Moisturizing morning/night and working out 6 days a week. Also getting 8 hours of sleep no matter what. If I have a late night, I’ll sleep in even during the week.
Try not to drink coffee every day and eating clean, especially not over eating. Always being “hungry” from a physical standpoint makes me function on a higher level imo.
| +46 | Interviews Are So Fake | 28 | 12h | |
| +33 | 2024 UK Election - Tories finished? | 21 | 15h | |
| +29 | Being Christian in investment banking | 14 | 1d | |
| +26 | Non-Competes Banned | 26 | 5h | |
| +22 | ADHD ! | 5 | 19m | |
| How do I become Sigma | 15 | 7h | ||
| +19 | Moelis has the cutest Analysts? | 4 | 1d | |
| +18 | Best NYC neighborhood for single 30M | 12 | 3d | |
| +16 | Underage intern, drinking? | 7 | 1d | |
| +13 | Secretive vs Universal Prestige? | 7 | 1d |
Career Resources
Get instant access to lessons taught by experienced private equity pros and bulge bracket investment bankers including financial statement modeling, DCF, M&A, LBO, Comps and Excel Modeling.
I try to get every morning started off on the right foot with these 3 simple steps:
Step 1: Brush teeth
Step 2: Pee & Poo
Step 3: Get out of bed
I assume in that specific order?
Doesn't have to be. Sometimes I switch up steps 1 and 2.
Amber Heard is that you?
cold shower
low sugar intake
Low sugar intake is huge imo. Insane how much added sugar is found in processed foods
High attention to detail.
First off, I think it is important to separate the successful days vs. unsuccessful. I have plenty of days where I dont maintain enough discipline or something fun pops up, but these are the things I wish I knew when I first started working. On my successful days, I typically try to do the following:
1. Stay sober during the week. Not a lot of fun, I realize, but staying sober Mon-Thurs has really helped my sleep quality improve. As someone who sleeps about ~6-7 hours a night during the week, HQ sleep is critical.
2. To further build on good sleep, no caffeine after 3 PM. Usually turn in around midnight and unless Im swamped at work and expect to work past midnight, I cut the caffeine off at 3 PM Mon-Thurs. Friends always ask how I work out late at night without preworkout or coffee and the truth is I just push myself. I have found that coffee (I only used pre workout once or twice and hated it) only helps me get to the gym. Once you start your stretches and going through the motions all I need is some good music to get a good lift in.
3. Working out for sure. I dont lift as often as you do, I try and do every other day, but I think having the discipline to go when you dont want to is huge.
4. A big breakfast. I realize most of us work long hours and usually have to sacrifice sleep for breakfast, but I wake up 2 hours before I have to be in the office every day to make a monster breakfast. Six eggs and four pieces of sausage.
5. Healthy Relationship. I think this is very underrated, but whether its your roommates, your SO, whoever you're closest with, being on good terms is critical. For a lot of my friends in banking and myself personally, being on good terms with the people you care most about can go a long way when you're working brutally long hours and / or regularly have a lot of anxiety from work / other.
6. Cold Shower every morning. I wake up feeling gross and groggy 9/10 days no matter how much I've slept, but the cold shower makes me feel like a human being again.
7. Eat Clean. On the weekends I like to eat whatever I want, but Mon-Thurs you will find me eating the most mundane, healthy shit you can find. Chicken, turkey, salmon, veggies, etc., I want to keep it clean. It makes me feel less lethargic and helps build muscle instead of fat.
I agree with a lot of this and it seems we are pretty similar, however I’m the exact opposite when it comes to breakfast. I tend to eat a massive lunch over the course of 2-3 hours and that’s pretty much all I eat in a day. I’m definitely groggy after I eat and my work pace slows down, but im just not hungry in the morning.
Have experimented with fasting just for the discipline factor and have gotten to 3 days, but after that my workouts slip too much. It is a nice reset though, and even just skipping a day of eating makes everything taste much more “crisp”.
Im a huge proponent of cold showers but have been a pussy and been doing the exact opposite. My water bill reflects this, as I’ll spend up to 25 minutes just chilling in hot water in the morning.
with you on that, this one podcast I listen to pushed that a lot but I could never get into it. I'd have to read more about it to get convinced, warm showers are so comfy
Good call out, Im not really very hungry in the morning but Ive been forcing larger and larger breakfasts. I find a big breakfast at 630 am keeps me full until noon which goes a long way. Initially, it started out as trying to gain weight through lean meals, and now its just the norm. Definitely took a long time to build up to big breakfasts, but Id recommend trying to increase what you eat each morning. I heard a rumor like five years ago that if you dont eat in the morning your body burns muscle not fat and ever since then Ive made a point to eat breakfast. Probably should fact check that though as it easily could be wrong.
Ive been getting soft on the cold showers too haha, especially as the weather turns.
Kuddos for being disciplined enough to fast, I cant make it past 6 hours without being annoying af
Being consistent. To some extent it doesn't matter what the routine is as long as your body&mind zone into it. Better habits will make you more effective, obviously, but even being consistent with mediocre habits is WAYYY better than doing insane shit to yourself sporadically. When you're consistent with your daily habits, you can quickly isolate and refine small changes, and optimize things to the Nth degree. I think most of life is like this. An example is the gym: it's better to go consistently 4 days a week and give 80% instead of showing up once a month and giving 200%. Routine also creates free time for you: get so efficient at your daily maintenance tasks that you can zip through them at lightening speed and move on with your life. People who waste time baffle me....like bro, your life is finite, make it count.
10 min morning routine:
* take the dog out for his morning dump
* drink 1 liter of water
* shower
* Vitamins (multivitamins, fish oil, NAC, vitD 5000, capsaicin, etc)
* coffee
* log in and get working
Also, get out of your head sometimes and do it for real. Breaking up that routine completely and examining what you do periodically is huge. Compare notes with other people. Pick a weekend and get no sleep. Schedule a day off to simply sleep until you're fully rested. Take a day and get hammed at 8AM to see what happens. Try that super healthy organic version of your usual food. Travel to a weird place and talk to strange locals. Seek to have "fresh eyes" and see what you're missing and what you can do better. The worst feeling in the world is looking back and realizing you could have easily lived your day to day a better way, but if you do your part at self improvement then you'll generally be able to look back without too many regrets. (this applies to all of life IMO)
Hell of a comment - thanks for your thoughts
Why do you take NAC and how long you been taking?
About 6 years since right before I quit smoking. NAC downregulates EAAT2 and helps with beating addictions (I'm smoke free for 6 years now). It's an actual medication for other things but I forget what. People also take it as a supplement but again I forget what else it does.
Does it work? I don't know but I figure it's contributed to kicking the smoking habit so I haven't messed with it, but I'll probably get off it at some point.
"Consistency is the hardest thing humans can do" - ex-CIA agent Andrew Bustamente
People always attribute success to discipline, hard work, etc., but it is all meaningless without consistency
"Only the disciplined ones are free in life. If you are undisciplined you are a slave to your emotions and your passions... “When you bring motivation and discipline (together), then you can be consistent. When you combine it all together, they say if you want to grow, consistency is the key."
- Eliud Kipchoge, world record marathon runner and general GOAT distance runner
Wake up between 5:00 and 5:30 every morning; have a good breakfast, do some kind of workout, and shower. It allows you to form good morning habits, gets you to bed earlier, and gives you a sense of accomplishment when you realize you start work before many people wake up
Read, read, and read some more. Soak up information from all viewpoints so you can solidify or modify your way of thinking. This includes listening to audiobooks and podcasts as well while doing mindless tasks such as driving and chores around the house
Taking breaks during the day is not only okay, but required. Go for a walk outside, step away from your work. In order to have long term success, you have to care for your mental and physical health. Avoid burnout at all costs by regularly taking small breaks from work to relax
Always remember to thank those you do business with and through. If person A sets you up on a job with client C and it turns into a long term partnership, make sure to talk with person A, thank them for the introduction, and tell them you'd like to continue working with client C, but not pay person A more referral bonuses. This allows you to keep connections and not burn any bridges, connections are worth way more money in the long run than a referral fee of X%
Some weekends I’ll wake up early and am amazed at how much time I have to do stuff. Something along that saying of “people want to live forever but find themselves bored in a 24 hour day”.
I have been waking up later now that I’m working late into the night. The whole team works late and logs on late so I’ve settled into that schedule as well.
Big agree on audiobooks and podcasts. Jocko Podcast reminds me to not be a little bitch, and JRE Experience reminds me there’s so much random shit out there to learn about. Big fan of audiobooks, and I highly recommend everyone gets their free library card. Almost all libraries now have a digital app pairing where they offer free audiobooks. I have my library, another adjacent county’s library that I pay a $40 annual fee for, and am going to get an audible membership for Christmas.
My dog has helped me tremendously in terms of getting out of bed and out the door at particular hours. Keeping dogs on a schedule helps calms their anxiety because they know what's coming up, what to expect. Ironically, that schedule is helping me too.
I've also bought into the notion that most ailments that you have are really just vitamin & mineral deficiencies in disguise. No, I don't mean the "bro science" GNC stuff, I'm talking about things like magnesium, potassium, the B vitamins, electrolytes, stuff like that. A lot of heart trouble can be traced back to that. So I have a routine that has me taking supplements and you absolutely feel a difference when all those levels are in check.
What do you take? I supplement in the morning with multivitamin, vitamins C & D, iron, and fish oil.
At night I do zinc, magnesium, vitamin c, quercenase.
Sometimes take psyllium husk but have been eating a lot of fiber so haven’t been taking it daily past couple months
is there a particular reason why to take supps at different times? I take zinc, fish oil, vitamin C at the same time (with lunch), and biotin 1-2 times a week also.
The actual list is longer but just as a summary:
I've been doing this for about 2 months now and feel fantastic. Completely convinced that the majority of the population out there is nutritionally deficient in some way.
Kept reading these comments, said to myself "that's the best one", then I'd read the next one and agree with it equally so. Fantastic points by the folks above, all hit great points. Whether it's exercise, cutting afternoon caffeine, supplements, being consistent, or a dog, they're all great to have. If someone can have every single one of these then in my opinion they are the definition of a well-adjusted person. These seemingly little things that we rarely think about end up playing a huge role in our everyday lives as they fly by. UFOinsider's comment was how I attempt to live my life every day - consistency, no matter how 'big' or 'small' the goals may be for that day. Just try to get a little bit better.
From my personal note, I would say waking up early. I know that this may seem obvious given the careers of those on this forum, but there's a difference between being up early because you have to rather than getting up early because you know it'll make your day better. Throughout my early 20s, while I rolled out of bed at 8:30a - bleary-eyed, unshowered, and zombie-like to make the 9a work deadline, I thought this was just how everyone was. On weekends I'd sleep until 11p or noon, regardless of my alcohol intake or anything of the sort. My sleep schedule was pretty much 3-4a to noon if I didn't have anywhere to be the next day.
I'm not sure when specifically I started aiming to get up at 7 every day, but I think I kind of just naturally evolved when I realized I simply couldn't be a good employee when my 9a-11a workday was just bullshit. I'd get jack shit done, wouldn't be productive, and would need 2-3 coffees just to be able to hold a phone call, much less weekly leverage meetings. Once I started forcing myself to get to sleep by 10, I realized... hey! This isn't that hard!
Nowadays, it's just second nature. I've been attempting to do 5-day gym sessions at 5:30a which I find BRUTAL, but it is so beyond worth it. For my fellow morning birds, that postworkout feeling of drinking coffee as the sun is coming up and your muscles feel sore in a good way is as close to euphoria as one can get without hard drugs. It directly translates throughout my day - I'm on top of my game, mentally sharp, and able to prioritize my time so much better. I'm better at compartmentalizing things, be it work, household shit, social activities, all the stuff. I don't get any less sleep than I did when I was waking up at noon, but shifting it to embody how actual grown-ups live (LOL) it a seemingly small thing in which the butterfly effect takes the cake.
Oh yeah, making my bed too. Such a small task, but sometimes it's the most menial things that make the biggest change. If I can make my bed, why can't I translate that into kicking ass all day? Food for thought
I'm really fired up after reading this now
Threads like these are always fantastic. It's easy to shit on this website and sometimes ya gotta sift thru the dumpster fire posts, but reading threads like these makes it worth it. Cheers to another good year my friend
"Clean your room!" - Dr. Peterson
"And exert extreme ownership when doing it! " - Jocko
"Make your bed!" - Admiral McRaven
I was in a similar spot as you and covid RUINED my progress in a few areas like sleep schedule and booze consumption.
Morning workout is a theme from these responses and the best life hack. Just set that alarm and force yourself out of bed. Hardest part is just getting into the gym.
Yep, COVID did a number on me as well. For me, it was social interaction. I'm not Johnny Bravo by any means, but I'm an extrovert and I just like... people. Being away from that for so long was not good for my mental, felt isolated. It was nice in some capacity, but I started seeing myself 'dip' in things that I've always done. Would stop waking up as early. Would stop showering as much, don't need to turn the camera on. Would stop getting the best kind of food, grocery store was limited. Fast food was easier, etc.
I'm so glad we're out of that shit. I'm very lucky in the capacity that it didn't affect me physically and I have yet to lose someone close to me over it, so I can't complain about it as much as some could. But we'll see the residual effects of sociability and mental health of COVID for years to come, IMO.
Also a morning person, but my girlfriend is very stubborn interms of sleeping late and not waking up early. I find this to be a major problem (otherwise she's just fantastic) between us, and I cannot fall asleep at say 11pm when she's taking a shower, keeping lights on, and do all that stuff before she goes to bed.
Any suggestions on how to deal with this? This honestly hampers my sleep schedule. We've communicated multiple times, but she doesn't seem to be willing to change.
My parents tell me it's a fool's errand trying to change anyone. But what do you do when your sleep schedule gets disrupted? I love the feeling of waking up early and get so much shit done in the morning. I haven't seen that happen in months and I genuinely hate that.
I can semi-relate, as my wife prefers the afternoon gym session versus my morning, so I've had to deal with that. My alarm goes off around 5:10a each day, while she sleeps until 6:30, or whenever I come back from the gym I'll give her a little nudge. I try to be extremely respectful of her sleep in the AM, and believe it's the only true way to accomplish anything in a situation like this. Communication is extremely important - you must be willing to work with her schedule, but she also must work with yours. My wife and I have found the balance - for me not disturbing her, it's the little things like getting my gym clothes ready the night before, using the Apple Watch 'vibrate' alarm instead of noise, and not stomping my feet.
For her, it's largely the same. She gets off around 5-6p, so there will be times when she's already come home & showered from the gym before I step foot in the door (note to self: work in marketing instead of finance). But a lot of her extra stuff spills past my bedtime, as I usually shower + wind down around 9:30-10, while she won't crawl into bed most nights until around 10:30-11 while I'm asleep. I'm a fairly heavy sleeper so usually I don't wake up, but she does go the extra mile to try and slip in quietly. It's just mutual respect between the two.
Now, if I were you I'd sit your girlfriend down and express how much of an issue this actually is. I'd say odds are that she just isn't aware it's as big of a deal, and she most certainly isn't doing it intentionally. Just remind her that it's extremely important to you and you'd be surprised at how willing folks are to come around. She may slip up in the beginning, but eventually, you two will fall into a rhythm with this.
Hope that helps. Best of luck!
Damn, a lot of mine have been posted already. I eat really clean M-Th but relax it on weekends; 99% of my M-Th liquid intake is just water. No drinking during the week unless it's in a professional context (conference, networking happy hour / event, etc.) and then I'll usually compensate by not drinking Friday. I cut off caffeine before noon. I turn down the brightness / shift to warm colors on my electronic devices in the evenings. Forced myself to introduce conditioning work into my training. 3-5 days/wk in the gym depending on travel schedule, with at least one active recovery day on the weekend. More personal habits: making sure I say "I love you" to my kid every morning and before bed (infant, but it's usually received w/ a smile). Same with the wife. Giving pets/belly rubs to my dog. Not daily, but making sure I text/call my friends.
I just try to stay balanced and appreciate everything in the moment. Some days I do a great job of that, and some days can use improvement.
i love the telling your kid and wife you love them part. I feel like a lot of guys just focus on the sigma male gym-diet-wake up early trinity without remembering that they're human and have emotional needs too. SB'd
Haha thanks man, I went back-and-forth about posting something personal like that but figured we could use some more wholesome content here.
Ah, I really enjoyed this. I think this is something I should work on, too. I love my wife and my dog more than anything in the world and would step in front of a train ten times over before something happened to them. Seeing posts like these emphasize the notion that I should let them know that. Gonna send my wife a quick text now and will be sure to give my dog an extra 10 minutes in at the park tonight - inspired by you.
Staying positive while maintaining realistic expectations does it for me.
Somedays you just want to complain and scream "f this BS, i'm out." But i try to actively avoid complaining or having a negative thought in general. It will make you look like insufferable and fake, but in this world, i just wanted to keep myself happy. Giving into negative thoughts/complaining will drain your soul and your overall morale.
Been trying to replace those moment with a simple "Ah well.. it is what it is." and move on.
Helps me a lot both psychologically and even physically (i'm feeling better and less lethargic)
This is a great take. Nothing in life is "good" or "bad." It's just reality, and you either accept it or you don't.
Aut optio exercitationem a eum. In sunt aut ipsa perspiciatis nisi deleniti nostrum ex. Fugiat reprehenderit iste et aut reprehenderit. Voluptate quibusdam illum placeat ullam.
Sit id minima ea. Asperiores eum necessitatibus ut occaecati. Asperiores et ullam similique libero aperiam quis. Eum qui quam perspiciatis placeat consequatur.
See All Comments - 100% Free
WSO depends on everyone being able to pitch in when they know something. Unlock with your email and get bonus: 6 financial modeling lessons free ($199 value)
or Unlock with your social account...
Ullam alias beatae delectus perspiciatis dolorem. Ut ipsa voluptatem natus rerum omnis excepturi consectetur at. Odit et perferendis est dignissimos. Sint beatae est suscipit.