In this solo episode of the No Days Off podcast, host Brian Gubernick shares eleven daily habits—ten core practices plus a bonus phone‑curfew habit—that have transformed his productivity, health, and overall life balance. He walks listeners through each habit in roughly chronological order, from the moment they wake up to the end of the day, explaining the practical steps, underlying science, and personal benefits he’s experienced. The habits include: (1) drinking 12‑24 oz of water (optionally with electrolytes and lemon) immediately after waking; (2) getting outside for sunlight and grounding; (3) delaying caffeine for 45‑90 minutes to allow adenosine clearance; (4) raising heart rate for at least ten minutes with movement; (5) taking a cold shower or plunge to build mental resilience; (6) reading something inspiring for 5‑10 minutes each morning; (7) reviewing personal and professional goals daily; (8) blocking a non‑negotiable 30‑120‑minute focus window each morning for the most important task; (9) staying active during work by walking or doing “exercise snacks” during calls; (10) organizing the next day in the afternoon using a 3‑1 system (three top tasks, one must‑do); (11) creating a transition ritual when moving from work to home (e.g., 4‑7‑8 breathing in the car). The bonus habit is a nightly phone curfew (phone down at 9 pm) to improve sleep and mental separation. Brian emphasizes that listeners can start with a few habits and gradually adopt more, noting that each habit is simple yet powerful when consistently applied.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. I would like to discuss with our audience today, with you, our, our entrepreneurs, our hard-charging individuals looking to improve each and every day. That's what No Days Off is about. Getting better at something every single day. Today, I'd like to talk with you about 10 daily habits that have changed my life. These are things that we have talked about here at the podcast over the past year or so, or maybe there's things I haven't mentioned. I'm gonna guess some of you are doing some of these things, or you've thought about doing some of these things, uh, or maybe this is a new idea altogether. But I'm going to give you these 10 daily habits that I didn't incorporate all at once. But when I reflect on my day, when I reflect on my week, these are the things that I've learned somewhere from someone that I respect or appreciate that I've incorporated into my world, and it made a difference for me. So my belief is it'll make a difference for you. So in no real specific order though, I guess when I was organizing this, I was thinking about morning to night. So you might follow, follow these habits in terms of like timing of the day. But let me, let me dive right in with the first habit I have down. The very first habit I think that will change your life, because it's changed mine, is immediately upon waking up, consume at least 12 ounces of water. The second you get up, you know, do you, you know, go to the bathroom, do your thing, whatever it is you do, but, but immediately after that, head to the kitchen and get yourself a glass of water, 12-ounce minimum. I actually try to go 18 or 24. Now, the advanced version of this habit would be to add some electrolytes to that water, as well as add some lemon. So, we've talked about it here at the podcast. I'm gonna reference the podcast episodes where we dove deeper into some of these habits. So, look in the show notes, you'll see different podcast reference. But habit number 1, immediately upon waking, get some water into your system. The advanced version of this would be add some salt and add some lemon. Habit number 2, immediately after having that water, get outside. Get outside and stand in the sun. If you could get your feet in the grass or if you could be grounded in some way, awesome. But at a minimum, get outside and stand in the sun. It could just be a few minutes. For me, I go on about a mile and a half walk. My dog helps facilitate that. But the intention is, get out and get in the sun. I'm up, you know, around or just before sunrise. That is the best light I think we can get to start our day from a circadian standpoint, from a cortisol-inducing standpoint. Get outside. So, number 1, drink some water. Number 2, Get out in the sun. Number 3, the third habit I would consider to incorporate into your world and it will change your life, hold off on the coffee. Hold off on the caffeine for at least 60 or 90 minutes after you wake up. So many of us, myself included, run to that coffee pot and I had to stop that. And there's a reason for it. There's a chemical reason for it. We talked about it at the podcast. Again, it'll be referenced in the show notes. But there's this adenosine, this chemical that needs to be flushed out of your body. Coffee prohibits that from occurring. So, we want that to occur before we have the coffee. Go take a look at that episode or go listen to that episode. You know what I'm talking about here. It'll make more sense. But if you can push back your consumption of coffee or caffeine for 45, 60, even 90 minutes, I promise you it will have an impact throughout your day. Next, get your heart rate up at least for 10 minutes, ideally in the morning. Now, do I want you working out for more than 10 minutes on the days you're working out? Of course I do. But at a minimum, if this is new to you, get your heart rate up, get your body moving first thing in the morning. For me, uh, maybe that's doing some air squats. Maybe that's riding the Peloton for 10 minutes. Maybe it's a fast walk with the dog. But get some movement, get some blood flow. It has massive benefits to starting off your day. So, we've had some water in the morning, we're standing in the sun, we're postponing our caffeine, we're getting our heart rate up. Now, the next thing for me, I know that not everyone loves this, but I'm going to keep singing its praises and I don't want to— I don't want to be one of those annoying guys, but I guess I'll be for sake of this habit. Next habit that changed my life was the cold. Getting in the cold, cold plunge in the morning is what I do, but even if you want to just use a cold shower. Now, there are so many physical benefits to doing this, but that's not my primary reason for doing it, believe it or not. For me personally, the greatest benefit to this habit is that I'm doing something hard. Because it stinks to get in that cold water. It's not fun to take a cold shower, but there's something, at least for me, of overcoming this obstacle. I'm constantly saying no. There's never been a time in the 4 or 5 years I've been doing this that I, I didn't say prior to doing it, you know, that it wasn't going to suck. I always think this is going to suck, but when I do it and I get through it, I feel accomplished, and it really does start me off on the right, on the right foot. Next, in terms of habits that will change your life, things for you to consider. This was a big one for me. In the morning, not just at night, but in the morning before your day really gets going, read something. Something you're passionate about, something you're interested in, something that inspires you. Ideally, you're not doing this on your phone, but again, I want to get your mind working. I want to spark some creativity. For me, maybe I'm reading 5 to 10 pages in a book. Now I'm reading that same book at night, but I'm getting 5 more pages in in the morning. Or I've talked about the Wall Street Journal. Like, I'm a big fan of reading the paper. And yeah, I'm passionate about economics. I'm passionate about what's going on in the stock market. So those are things that are inspiring to me. But there's all sorts of other things you could read from philosophical, you know, books or whatever it may be. Just read something. And I don't think it has to be more than 5, 10 minutes, but it's just something. And again, ideally not on your phone. Next, number 7 on my list of habits that will change your life: review your goals. Every single day, review your goals. Some of you have daily goals, maybe you've written them out for the week, maybe you have monthly goals, maybe just year goals. This is not about goal setting today. I just want to understand the concept of reviewing your goals every single day has a massive impact. It's one of the greatest habits I think we can create. If for anything, it's to get that reticular activator going. It's to have on the top of your mind what you're aiming to achieve. And then throughout that day, whether you recognize it or not, you will take certain actions, you will make certain decisions because your mind's been primed around the direction it needs to go. Next, I would block every morning. Next habit, block every morning. As you get into the office, let's say, 30 to 60 minutes, non-negotiable, 30 to 60 minutes, just a focus block for you to tackle the most important item you have. This was a massive habit for me that changed my life. It changed the trajectory of my career. Having an hour— I actually have 2 hours blocked, but I give myself some grace in that second hour. At a minimum, have an hour where you are focused on your one must-do item, and it's immovable. That time block is immovable. There's nothing that anybody can do to disrupt that. You got to have that hour. For me, the only time I am in fact disrupted is if I'm traveling or running a class or something that's going on for that day that it truly— like, that event took, you know, took over. But never ever when I'm in my office, when I'm at home, whatever it may be, do I let something get in the way of that hour. Next thing in terms of habits that'll change your life, move during your calls, walk during your calls, and exercise snack whenever you can throughout the day. You know, sitting in a chair is just— we all know it's bad for us. We know it's not going to play well for us. So, one of the best things I think we can do is be active during our work. So, to the extent that, you know, if you got a couple calls today, maybe take them on the road physically, like on foot, not in the car, but go walk. Or if you're on a Zoom, you know, yes, it may sound funny. And I'm saying Zoom because you're in one single spot. But Can you turn your camera off and maybe do some air squats while the conversation's going on? I know it sounds goofy, but I'm telling you, movement— we all know that movement throughout the day is a great thing. For me, I learned this the hard way. I was in a chair for a long portion of my career. I started having physical issues, specifically with my back. I moved to a stand-up desk, helped me a ton. But then I started being even more active with my movement and I found it helped me even more. So, in terms of habits that change your life, get moving during your calls, get moving during work, exercise snack, which is really doing some activity between, you know, phone calls or whatever it may be or projects you're working on. Do some push-ups, do some air squats, stretch, whatever it may be for you. The next thing in the habits that will change your life, this would be number 10 for us. I think it's number 10 in this list. I might have lost count, or it's number 9. Organize your tomorrow today. So in the afternoon of every day, one of the best habits you can create is to set yourself up for success tomorrow. I'm a big fan of a system called 3-1, where I go through my task list, I identify the 3 most important items that I've got to tackle the next day, and then I identify the one of those 3 items, the one must-do. I will acknowledge or recognize, circle and star those things so that when I get into my next day, I already know exactly what I have to tackle. And in that block I mentioned, uh, just a few habits ago, that's when I'm doing my must-do. So organizing tomorrow today— before I had this habit built into my life, I would dive into each day somewhat haphazardly, somewhat disorganized. But now, for the most part, I've got a good idea as to how do I have to approach my next day. And this is in my business world as well as in my personal world. Lastly, on this list, this is one that I think I incorporated maybe 2 years ago, and it has really made a big difference for me. And it is resetting before I transition from my work to my home life. Resetting. Now, what does that mean? I mean creating some physical stop, some sort of break, uh, or, or moment at least to reset your mind and then enter the home, the home world, the home life. What does that look like for me? If I'm physically working out of like in my, my actual office, not my home office, but my, my office office, When I drive home and I pull in that driveway, I will sit in my car for a minute or two. And I will go through some breathing exercises. I use the 4-7-8 technique. Many of you are probably familiar with it. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold that breath for 7 seconds, exhale for 8 seconds. Repeat. 4, breathe in 4 seconds, hold for 7, exhale for 8. Repeat. And I will do that 4, 5, 6, 7, you know, reps of that, bring my stress level down, change my mood a little bit, and then enter the other phase of my life, right? I've got work, I've got life. Now for others, maybe you're not sitting in a car, maybe you're in your home office and you shut your computer down and you take a minute and you dump, you know, out of your mind what's been driving you today and then shift into being mom, being dad, you know, whatever it may be. Maybe it's not to the kid, maybe, maybe you don't have kids, but it's living or being prepared for living your life outside of work. I really think that this habit of resetting is a very powerful one. You know, I'm going to throw one more bonus in there, one that's made a big deal, a big difference for me. And, uh, that habit, this very last habit, this bonus habit I'm going to give you Set a time to put your phone down every night and make a deal with yourself not to pick it up. So for me, phone goes down at 9 o'clock every night. Some of you are already in bed at 9. I am not. My phone goes down at 9 o'clock. It is locked. We actually have a little safe at our house where all of our phones go. Kids make their, their phones disappear into that safe a little earlier than I do. But 9 o'clock, it's down. I am not interacting with my phone absent some sort of, you know, other than maybe some sort of emergency. But that phone is done and I am not picking it up again until the next day. That's been a really, really big habit for me to create because it again allowed me to separate from that phone. It allowed me to wind down and it directly impacted my sleep, which we all know is a pretty darn important thing. So, some habits for you to consider, they're a little bit longer an episode, but I just think it's a really powerful conversation. Like, what habits can we be incorporating into our world that will change our life? And none of these things that I just described are all that complex. Now, if you try to go incorporate every one of them and you're starting from scratch, yeah, that's gonna be a really difficult thing to do. However, are there 1 or 2 or 3 of those things that you can start doing tomorrow, and in doing so, create some new habits, create some new benefits to your world, giving you more energy, giving you more focus, making you more dynamic or more productive throughout the day. I know, I know that you can do that with just a few of these. Over the course of time, incorporate them all, or figure out some things that work for you. There's lots of great minds out there, lots of great people to learn from. This is just 10. I'll call it 11 with that bonus. That'd make a big difference for me. That's all I have for you today, the No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening, and remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
