Like most people on Earth right now, I’m finding myself with a lot of time on my hands, and with a daily routine that has been radically altered.

I’ll bet that you have to parallel narratives going on in your mind here in April 2020:

1. What you were planning on doing
   1. work
   2. travel
   3. concerts
   4. events
2. What you are doing
   1. wearing a face mask while glancing around to make sure no one is getting close
   2. out of work indefinitely
   3. forced to learn technology they never thought they’d use
   4. lonely and scared

For me, it has been a real struggle to maintain any sense of normalcy.

Fear and Panic

If I’m not careful, I find myself endlessly scrolling through the more dire of news stories, looking wistfully at photos of my neighborhood from a few months ago, and struggling to get the motivation to do anything.

Unlike many musicians, a big portion of my work is solitary time in front of my computer, so in some aspects my actual “work day” hasn’t changed that much.

I’m a person who thrives on being around people, though. Even though I do a lot of work alone, I typically try to get to a co-working space, coffee shop, park, library, or other public space for a good portion of each day.

Obviously, that has all changed.

My wife is a doctor and is still going in every weekday to work, and we have no kids. I know that folks with kids are having a radically different experience than me.

Also, while a portion of my work has evaporated, a lot of my projects are up and running, and we have the financial stability from my wife’s salary.

Because of this, the struggles for me are mostly with the externally imposed solitary lifestyle.

I’m a creature of habit. I thrive on daily and weekly routines.

Pre-pandemic, I was doing a ton of traveling. In fact, I was on the road almost the entirety of January through early March.

I had actually been planning on taking a few weeks here in spring to regroup, think about things, and decide how much time I really want to be spending on the road.

I guess the world decided for me.

I’ve got a “road routine” and a “home routine” that I’ve been doing for the past couple of years. When I’m home for a few weeks, I also have a general format that I try to keep to in terms of what I’m doing on any given day and my weekly goals.

I’m sure that we’re all struggling with routines, so I thought that it might be interesting to share these three routines with you all.

I. My “on the road” routine

I try not to be too hard on myself when I’m on the road. There’s so much that you simply can’t control when you’re traveling.

Generally, I try to eat as healthy as I can, work out when I can, and get enough sleep.

I also start each day by practicing Spanish using Duolingo. I’m on a 526 day streak in that app with Spanish, and looking at that number and moving it ahead by one each day is a good metaphor for life for me.

Can I speak Spanish yet? Heck no.

But my wife, who grew up speaking Spanish, is amazed by how much I’ve expanded my vocabulary and comprehension.

I do a minimum of one Spanish lesson a day, though sometimes I get on a streak and do 3-4 to start the day.

After that, I do my first email check of the day. I used to try to delay this until much later in the day, but I find that the chaos of the road makes it likely that I’ll miss important messages if I wait on email.

When I’m home, I process my email to zero every time I check it, either deleting, archiving, forwarding to Evernote, responding, or adding to my calendar or to-do list. On the road, I might leave a few messages in my inbox due to time constraints, but I try when possible to get the number to zero even when traveling.

I then try to get some sort fo physical exercise, even if it’s just sit-ups and push-ups in my hotel room. If there’s a gym at the hotel, great—I’ll spend 30 minutes there. If the weather’s nice, I may go for a run.

Regardless, I try to get a solid 30 minutes of some sort of exercise, and I’m always listening to podcasts or audiobooks as I do it.

By that point, my day has begun, and I’m probably at an event, heading to an interview, or some other in-person task.

I typically don’t create much content while I’m on the road, but I think of it as the fuel that powers the projects I work on at home. While on the road, I’m collecting experiences, taking photos, shooting videos, and recording podcasts. I then use my time at home to sort through this content and produce blog posts, videos, emails, and other items.

II. My at home (non-pandemic) routine

My time at home tens to be much more solitary. While I have a small number of private students and go to my local middle school once a week, the bulk of my time is spent working on projects for Eastman Strings and other organizations and generating content for my blog and podcast.

Over the past few years, I’ve developed a schedule that keeps me working effectively and syncs with my natural creative rhythms.

I keep to this schedule Monday-Friday, and I almost always take Saturday and Sunday completely off from work.

The only thing I keep up on the weekend is my morning Spanish practice, plus I typically check my email once over the weekend. No bass practice unless there’s something I really need to get ready for coming up.

Here’s the routine and what I’m trying to accomplish with each step:

6 am

Wake up, make a cup of coffee, and do 30 minutes of Duolingo and email processing. I force myself to stop at 6:30 am and move on to the next part of my day. While I used to delay email until later in the day, I switched to tackling it right away, and that seems to be working for my daily rhythm more effectively.

My morning email is filled with questions from podcast listeners, responses to my email newsletter, requests for interviews, and a ton of other random stuff. Most of it can be deleted, archived, or responded to quickly, but there are always a few things that’s require more thought.

I try to only touch an email once. Each email is treated one of three ways:

1. It gets deleted or archived
2. It gets a quick response from me right then
3. If it requires me to devote more time to it, it gets forwarded to Evernote.

That way, I don’t open up my email to work on a task and see all the new messages I’ve received since my last check.

I find that putting a “hard stop” on the time I devote to this makes me respond more efficiently to email, and I know that I’ve cleared the table of anything urgent.

6:30 am

I hit the gym in my building. I do weights a couple of times a week and cardio (treadmill, rower, elliptical) every day Monday-Friday.

7 am

I make myself a protein-filled breakfast. I usually go through phases of making either a breakfast sandwich or breakfast burrito. I like the physicality of making my own breakfast: chopping the veggies, plating it attractively, etc.

I’d do the same thing back when I was teaching high school full-time. It kind of feels like a meditative state to me. I also try to read a couple of pages in whatever book I’m reading at the moment.

7:30 am

Shower. More podcasts as I get ready for the day.

Most days, I dress like a typical tech worker—jeans, t-shirt, hoodie. I never allow myself to schlub around the house in my pajamas. I always get cleaned up, even if I never see another live human being for the rest of the day.

8 am

I’m either at my desk at home, or I head to a co-working space in my neighborhood or Cafe Francisco, a favorite local coffee shop of mine.

I lose a little time heading to the coffee shop or co-working space, but I find that getting out of the house and into an environment filled with other people conducting business really helps men to focus and take what I do seriously.

Once I’m settled into wherever I’m working, I start off by doing one minute of mindful breathing using my Apple Watch. I’ve never been much of a meditator, but even this one minute of mindfulness kind of gets me dialed in before I start to build and create.

I then plan out my day on my iPad Pro, using the app Notability and my Apple Pencil. I have a folder on the app called ‘Daily Planing,’ and I create a new note for each week. Sometimes I use a Pomodoro Timer and work for 25 minutes, taking 5 minutes off between each block of work. I don’t always do this, but it can help me with focus.

If it’s Monday, I take a little more time with the planning, laying out the week with a page for each day. I often screenshot the calendar on my iPad so that I can have a better handle on what my availability looks like.

I’ve realized that, even if it looks like I’ve got a ton of open time on paper, in reality that time flows quickly, like sand through my fingers. I need to be disciplined and really act as my own manager, giving myself strict time frames and tasks that need to be accomplished that week.

On the first page of the week’s plan, I write down” ‘Project for the Week’ and start free associating, drawing a mind map of sorts of what is on my mind. I also put all the ‘small stuff’ in the lower right hand side fo the page.

I try to keep this weekly planning to only one page, even if it feels like my mind is racing and chock full of info. For some reason, limiting myself to one page seems to keep me more disciplined in this weekly planning process.

I then sketch out the day, putting my most creative and daunting tasks at the beginning of the day. I almost always write down three tasks for the day, with open being a bigger task and the next two being smaller, more administrative tasks. All the little stuff, like ‘call plumber’ or ‘take out trash’ goes in a box on the lower right-hand side.

I also keep a running note in Evernote called ‘backlog.’ This note is the world’s to-do list for me. Random stuff that people have asked me to do, phone calls to make or more complicated emails to follow up on, interviews to schedule, etc. Every few days I go though this list and bang out a bunch of these items in the afternoon.

After daily planning, I dig into that big task. Typically it involves writing, doing podcast research, planning out a video, or digging into a consulting project. I’ll usually work on this project for 2two hours, but it might extend to three if I’m in a good groove.

If I wrap up this project before lunch, great. I’ll move onto those other two tasks on my list. If not, they can wait until after lunch, or I may even delay them further.

11 am

I usually break for an early lunch, doing a little more reading in my book.

If I’m at a co-working space, I may have lunch there, hit up a local restaurant, or head back home for lunch. If I’m really on a roll, I may stay there all day, but I’m usually feeling the need for a change of venue by that point.

noon – 5 pm

Afternoon work tends to be more administrative for me, like responding to emails, making phone calls, booking flights, editing audio and video, etc.

I can be creative in the afternoon, but I’m never quite as creatively engaged as I am in the morning.

I usually work for another two hours, but it all depends on the specific project I’m working on. If I need to record audio or shoot video, this is when I typically do it. I also find that getting out for a brisk walk in my neighborhood is good for me in the afternoon.

I also practice bass in the afternoon, generally around 3 or 4 pm. I usually hit an energy slump around this time of day, but I find that I can still practice during this time.

If I was making more of my living as a performer these days, I would probably shift this practicing to earlier in the day.

Most of my actual work is done at the computer at present, so putting those tasks early in the day feels like the right sequence to me.

I’ll sometimes head out around 4 pm and walk to meet my wife somewhere after she gets done with work. I’ll also head to SalesForce Park in downtown San Francisco when the weather is nice and finish my day working outside.

Changing it up

Typically, I take one day a week and make it my audiovisual day. This is my day for doing interviews, shooting videos, and editing. I try to put all my interviews on the same day so that I can preserve the rest of the week for the work described above. It doesn’t always work out that way, but whenever possible I try to batch interviews and do 3-4 in a row in one day.

I frequently take Friday and go do “something crazy.” Crazy for me is actually not that crazy. Maybe I’ll go to a museum, or throw my iPad in a bag and head to some other part fo there city. I still do work that day, but I forget about the schedule and try to change it up.

Whenever possible, I check out my local Creative Mornings chapter once a month, and this takes place on Fridays as well. I find that this variety keeps me feeling fresh and engaged.

why I stop at 5 pm

I’m done with my workday by 5 pm almost 100% of the time. I find that I can keep working later in the day if I need to, but it seems to rob me of energy the following day. Also, committing to a firm stop time seems to keep me working more efficiently throughout the day, since I know that my time is limited.

Even though this seems like an abundance of time, that really only amounts to 5 hours of time a day working intensely on projects. The audiovisual day limits that time even further, and I might only get a couple hours of work in on a typical Friday.

doing a lot with a little

That amounts to around 12-15 hours of intense work in a week. While that may not seem like much, I find that if I am 100% dialed in with that time, I can accomplish heaps.

III. My current (pandemic) routine

Time is certainly something I have during these times of quarantine. I also don’t have a lot of the challenges that I know a lot of my musician colleagues are facing.

Still, this whole Coronavirus climate has made it hard for me to focus. While I want to stay informed, I can go real dark real fast if I let myself.

My wife and I have also been moving to a new place during this pandemic, which is inevitably going to throw things out of whack.

I’ve found that keeping to a routine as best as I can has been critical in keeping me feeling like I have any semblance of control over my life.

workout substitutes

Losing the ability to change up my surroundings has been a struggle, and the closing of the gym in my complex has made working out more of a challenge.

While I can’t go to the gym each morning in my building, I try to get outside most days and do a walk around Telegraph Hill. We live st the base of this will, and it’s a good 300 feet up, with beautiful gardens and quiet places along the way.

Luckily, we recently bought a place that has a large balcony, and we’re on the sunny side of this notoriously foggy city, so I’ve been able to spend a lot of time outdoors without leaving my place.

Even though the place is small by American standards, it’s a big upgrade from our previous tiny and dark apartment, and we’ve got a big “Apple Store style” multipurpose table in the family room. This lets me really spread out during the day.

Instead of snagging a coffee at the counter of my co-working space, I do the same thing in my own kitchen.

Rather than ordering a tasty sandwich from my local coffee shop, I try to build something similar for lunch each day.

I’m still doing my best to show up and work like a professional.

My Friday “change it up” days are gone, but I find myself taking more short breaks throughout the day on my sunny balcony, and doing a good chunk of writing at our table outside.

I’m still putting out the podcast, but this massive change in the world has caused me to think about all sorts of aspects of the way I do things. I don’t know what the lasting changes will be on the podcast and on what I do, but I’m sure that there will be lasting differences that I can’t even imagine.

brain fuel: what I’m listening, watching, and reading

Like most people, I’m watching my fair share of Netflix, but I’m keeping that to evenings and weekends. I’m also trying to fill up on quality content during the day.

Here’s what I’ve been digesting. Let me know what you’ve been taking in and if you have any suggestions for me!

PODCASTS

Podcasts have been a part of my life since 2005. I’d listen to them on my commute, while working out, cooking, or cleaning, and during any of those other interstitial moments in my day.

I use the app Overcast to manage my podcasts, and I keep them grouped into different categories. These days, I’ve been cycling between new discoveries and old favorites.

While most of the podcasts I follow along with have been addressing the Coronavirus pandemic to some degree or another, I’m grateful that most of them are still carrying on with their general topic.

In no particular order, here are some of the podcasts that I’ve been listening to during this time. I subscribe to nearly 100 podcasts, so this is only a partial list:

• Making Sense with Sam Harris
• The James Altucher Show
• The Tim Ferris Show
• The Kevin Rose Show
• The Mind Over Finger Podcast
• Stand Partners for Life
• The Joe Rogan Experience
• The Bass Shed
• The Daily Stoic
• ReWork
• Phil in the Blanks
• Masters of Scale
• Business Wars
• Slate Money
• Fifth & Mission (and a ton of other podcasts from the San Francisco Chronicle)
• The Speaker Lab
• Mixergy
• The Peter Attia Drive
• This Week in Tech (and a lot of other podcasts from the TWiT network)

NEWSLETTERS

I’d be sad if these newsletter weren’t a part of my daily and weekly routine.

• Seth Godin
• The Daily Stoic
• Tim Ferriss
• Scott Lang
• Hugh Sung
• James Clear
• Drew McManus

BOOKS

In addition to practicing Spanish each day, I try to read at least a few pages of a book.

Reading books has been a struggle for me ever since leaving college, but I know that it’s one of those good habits that really does help better me as a person.

I love the convenience of Kindle books and audio books, so the bulk of my book consumption comes through these two channels. Still, it’s hard to beat the experience of actually cracking open a physical book, so I try to take a few moments outside during the day and read some cool book about San Francisco, my old home town Chicago, a travel book, or something along those lines.

Here are my recent reads in reverse chronological order according to my Kindle:

• Wisdom at Work: The Making of a Modern Elder by Chip Conley
• Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• The Messy Middle by Scott Belsky
• Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• This is Marketing by Seth Godin
• Alta California by Nick Neely
• Rehearsing the Middle School Orchestra by Sandy Goldie
• The South Side: A Portrait of Chicago and American Segregation by Natalie Moore
• Cool Gray City of Love: 49 Views of San Francisco by Gary Kamiya
• The Chicago Neighborhood Guidebook by Martha Bayne
• Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Music Career by Angela Beeching

Final thoughts

Whether I’m on the road, having a normal week at home, or in this current quarantine situation, for me its about putting one foot in front of the other and making daily progress.

Most people overestimate what they can do in a day, and underestimate what they can do in a month.

by Matthew Kelly from the book The Long View

I’m a big believer in showing up each morning, planting myself somewhere, and making progress. Sometimes it’s a little, sometimes it’s a lot.

Doesn’t matter.

What’s important is that I show up every day and do it.

Because it’s something I can control.