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Adopt The Daily Routines Of These 15 Successful People, And You’ll Crush It
The lifehacks of many of the world's most prolific workers aren't meant for everyone.
I, like Mark Wahlberg, wake up every morning at 2:30 AM. I start my day with 30 incantations of a personalized mantra given to me by a Nepalese shaman before completing my seven-minute abs in exactly six minutes and twenty-five seconds. But after Mark’s daily routine went viral last month, I figured it might be time to switch things up.
*NEW: Sorry @markwahlberg, I like & admire you - but your INSANE daily schedule's put me off ever being a movie superstar.. https://t.co/NQ9gEJavC4 pic.twitter.com/YbAZMkBEbz
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) September 12, 2018
All it takes is one search of the #entrepreneur hashtag on Instagram to see the key to business success is the perfect combination of perspiration, meditation, and starvation.
So, before I settled on a new daily routine of my own, I turned to some of the world’s most prolific workers for some celebspiration. Here’s what I found:
The #ProductivityHackers:
Thomas Frank, founder of CollegeInfoGeek, schedules a tweet for 6 am each day with a link to his PayPal account information so that his friends can take money from him if he doesn’t wake up in time to cancel it.
Tim Ferriss, internet entrepreneur and author of numerous business books, often eats half a can of Amy’s black bean chili for breakfast.
Tony Robbins, author and life coach, has a sauna and cold plunge pool in each of his seven homes for his daily dip.
Nick Winter, author of The Motivation Hacker, reportedly fed $100 in small bills into a fire, repeating the phrase “money is not important” to remind himself of his values.
Joe Rogan, podcaster and mixed martial artist, owns his own sensory deprivation tank, so he can “develop his mind.”
The Throwbacks:
Margaret Thatcher would wake up every morning at 5am to listen to a radio program called Farming Today about farming in the countryside.
Winston Churchill got up at 7.30am but would remain in bed until 11am eating breakfast and reading the newspaper.
Ludwig von Beethoven counted out precisely 60 coffee beans every morning for his daily cup of Joe.
Steve Jobs apparently started each day by looking at himself in the mirror, and asking, “If today was the last day of my life, would I be happy with what I’m about to do today?”
Simone de Beauvoir took a four-hour break in the middle of each day to visit friends.
The Writers
Franz Kafka wouldn’t start writing until 11pm every night because he spent his days working at the Workers’ Accident Insurance Institute.
Isabel Allende has two offices, one just for writing that has no internet or telephone, and another for administrative tasks.
Maya Angelou rented a hotel room just for writing but would leave every day at 2pm to give herself enough time to decompress before dinner with her husband.
Charles Dickens would write for five hours in silence every day and then take a three-hour walk.
Colson Whitehead writes for five hours a day and takes a year off between projects to play video games and cook.
The most prolific workers in the world aren’t necessarily burning the candle at both ends. So I’m trying a new morning route of my own: I roll over, look at my phone, scroll through social media, and when I start feeling guilty, I get out of bed.
Take that, Mark Wahlberg.