My 996

My personal version of 996 that helped me found and lead a public company to a billion+ dollar IPO, all while being a dad, wanting to be in good physical health and leading another startup that is exploding right now. It is necessary for me to take discipline to the extreme. Especially working remotely. Here the daily non-negotiable routines I’ve developed to ensure I attack every day like a emporer:

• Wake up
• Weigh myself. I am 6'1 and aim to be under 175 each day. My body fat is currently about 12%. I try to cut to 10% for my birthday each year around my annual physical to “reset” everything to be as clean as possible.
• Put on gym clothes. This is a pyschological “cue” based trigger trick. It’s easy to put gym clothes on whether or not I am feeling motivated to work out. But once they’re on and I feel them fitting, I going to work out.
• Espresso. I fast until 2:00pm each day.
• Set timer for 30 minutes and read something hard. I try to challenge myself with something intellectual. I just finished The Road to Serfdom. I recently also read a guide to Newton’s Principe Mathematica. The point isn’t to make myself smarter through this acquired knowledge. It’s that reading actually stimulates my brain. I keep a pen and paper and come up with many of my best ideas while reading since the brain automatically makes analogical connections to whatever work I’m currently grappling with. Charlie Munger’s quote about “You can get smarter at getting smarter” lives rent free in my head.
• Weight Training for 60 minutes right after reading. This is 6 days a week. I lift heavy with a trainer. Chest and Back, Shoulders and Arms, Legs 2x a week. On the 7th day, I do a longer run - either 6 miles in 40 minutes or 8 miles in an hour.
• Work like hell. I have very few scheduled meetings. I have a daily standup with my core team where we just do everything, then it’s ad-hoc conversations to do the work that is necessary. The work is designing products and executing growth intiatives. It’s mainly IC work since I don’t really believe management is necessary anymore.
• I talk to people all day but I don’t do 1:1 scheduled meetings. They slow things down, they clog up calendars, they turn into therapy sessions, and generally I think most information with few exceptions should be with the team, not just one person. They are a tool for lazy managers.
• Around 2:00 is the first meal, it’s usually all protein. The ideal is a salmon filet and a bit of steak.
• Work like hell as an IC. We have worked to eliminate political theater at our company. It’s all ICs just doing work and making dispassionate decisions based on skill, data but above all taste. The only thing that matters is the product and success of customers.
• 5:30pm: 2nd workout, cardio. I have an assault bike, a Concept2 rower, and a treadmill. I rotate between the three with a 15 minute conditioning working. This gives me a tremendous energy boost for the rest of the day.
• Work like hell until 7:30
• Dinner and family time
• 9:30 back to work until usually 12 or midnight.
• I repeat this routine 6 days a week.
• I say no to most things, which is hugely liberating.
• I expect everyone to work extremely hard, but not as hard as me.
• I get 7 hours of sleep per night. Total blackout, cool room. I don’t track my sleep yet I just set up the conditions for good sleep and leave it to the gods to make it happen. I am not a great sleeper but oddly I have found that sometimes I am more creative on less sleep. I’ve found some of my best ideas and work come when I am sleep deprived.
• If I’m stuck on something, I’ll go for a walk or read. That always unlocks things.
• My kids come home at 3pm and I get to see them. 90% of time with them will be over by the time they are teens so working remotely lets me experience this important part of my life more fully.
• I rarely drink alcohol anymore. I’m not a teetotaler, it’s just not important at this point in my life and I have no time for extra activities. Cut.
• I don’t watch Netflix. Series are designed to rope you in and burn your time. Game of Thrones I think has like 100 episodes. That’s 100 hours of your life! You could practically learn a new language in that time.
• I keep a daily journal where I write a short to-do list as well any thoughts or insights I’m having for the day. I write in it throughout the day. Not just a single entry in the morning, it sort of is the real-time notes of my thoughts.
• I wear the same thing every day. I have 50 of the same shirt and 20 of the same pants and a bunch of the same socks. This makes everything interchangable and elimates decision fatigue when getting dressed. As I robotically get dressed, my mind is free to wander on other things.
• I have 8 pairs of the exact same shoe, coded for different days of the week. I rotate them by day, which keeps them fresher with a week-long recovery period. The 8th pair is for weekly run, a special fresh paid.
• Dining out takes a lot of time and gets old.
• I have increased my productivity by subtraction. I used to have an EA to schedule meetings, etc. Now I don’t even really do meetings and if I do, I just schedule them myself. Less is more.
• I respond to everything instantly or never. Inbox zero is irrelevant, but Calendar Zero is the ultimate ideal.
• Everyone sings the praises of creatine but it just makes me hold 2 extra pounds of water. I don’t feel any benefit from it.
• I don’t plan very much. I wake up and decide what I’m going to do that day. I don’t I’ve learned to act empirically in the moment instead of abstract rationality, making plans. Reading challenging material is really important but it’s not enough to live in the world of ideas. You have to take action in the real world. The scientific method is mankind’s greatest invention and I believe everything is possible, just not yet discovered. Experimentation beats ideation.
• I don’t judge or fault anyone for living their own life however they want. This is just how I chose to live mine at the current moment.