What is everyone's daily morning/evening routine like?
Before we get brigaded with a 1000 Bateman copypastas I'm curious to hear what everyone's morning and evening routine is like. I kind of feel like I'm in a rut/not ramping as quickly as a want to as a first year and am maybe looking to make some changes.
To keep this post short and to place a greater emphasis on discussion, my morning routine consists of working out as long as I'm in bed by mightnight, and or reading something finance related (currently Barbarians at The Gate and Rosenbaum Pearl) regardless of when I go to bed the night before. Evening routine is similar. I try read something finance related for atleast an hour but will read for longer if I have the time.
Now before anyone calls me a hardo I just want to remind everyone that regardless of whether or not you land that next sweet associate buyside gig, you will never become a strong investor by just going through the motions at work. I feel as though reading about the industry can be one of the best uses of my time given where I'm at in my career. Thoughts?
Wake up at 730am and make coffee for the gf (she's in office while I still WFH). Use the bathroom while reading the morning news until about 815am. Log in and and start the work day. I have been working remote for 2 years and honestly have no idea how I will transition to back in the office, commuting, etc. I highly recommend subscribing to one of the many recent trend of daily market newsletters (WSO’s Daily Peel, ExecSum, GritCapital). Regardless if you’re one of us with buyside gigs lined up, being interested in markets & what is going on around you will only help your personal portfolio!
Assuming it takes you about 10 minutes to get dressed, brush teeth and make coffee (generously) do you mean to tell us that you use the bathroom from 7:40-8:15? If so you're a king for affording yourself 35 min of shit time each morning. Every man's dream.
Wake up around 7
Walk the doggo, hang out with the doggo way too long
Shower and get ready
Head to the office (whether it is the home office or the office office)
Spend time reading, catching up on news, planning for the day (i.e. check calendar and think through "what absolutely needs to get done today" vs other stuff)
Exact times are kind of irrelevant to me -- this is the way
Gym after work if I'm in the office, if working from the house go for a long run when I'm done for the day (or during the afternoon to break things up)
Legit nothing after that -- combo of eating, watching a game, occasional social activity, an errand or two, etc
Get in bed around 9:30-10 and try to fall asleep before 11
Schedule is all about figuring out what works for you and what makes you feel the best (or said in a more corny way, what positions you to "be the best you"). I generally advocate for some tiny modicum of physical activity / sunlight in the morning (short dog walk, anything really, literally just walking to work if you're in the city, etc) and something in between work and home in the evening (gym, run, sports, social, errands, anything really).
I believe in taking care of myself, and a balanced diet and a rigorous exercise routine. In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an ice pack while doing my stomach crunches. I can do a thousand now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial masque which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion.
What? Somebody HAD to do it.
Edit: Srsly tho... wake up, shit shower shave, get my caffeine choice of the day going, plop myself in front of my desk. I do not take as much care of myself as I should.
I haven't slept since July 2020
I'm not a morning person and unfortunately my WFH morning routine isn't that disciplined. It always takes me a while to get out of bed.
I've started to develop a very disciplined evening routine however in order to guarantee good sleep and help shut down my brain.
I try to start quieting down for the evening 90 minutes before sleep. An hour before bed I like to shut down all my devices and just take a shower, read, relax, and do my daily 10 minute meditation with the Calm app.
If I don't have that end of day decompression my mind races and I can't get to sleep, or I'll wake up feeling completely wired in the middle of the night and won't be able to fall back asleep easily.
4:45 Alarm goes off. Snooze button is for losers!
Bathroom to rinse my face, put some water through my hair and put on a bit of cologne. The cologne is a new addition to the routine but a welcome one. Read the Daily Peel and some of the WSJ top 10 while on the toilet.
Even though I'm WFH, I still like to dress for work. They say it helps and I agree. I always have on pants and a button down or a very nice polo. I'll just use my house slippers as shoes
5:00 Logged in and at my desk. I recently added a 30" monitor and that has been a game changer.
I almost always have early calls with Europe, India or Israel so there's always something to do at this hour.
6:30 Take a break to walk my dog, stretch my legs. Also check my personal portfolio before the market opens. If I need to make any trades, I'll make them at this time.
Shower and shave (if needed). Re-apply cologne; I'll use different ones throughout the day
Work the rest of the day and get up and stretch as needed in between meetings. I have a bad uber eats habit, so trying to slow that down a bit for my lunch hour.
1:00 Things start to slow down at work, I rarely have calls beyond this hour. So I will take a break to take my dog to the dog park, hang out there for a bit. If I have the afternoon free, I'll walk him there instead of driving, which makes for a good 2-mile walk.
Rest of the afternoon is personal time where I'll do some investing stuff or watch YT. On Fridays I might take a golf lesson with my instructor, he's a good guy and we'll sometimes play a few holes and he teaches me along the way.
5:00 Feed my dog and have my dinner. My dog does best when I keep him on a strict schedule so I basically never miss his meal time. I might have the odd call with Asia at this hour but doesn't happen more than a couple times/month.
6:00 Walk the dog again.
7:00 During the work week this is when I start to wind down my day and start shutting down the house.
I have recently met someone so I will also go out with her on nights when we're not working the next day. She also works in banking so it helps to have someone that can relate to my schedule.
https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/best-morning-daily-and-nightly-routine#comment-2190786
Have commented on a thread like this prior (See Above). Copying below and adding a few things:
Morning
During the Day
Evening
Weekend
I do 90% of these and it takes about 45 min in the morning and a few hours at night (including gym, reading, and calling a friend). You may not be able to do all of them, but certainly adding some will benefit you greatly.
For more info on the science behind daily behaviors, I recommend checking out the Andrew Huberman podcast.
Happy to elaborate on any of the above points.
I try to adhere to this schedule as much as possible, although banking definitely destroys it from time to time:
5:30am-6am: wake up, pour myself a cup of tea, whatever tea it is I don't really care. That is my trigger for either writing something, or learning coding and working on coding projects. This is kind of a hook because writing codes is still "writing". Basically I programmed myself so that when I pour myself a cup of tea, I write, be it thoughts on whatever or code.
between 6am and 8am, I use the bathroom for like 15-20 minutes, sometimes 5-10, depending on if I ate a banana the night before...
8am: wash up, eat breakfast, and bike to work. Sometimes I take a cab. Ideally I bike because a 30-35 min bike is good exercise.
9am: off to work and usually get int the office by 9:30am. Sometimes I need to squeeze my morning time because I have a client meeting or I pulled a late night 1/2am or worse than that.
Evening: I usually read for ~1 hour on non-finance related stuff before going to bed. Sometimes I watch the Big Bang Theory. I'm switching to 100% reading recently.
Ideally, I have sex with my girlfriend before I go to bed.
Problem is don't have one :(