James Sinclair advises startup founders to treat routines as frameworks to maximize efficiency and drive the most accretive value to their business. He contrasts curated daily routines (wake-up times, exercise, strict schedules) with the reality for founders who obsess about their product — for them routines should enable more focused obsession and output rather than constrain creativity.
Chapters
For startup founders thinking about routine, how to organize their day, task list, OKRs, all those type of things. I think there's two key points here. Number one, the routines that you see videos about. You know, wake up at 5:30, go for a jog, have 12 berries, send some emails, meet with my team, go to Erewhon for lunch, have some more berries, go back to the gym, do some more work, and then I shut my laptop at 5:30 and it's me time and I go to some events. If you're a founder who loves what you're doing, and the way you know you love what you're doing is you never stop obsessing about it. It doesn't matter what you're doing, when you're doing it, how you're doing it, you're never not thinking about your business. And even when you're trying not to think about your business, your best idea will come. So the reality is routine is a way to maximize your efficiency and optimize so you can get more done. You can obsess more in a more efficient and organized manner. Other people have to have a routine to stop them from procrastinating. So if you love what you do, think about your routine as a way to maximize and drive the most accretive value to your business.