In interviews with many successful people, entrepreneurs, businessmen, you can often read that a strict daily routine helps them to stay “on the crest of the wave”, to keep up everywhere. To be successful you have to be very disciplined. Simple daily routines, clear plans help to advance not only in business, but also in life.
What creates your success is not random actions, but what you do every day. That is why people pay so much attention to the daily routine of successful, successful individuals. While everyone is different, everyone's abilities and needs are unique, there are many similarities in the daily plans of serious businesspeople. It's not about a specific schedule of the day, but rather about approaching it.
The daily routine of famous people
Benjamin Franklin is known as one of the most active people not only of his era, but of history as a whole. It is not for nothing that this politician, diplomat, scientist, inventor, writer and publisher is called the “universal man”. As a Freemason, Franklin strictly adhered to the commandment of the Order - "every case should have its own time."
His daily routine remained unchanged for years. Franklin got up at five o'clock in the morning, cleaned himself up, prayed, made plans for the day, ate breakfast. From 8 am to 12 noon, he plunged into work. Then until two o'clock I took a break for lunch, looked through my mail, read. Until six in the evening he worked again, and then until ten he was busy with tidying up his workplace, having dinner, listening to music, communicating with nice people. Before going to bed, I must analyze the past day.
The day of another famous politician, Winston Churchill, was quite different. From year to year he got up at half past seven in the morning. Without getting out of bed, he ate breakfast, went through mail, read newspapers and even dictated numerous letters and notes to secretaries. He left the bed only at 11 in the morning. I took a bath and allowed myself the first glass of whiskey and soda of the day. Until one o'clock in the afternoon Churchill worked in his office, then dined, while dinner lasted about two and a half hours and ended with a glass of port with a good cigar. From half past four to five it was time for work again, followed by an hour and a half of sleep - a habit, according to Churchill, he acquired in Cuba, and it was she who helped him, if necessary, to work for a day and a half without sleep. From half past six in the evening, preparations began for dinner - one had to take a bath and dress carefully. Dinner started at 20.00 and could continue well past midnight. After that, the politician went to the office again to work for another hour and a half.
From the outside it may seem that in such a daily routine, too much attention is paid to meals and too little work, but the work of a politician in Churchill's time was based in many respects on table conversations, because he did not sit down for lunch and dinner alone, but with numerous guests, among whom there were members of the cabinet of ministers, military men, businessmen, foreign guests.
About the daily routine of one of the richest people in the world, the founder of Amazon.com, billionaire Jeff Bazos, it is known that he does not make appointments until 10 am, tries to sleep 8 hours a day and always eats breakfast and dinner with his family.
Another millionaire entrepreneur, the founder of the world famous brand of shapewear Spanx, Sarah Blakely, in an interview about her regime, says that her day begins at half past seven in the morning with yoga classes. One of the richest women in the world prepares breakfast for her children and takes them to school. Like Jack Dorsey, the creator of Twitter, and many other successful people, Sarah believes that every day of the work week should be dedicated to one business goal.
But do not conclude that all successful people in life are early risers. For example, the founders of one of the most popular service HubSpot are owls. In their company, there is even such a joke - "you can make an appointment or meeting at 11 am, just do not wait for the co-founders at it."
Having studied the daily routine of many successful people, you can come to one conclusion - their routines can be completely different. Someone gets up at four in the morning, and someone goes to bed at this time to sleep until noon, someone works out on simulators, and someone meditates daily, some have a daily routine, while others adhere to a freer schedule. They all have one thing in common - the presence of daily routines, habits that allow you to enter the state of flow, the most effective for the workflow.
Constant sleep
Whether they go to bed at 9 p.m. or stay awake long after midnight, get up with the first rays of the sun or sleep until lunchtime, successful people try to stick to the same sleep schedule without changing their schedule. Surprisingly, the dependence of the quality of sleep on the habit of sleeping at the same time is now one of the breakthroughs in somnology. This theory replaces the belief that you need to go to bed early in order to get up early as well. Naturally, we are talking about the daily routine of an adult, since the body of children and adolescents is just being formed and therefore works a little differently. Although for them, consistency in the daily routine is an important key to success.
Morning and evening routines
Having morning routines is another trait that unites such different daily routines of successful people. They do yoga or meditation, have breakfast with their family or walk the dog, take air baths or cold showers. Different for everyone, these habits have one thing in common - they help to tune in to the coming day, to translate the complex "system" of the human body into working regime.
The evening routines are also individual - reading, listening to music, meditation again, a relaxing bath. And again, they have one thing in common - this is a signal to the body to end the day, the ability to relax and leave all worries behind.
Pre-planning
Abraham Linconnn said - "Give me six hours to cut down a tree, and four of them I will spend sharpening the ax." Another habit very successful people have is planning ahead. Many of them prefer to make a plan for the next day before going to bed or do it in the morning, immediately after getting up. Of course, life is sometimes unpredictable, but in most cases it is easier to make key decisions consciously and methodically, if you do not think about them in a reactive mode, getting lost in a frantic rhythm of life.
Separate the important from the unessential
Highly successful people keep their decisions to a minimum. They manage to do this precisely due to a clear daily routine in which various trivial questions already have simple answers. Clothes you shouldn't think about, like the famous blue jeans and black turtleneck of Steve Jobs, the same breakfast every day, the same physical activity at a strictly allotted time. Once they choose something (these are simple day-to-day decisions), they prefer to stick with it on a long-term basis in order to free their minds for the really important issues. When you constantly think about what to wear, what to eat, where to go to workout, you are quietly wasting not only valuable time, but also mental energy.
No distractions
In English, the term microdistractions is very popular - micro distractions. It is used when they talk about a thousand little things that almost every minute knock the attention of a modern person - numerous push notifications informing about incoming letters, comments, links and the like. Each time, taking away minutes of time, they "knock down" attention, do not allow to concentrate. That is why, in the plan for the day of successful people, there is usually a separate time for calls, viewing mail and even social networks. But what if there is something important in the messages? Outsourcing to a secretary or assistant to work with incoming requests - this is the answer of businessmen.
Limited time
The daily routine implies a clear plan, but often it specifies a certain, but very vague time for the solution of any tasks. In the modern world, success comes to people who know how to focus on a task and quickly solve it. Scheduled hours-long meetings, meetings, brainstorming sessions, as a rule, lead nowhere. The age of technological progress has led to the fact that people are used to pinpoint focus and quickly switch from task to task. Good leaders are aware of this feature and understand that if the task was not completed in the allotted time, then "extra minutes" will not change it. And this time is not measured "from the fence to lunch", the count is not on the clock.
Analyze it
Another common feature that many successful people have in common is the habit of keeping a diary. Analyzing the past day or week - depending on how often they set themselves the task of taking notes, these people draw conclusions and, if necessary, change their routine if they see it ineffective.
"Pockets" of time
Effective business people know that life is unpredictable. Therefore, in their clearly planned day, there is always a small block in the schedule set aside for unplanned tasks. It allows you to make planning flexible, not to accumulate small tasks, not to feel guilty if there is no time for something humanly important, but not included in the plan.
