finish it up the next morning and have another track I can put in my catalog that earns me passive income.

If I’m not in a music mood, I might spend some time researching the stock market or learning new strategies. Even if I have no energy at all and just end up on the couch watching a Youtube video about candlestick patterns, I can learn something new.

I truly function best with as close to 8 hours of sleep as I can manage, so I usually spend the last 30 minutes winding down before bed. I’d like to tell you that I spend time reading a book or journaling, but uhh.. Yeah I don’t do any of that. Sometimes I just watch trash reality shows on Netflix. Don’t judge.

CONCLUSION

So I usually get a solid 9-10 hours of some type of work in during a typical day. Most weekends are somewhat similar, but everything gets pushed back about two hours. I also don’t usually work as much – Rachel and I will try and spend more time together and do a little house cleaning or play a game or whatever – it just all depends on what we have going on. Sometimes I slack off at the beginning of the week and then end up paying for it over the weekend trying to get videos out the door on time – like now actually. It’s Friday afternoon and I have to have this video out on Monday and finish up a video for Mango Street. But that’s also one of the nice things about running my own business and working for myself. I can decide when and how I want to work and if I really don’t feel like working one day, I can usually take it off.

If you have a side business or a hobby that you want to devote more time to, see if you can just take 30 minutes in the evening before bed and focus on that. I often feel tired after dinner and have a hard time getting off the couch, so taking a walk around the block or just doing the dishes usually gives me enough energy to then take 30 minutes to an hour working on music or learning something new.

Now again, this is what works for me and my lifestyle. I don’t have a 9-5, I don’t have kids, and I’m fortunate enough to work from home with my wife. But it all started with teaching myself a new skill in my free time.