🌼The Daily Routine I Followed To Make My First Million In Business

🌼The Daily Routine I Followed To Make My First Million In Business

 

## An Hour-To-Hour, Daily Productivity Schedule That Enabled Me To Retire a Few Decades Early

My goal was always to become a millionaire at 30. From my early twenties, I made this my sole focus. The funny thing is, that once I set the goal, I kind of forgot about it.

It was always in the back of my mind, yet never at the forefront. I just decided to follow a daily routine that I believed would enable me to get there. Then one day, when I was 28, I looked up and hit my goal. A ‘liquidatable’ net worth of 7 figures.

My daily routine looked very similar for about 5 years, and these were the years that I built the entire sum of my wealth. And while I’m by no stretch finished on my journey, it’s nice to know that I could more or less live a modest yet comfortable life off the income simply from my investment portfolio.

Read also: 9 enjoyable habits that will make Yiu more money

So in this article, I’ll outline the daily routine that I had most days (and still follow today) to build my business and with that my income.

I’m not saying this is the only way to make money, be productive and build a business — but it’s the way that worked for me.

## **7 am: Wake Up & Hydrate**

Pretty self explanatory. Sometimes it’s 6:30, sometimes it’s 7:30. I will set my wake up time based on getting a **bare minimum** of 7 hours of sleep, preferably 8.

I also drink at least a pint of water upon waking, I simply leave a bottle of water next to my bed and down it when I wake up.

Hydration is strongly associated with mental and physical performance, and I want to make sure that I’m not going into my morning at a disadvantage by not hydrating.

## 7:05am: Cold Shower

I’ve written an entire article about my love of cold showers and the benefits associated with regular cold exposure before.

Ultimately, my morning cold shower creates a sense of wakefulness like nothing else that lasts for several hours. I do them every single morning and feel great.

## 7:15 am: Coffee and Salt

My morning cup of coffee is a ritual that I truly enjoy, and it also has the benefit of caffeine to further jolt my system into productivity mode, again caffeine increases alertness and cognition.

I combine my morning coffee with either sea salt or pink Himalayan salt. Electrolytes have been proven to increase mental and physical energy. I will sometimes add coconut oil, MCT oil or Ghee to my coffee also to benefit from the high quality fats that create a satiety and have been shown to provide an energy source.

In the first 30 minutes of my day, I’ve done multiple things to increase both my mental and physical sharpness so I’m ready to get after it. These 30 upon waking are priming me for my deep work block.

## 7:30 am: Begin Deep Work

Deep work needs to be the priority each and every day. Focus on you and your goals before anything else.

For me, this means a couple of hours where I zone in on what needs to be done that day. This could range from creating content, writing articles, client projects, marketing, sales outreach — basically whatever the most important thing I have on my to do list for that day needs to get done first. **Everything else can wait.**

If you do this right, you have already won the day by mid-morning. You have completed the key task for that day that will move you and your business forward. In theory, you could stop there and you’ve made progress. That’s a nice feeling.

The way I see it, is that **_productive work should come before busy work_.** I define productive work as the things that are a priority to you and your business to grow. Busy work comprises the various fires that need to be put out, requests, calls, emails etc that make up the rest of the day.

If you allow yourself to get sucked into busy work before productive work, then the productive work is way less likely to get done and you’ll finish your day feeling stressed, overworked yet still like you’ve not accomplished anything that moves you towards your goals. Been there, and it’s frustrating as hell.

Deep work needs to be the number 1 priority.

## 10am: Emails

Now that my deep, productive work block has been completed, I can move on to some of the busy work that needs to be attended to.

At around 10 am, I’ll blast through emails. Replying to what needs to be replied to, delegating what needs to be delegated and ignoring what should be ignored. This takes between 15–30 minutes.

## 10:30 am: Idle Time

At this stage of the day, my mind is feeling worked. So I let it chill out and recharge a little.

I’ll spend around 30 minutes doing whatever I feel like. This could be going on social media, reading, responding to texts from friends. Basically, I’m spending time doing whatever I want for 30 minutes.

The productivity gurus would probably roast me for this, but oh well.

## 11:00 am: Workout / Movement

I’m hugely passionate about health and maintaining good physical condition has been instrumental in my journey as an entrepreneur.

**When your body is in good shape, everything is easier.** For me, it’s absolutely crucial to move in ways that feel good every single day. If it’s a lifting day (which I currently do 3 times per week) then I will head to the gym and complete a 45–60 minute weight training session, primarily focused on compound movements like heavy presses, pull ups, squats and some accessory work (arms, shoulders, calves, etc).

Lifting weights is my preferred method of working out. It is the most effective way for me to destress and it has the added benefit of packing on muscle, making me sexier and harder to kill.

If it’s not a lifting day, I will simply walk. I walk around 10k steps every single day (I always walk to my gym too, which is around a 10 minute walk away).

There are a multitude of mental and physical benefits associated with daily walking. The biggest one for me is the profound ability it has to help me process thoughts and ideas. I genuinely work things out in my head when walking and have also come up with some of my best ideas.

You can burn around an extra 500 calories per day simply by walking 10k steps.

## 12:30 pm: Meal 1

I tend not to eat until around midday. Most days (with the odd exception on the weekend) I do not eat a large breakfast, I’ll either fast, do my ‘fat coffee’ or occasionally have a light snack — but never anything heavy as I find it makes me lethargic when I most want to be productive.

Intermittent fasting has been growing in popularity for the last few years in the health and fitness space and regardless of the potential health benefits, that are beyond the scope of this article — I find that I’m way more productive when I don’t need to think too much about food for the first half of the day.

I personally don’t get that hungry in the mornings anyway and would much prefer to drink some coffee and crack on with my day. My first meal is usually pretty light and easy to prepare or grab.

## 1:00 pm: Let The Calls Commence

I tend to block out between 1 pm — 4:00pm each day for calls. This could include calls with clients or prospective clients, catch ups with team members or even speaking to potential vendors.

Sales conversations have been and still are to this day absolutely critical to my business and I need to make sure I have them scheduled into the calendar to move things forward. I’ll usually do 3–4 calls each afternoon that have been scheduled prior by myself or my team, most of these will be sales conversations with qualified prospects who are interested in my businesses services.

As an owner of a sales and lead generation agency, I consciously choose to do sales meetings as it helps me to sharpen my sword and further increase my skills in this area too.

## 4:00 pm: Walk

Once I’ve finished my calls for the day, I will tend to want to get away from my screen. So I’ll get out and walk for another 30 minutes or so and process the afternoon in my mind. Generally by the end of this walk I’ve accomplished my 10k steps for the day.

## 4:30 pm: Plan The Next Day

Once I’ve finished my walk and had some time to think, I will write out the key 1–3 tasks that need to get done the next day. This will usually be what I do in my deep work block the following day.

## 5:00 pm: Empty My Mind

This is my meditation time. I find meditation to be profound in managing my mind. I spend 15–20 minutes following a breath focused meditation session.

It’s really helpful at the end of the day for me to empty my mind, it’s a powerful way to destress. Over the years I’ve switched up from meditating in the mornings and evenings, these days I’m finding the evening is the best time for me to do this as in the morning I’m eager to just crack on and work.

The difference in my overall mindset, stress level, focus and mental clarity when I meditate is meaningful. When I meditate I’m less stressed and better able to focus in general, the ROI from a 15–20 minute meditation is huge. I do it daily.

## 5:20 pm: Self Education

Now that my day if more or less officially finished, I’ll dive into some reading, YouTube, Podcast or anything else that is going to teach me something new.

This will generally be around whatever is interesting me at the time. I’ve spoken before about the fact that books can contain millions of dollars worth of knowledge.

My ROI on an hour of reading & self education each day is monumental. I strive to learn new ideas, information and insights every single day so that I can implement these things into my life and business.

## 6:00 pm: Free Time

Sustainability is key. Working much beyond this time for me tends to be counter-productive so as a general rule I prefer to make my evening my own.

I will do whatever I feel like doing. Maybe cook, maybe go out for dinner with friends or my girlfriend, or order food. My dinner is usually a feast as I have only eaten one meal throughout the day (which is generally somewhat light). My evening is a chance to recharge and mentally prepare for the next day.

After eating, I will usually spend the rest of my evening either watching something on YouTube, reading some more, watching a movie, or socializing with friends / family.

## 10:00 pm: Bed

I try and go to bed pretty early. I’m most productive when I have 8 hours sleep so I always shoot for that if possible, I like to listen to an audiobook for around 30–60 minutes before sleeping. Usually something around science or history, this puts me into what I call ‘imagination mode’ instead of thinking about work or business. So I’m usually fast asleep by 11 and ready for my 7 am wake up feeling fresh. Rinse and repeat.

Read also: Things you shouldn’t take for granted

## Final Thoughts — Act With Purpose

The key with everything in my day is purpose. When I wake up, there is a purpose and a goal. I know exactly what I’m doing. I enter my deep work block with a purpose of what needs to get done. I hit the gym with purpose. I go into my afternoon calls with purpose. And then I chill out in the evening… with purpose. Everything has intention. This has been crucial in achieving business success over the last few years, if I don’t have a plan and purpose for my days, I’ll end up bumbling around flitting from task to task without a clear structure. Purpose behind what you’re doing is everything.

## Side Note

Keep in mind that this is my ideal day, and probably 80% of my days will follow this path. Every now and again, this will go out the window for whatever reason (travel, personal commitments, fires to put out in the business, etc). Don’t beat yourself up if you don’t have the perfect day — find something that would be ‘ideal’ and try to stick to it as much as possible. Remember it’s about progress, not perfection.

Contributed by Cameron Scott

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