Section 1: My Workday Schedule

Here’s How My Typical Day Looks

I have always been fascinated with the conclusions of studies that look into the habits of the rich and successful. Patterns of behavior are easy to spot, and my approach has been to mimic those habits. Since a very young age I have also been an avid reader of biographies. Regardless of the field of work the heroes and heroines share similar lifestyle habits and they are the same ones that show up in the formal research. Here is a summary of some of the best studies.

With my own success in mind, I have noted how much time the successful spend reading, exercising and taking breaks like long lunches when compared to the not so successful who spend a lot of time watching TV and wasting time on social media. I also noted that most successful people have a three-hour or more morning routine before they begin work. Once I added these habits into my daily schedule everything changed for the better. Over the years I have developed the following schedule:

6:45 am Wake naturally. I immediately mentally activate a regimen that sets my brain up for peak performance. The detail is available for free at www.Trevorgblake.com. The routine takes only a few minutes, but powerfully increases the energy I need to begin the day.

7:00 The first relaxation session. Contrary to common opinions it is essential to start off the day in a relaxed state of mind.

7-7.30 Meditation (see Three Simple Steps for instructions and trevorgblake.com for audio guide via Transformation Course). Starting every day (no excuses, no exceptions) with meditation is a habit of the rich and successful as explained in Three Simple Steps and Transformation. I could not imagine starting my day any other way. Here is an excerpt from Three Simple Steps Just as Ray Dalio and others say, my best ideas come to me during or after meditation.

In the stories of self-made men and women, I was fascinated that most had some method of escaping the craziness of their schedules to sit quietly somewhere just to contemplate. They claimed their best ideas came to them when they stopped pondering the problem. They all had different ways of describing the process, depending on what was acceptable to believe at the time. The common elements for their systems of idea creation were contemplation time taken alone and, where possible, far from the madding crowd, daily practice, early in the day, and informal.

The human brain contains approximately a hundred billion neurons. It’s possible your brain has more neural connections than there are stars in the universe! Neurons in your cerebellum can have one million connections each. The average person fires more neurons in a day than all the cell phone connections on the planet. Your brain is alive and ever changing with neurons disengaging and engaging in new neural networks constantly.

We develop neural networks two ways. When we learn something new, we utilize what we already know to understand better the thing we do not know. Our brain reaches for the familiar. Using the law of association, your brain fires new neural connections to create understanding.

The law of association is a law of psychology that is based on the teachings of Aristotle. Neurons that did not previously connect now do and a new neural network forms. If we do the same thing repeatedly, it becomes familiar, unconscious, and effortless. When you learn something new and repeat it in your mind, you are actually creating a neural network based on the Law of Repetition, another psychology law. When we build neural networks, a substance called Neural Growth Factor (NGF) actually “hard wires” the neurons together. Significantly, if an old neural network is not working properly, it may lose the NGF holding it together, and now we begin to see the benefit of mentality control.

In addition, when we consciously change a neural network through hypnosis or another intervention such as meditation, we break down the existing NGF and re-wire the network to new ways of thinking. (Rewire Your Brain; Think Your Way to a Better Life, by John B Arden, Ph.D.)

Before we get into this simple technique, I need to address the fact that some of you may already practice yoga, tai chi, meditation or some other discipline that aims at achieving spiritual and health improvement. Taking quiet time does not have those aims. It is purely a system of problem solving. Its aim is to find your path away from the quicksand. The benefit is the production of new neurons and neural pathways that, once they are protected from negativity and fear via mentality control, are the source of those wonderful, life-changing moments of insight. I am not suggesting you give up or change the other practices you enjoy. Taking quiet time is a separate, necessary step, and for many of you will be an additional activity in your day.

The taking quiet time technique has three parts to it. First is relaxation, second is finding stillness, and third is mental imagery. The whole thing takes about twenty minutes. It requires no skill or experience, and there are no advanced levels. The technique, or versions of it, can be found in most other spiritual and mental practices, but because those activities have a different intention the technique gets absorbed and produces a different result. Think of those practices, such as yoga, as a baked cake. In yoga or any other discipline, there are many ingredients, added in a certain order and baked a particular way to achieve a delicious, airy sponge. With taking quiet time, what we are doing is taking a couple of the same ingredients and using them differently to get a result that is as different in texture and taste as an omelet is to a cupcake.

Be careful not to confuse quietness with silence. Silence is hard to achieve. Sound is the brain’s interpretation of the vibrating cilia in the ear in response to airwaves. Unless you remove all air from your environment and within your body, you cannot find silence. So don’t try. Emotions are also a form of noise. By quietness, I mean a sense of calm or stillness. Stillness, like the still of the night, is a calm, motionless existence, devoid of thought or emotion. It is emptiness. It is close to nothingness, and the closer we get to that, the closer we get to all of our potential and the more ideas we will have.
In life, we get infrequent reminders of what this stillness feels like. It is that nanosecond of magic when a baby’s hand closes around your extended finger or the sense of infinity as the sun slips below the horizon or knowing eyes briefly connect across a crowded room. We barely notice ourselves disappear in those times, but we do.

Taking quiet time needs to become a daily habit, and it requires you not to switch on the computer, radio, television, or cell phone first. It is contrary to how we have learned to behave in this time and place. Taking quiet time becomes the number one business growth tool in your arsenal, and the aim is to make it one of the first things you do every day.

7.30- 9.00 After meditation a relaxing morning routine includes breakfast, exercise, cold shower. At no point do I give in to the temptation to check my electronic devices for messages. Allowing just one to distract you throws you off completely. It is essential to avoid checking text, calls, emails, or any social media during this pre-office routine. To get peak brain performance,  a device-free start to the day is essential.

9:01 First productivity Session (work) Enter home office (which is locked from 6 pm previous day to avoid temptation of nipping in to check ‘stuff’ at night) The first thing I do is to check my ‘white board’ for a priority list of tasks written at the end of the previous work day. Begin first task on the list no matter what it is. (Still no devices. Still no temptation to check messages.)

9:30 When the first task has been completed, I will finally switch on my devices, check emails, texts, calls

11.00- 2:00 Second relaxation session. Although I vary the activities in this essential period it involves a mix of walking in nature, lunch, nap, other outside activity,) This is an essential recharging time for the brain. The benefits of time in nature to peak brain performance are outlined in here Simple Steps and Transformation

2:00-4.00 Second productivity session (work)

4:00-5:00 Third relaxation session I often spend this time reading or gardening or both

5:00-6:00 Third productivity session. At the end I write a priority task list for next day. I leave the office and LOCK THE DOOR.

That’s it.

Almost all of my meetings are conducted via telecommuting. There are times, of course, when I simply have to travel. But when I’m at home, I don’t break this home-office schedule… no matter what.

Why?

Because science says it’s unproductive to do so…

And history supports the 5-hour workday, too.