- You're sad because you were expecting
anatomy of a morning routine physician entrepreneur edition.
Don't worry, it's coming.
The social distancing and stay at home orders are upon us.
And it's pretty tough.
I've been doing this longer than most
not because I'm some wise old sage.
But because I'm higher risk and I'm immuno-suppressed
because of my Crohn's disease and therapy.
So I've been doing this since March 5th.
So here's what worked what didn't work
and hopefully how you can make this
a lot easier on yourself.
(cheerful music)
Now, over the past three and 1/2 weeks
that I've been doing this social distancing,
I've had a wide range of emotions ups and downs.
Been all over the place, there were definitely times
that I was unhappy and frustrated and lonely.
And now I'm actually feeling pretty amazing
and I can see myself doing this
for several weeks if necessary.
And given the current state of things
that's probably going to be necessary.
So first, what is and is not okay?
The purpose of social distancing
is to slow the spread of the disease
so that we don't overwhelm the medical system.
So with that in mind, that doesn't mean
that you have your friends over
and you have a party at your place.
You limit social contact other than the people
that you're living with.
I was initially even ordering groceries
through Amazon Prime now and Instagram
really not leaving my apartment.
But now that everyone is panic buying
and the shelves are cleared
those services aren't working anymore.
So now in the meantime I do leave my apartment
is to grab groceries but I am wearing an old N95 mask
that I had since the California fires last year.
And I don't care if people look at me funny
because my health is more important
than their opinion of me.
Now, I'm not saying that you necessarily need an N95 mask
I'm just telling you what I am personally doing.
And the only other time I really leave the apartment
is to go exercise.
So I've gone cycling at Red Rock National Park
here in Las Vegas, but when I go I cycle alone.
And this is fine because when I'm cycling alone
I'm definitely far away from people.
I'm not exposing myself or others
there's no social contact going on.
And if you're gonna do bodyweight exercises at a park,
pull ups, push ups, or whatever dips,
then be wary that that equipment may not be clean.
So you either wanna wipe it down beforehand
or use it but then understand
that you are going to be dirty.
And you need to clean yourself
before you touch your face or other items.
The reality is that we are going to be spending
most of our hours at home.
So let's talk about that.
Most people don't like the idea of structure
they think it's limiting, it limits their freedom.
And they don't wanna have to go to work
or school at a certain time.
They wanna have a certain limited amount of time to eat.
They wish they could just do
what they wanted, when they wanted.
But I don't necessarily agree with that sentiment.
As Jocko Willink says discipline equals freedom.
If you've been staying at home for the last several days,
you may be feeling a little bit lost,
or uninspired, or unmotivated, or lonely.
And I definitely was there.
With social distancing I wasn't following a schedule
I normally had a schedule of waking up,
and then I would work for a little bit, then go to the gym,
then grab some food, then I come back home etc.
But then with social distancing
my whole day and schedule became this amorphus blob
and one thing just kind of blended with another
and there were these hard demarcations.
So what I did is I revisited my daily schedule,
I changed up a few things, I implemented it,
and I'm way happier now.
Another thing to note though
is I have been changing my sleep
and wake time all around.
So early on at the Feb, I was actually waking up
super early, going to bed super early
so that I could go to the gym at 6:00 a.m. to avoid people
but even in my commercial gym, there were too many people.
So then I started going to my apartment gym
but even at my apartment gym
there were too many people at 6:00 a.m.
So then I did the opposite.
And I would stay up very late like 2:00 or 3:00 a.m.
and then wake up very late so that I could work out
at 10:00 or 11:00 p.m. when no one else
was in my apartment gym.
But now that my apartment gym is closed
there's no reason for me to stay up so late.
I definitely feel better starting my day earlier
getting a head start on the day.
So I sleep early and wake up early.
So I crafted this daily routine
and I've been sticking to it
for about the last week or so.
And not everything is by the minute
but I do stick to it generally.
First my alarm is set for 6:30
but sometimes I will wake up a little bit earlier.
If you guys wanna see my morning routine.
Make sure you're subscribed
because that video is coming out next week.
Then I do focused work from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
This is the time when I'm most fresh.
I'm a morning person, my mind is fresh, I'm able to focus.
So for these three hours I'm doing work
that requires high intensity.
Next, I eat breakfast slash lunch at 11 to 12
and I do intermittent fasting.
So I haven't had anything only water until this point.
I give myself extra time so that I can
cook, eat, clean up, whatever.
Next emails from about 12 to one.
And I don't wanna do focused work right after I eat.
And I also don't wanna exercise.
So this is the time I do a little bit of that admin work.
Next I'll exercise from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m.
And normally it's 60 to 90 minutes.
I'll be talking more about my exercise routine
later in this video.
But I give myself extra time because
set up, take down, shower, so two hours.
Next admin work from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
I may also do a protein shake at this time
but then I'm mostly working on things
that don't require a lot of focus and attention
more administrative stuff.
I then have an early dinner by life standards
of 5:00 to 7:00 p.m.
So I give myself a lot of time because these days
I'm cooking every single day, every meal
I actually haven't eaten out
since I had Thai food takeout on March 5th.
Next, I have free time from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
This is important because I wanna have
a little bit of like fun time.
So to be honest, I'm pretty excited
about making these videos.
So I do tend to write a lot of scripts,
but I'm also scheduling calls during this time,
I speak with some friends during this time.
I'm doing whatever just feels right.
And then last 9:00 to 10:00 p.m. I will get ready for bed
so my lights will actually flash
to remind me to get ready for bed.
Otherwise I'll stay up too late and that means
setting my lights to red, that means winding down,
showering, brushing all that stuff.
And then I will read my Kindle in bed before I sleep.
Now, this is the schedule that worked for me
may not work for you.
I am trying to optimize my mental health
but also a lot of productivity and efficiency
because I'm building two businesses.
And I'm also serving as an advisor for a third
that I started and being productive just makes me happy.
Number three, your mindset.
Is life happening to you or for you?
Now, as I mentioned in my weekly newsletter
which you can check out at medschoolinsiders.com/newsletter
your mindset is everything during challenging times.
It's too easy and automatic to be frustrated with the world
and point fingers at people say it's your fault
or you're not doing this right, etc.
Instead, ask yourself what can you learn from the situation?
How can you become better, or stronger, or smarter
tomorrow, or next month, compared to today?
So it's important to realize that
anytime you have a challenge in your life
you're actually given a rare opportunity
to have the impetus to change things.
That is the stimulus otherwise when life is good
you don't actually feel the need to change your life.
It's actually much harder to do things differently
when life is good.
So cherish that opportunity.
The way I see this has been a fantastic opportunity
in me inspecting my own daily schedule,
inspecting what actually makes me happy stuff like that.
And one thing I've done is spend more time journaling
and reflecting everyday about lessons learned,
emotions, stuff like that.
I've learned that celebrating the small wins
really helps me.
So at lunchtime I will actually pull up my phone.
And I quickly journal about what I did during that morning.
It's just my perspective from what still needs to get done,
why didn't it get done.
To oh wow look, I knocked out this, this and this
all in the morning?
That was pretty awesome.
That was pretty productive.
It sounds simple and maybe even silly
but it has been a very powerful shift
in my perspective.
I'm also appreciating people that are close to me,
or that I've lost touch with but want to reconnect with.
I've scheduled regular phone calls with family members,
or close friends. or just randomly hit up a person
I haven't spoken to in a while.
Right now I have that fresh opportunity
to reconnect with those people.
Which brings us to number four, social support.
Just because we're doing social distancing
does not mean we need to isolate ourselves socially.
Now I have roommates
so I'm obviously spending time with them.
But equally important I'm actually scheduling
virtual social time.
This can be a twice weekly call with your mom,
which is what I do, or it can be regular calls
with your friends, or it can be a Zoom group video chat
with you and your friends for some social event
like a movie, or board games, or whatever.
If you met someone on Bumble
try scheduling something virtually
rather than meeting them in person
get creative, stay connected.
We're social animals at the end of the day
even the introverts among us
so it's important to stay connected virtually
even if we cannot do so physically.
Number five, learn something new.
I'm personally spending a lot of time
in the kitchen and cooking.
It's a skill that I want to learn
and improve on in my lifetime.
And this is the perfect opportunity.
It's healthier than eating out, and it's cheaper too,
plus chicks dig guys that are good cooks.
And let's be real if you are like an 18,
or 22 year old guy watching this
That's all you really care about.
Now, here's the shocking thing.
For those of you who follow me on Instagram,
you know that last week, I made a story about my meal
and how I'm actually enjoying cooking,
which is shocking to me.
I never thought I would say that.
Damn, I never thought I'd be saying this.
I'm actually kind of sort of starting to like cooking.
And I've been following some recipes.
I've also been experimenting on my own.
So today was just a little bit of experimentation
turned out really well.
I'm very happy with it.
I mean, I've been cooking since I was in college.
But I never felt that I was all that great at it.
But I'm seeing myself improving.
For the last 22 days, I have cooked every single day.
And I'm making tastier food,
I'm getting more efficient in the kitchen.
And that alone is very rewarding.
Also, I cut my hair for the first time this morning.
Definitely not perfect, obviously.
But it's cool, it's fun.
I'm learning something new.
Plus, it's also a good practice.
And in Stoic fundamentals of not caring too much
about what people think of you,
at least in terms of superficial appearance.
I'm also spending a lot of time
learning about investing
because as we approach an impending recession
there going to be more opportunities
for those who are willing to take advantage of them.
Now, ask yourself what is something
that you have always wanted to learn
that you've been pushing it off.
Now is the perfect opportunity to do it
and enjoy the process.
So with cooking sometimes I will follow a recipe
but sometimes I will just cook from scratch.
And if I cook from scratch, sometimes it's really good.
And sometimes it's not.
But I'm learning and I'm just having fun with the process.
I'm being present, and being mindful,
and not thinking about oh, am I doing it right or wrong?
Just experiment, just have fun with it, enjoy it.
And number six, regular exercise.
We all know regular exercise is good for us.
But I'm finding the importance of regular exercise
emphasized in two key areas during this time.
First, since I'm moving around less if I don't exercise,
I have way too much energy at nighttime
when I'm trying to sleep.
And I'm tossing and turning and can't fall asleep.
And second, the endorphin rush from a good workout
massively elevates my mood.
Now, you probably will not be getting the same quality
of workout now that your gym is closed and that's okay.
Some exercise is still a lot better than no exercise.
Before social distancing I would go to the gym
five times per week, and I would lift.
And then I would also add on one or two days of cardio
during the weekdays and on the weekends
I would just take the days off.
But nowadays I've made some changes.
So first of all, my workouts are less intense
just because I don't have the same equipment and weight.
So I'm working out three to four times a cycling for cardio,
and then three or four times doing resistance training
with bands and body weight exercises.
I don't actually take any days off.
I am alternating though cardio, strength, cardio, strength.
But it's also important to note that
I'm not going super high intensity, right?
I do not want to be overtraining
and then suppressing my immune function at this time.
Now, bands, body weight exercises,
and indoor, or outdoor cycling.
Those are my staples but figure out
what's most appealing for you.
Maybe try some yoga YouTube videos,
or buy weight exercises, or order some bands from Amazon.
I'll actually have mine down in the description below.
This is the time to get creative with your exercise.
And trust me you're gonna feel so much better
if you're moving regularly.
Now if you're a student
and you feel like you cannot study, or focus,
having your whole daily schedule and life
thrown out of whack and now being cooped up at home,
It's bound to wreak havoc on your ability to focus,
and study and get things done.
Now, if you haven't already make sure you check out
the Med School Insiders video from last Saturday.
Which has specific recommendations
for students during this time.
Also, be sure to experiment
with some of these suggestions I raised here.
Implementing some of these tactics
have been massively beneficial for me.
And I hope that you find them helpful as well.
Much love.
Stay safe.
And see you guys soon.
(cheerful music)