Episode 102: Power of Routine

This is the Fleet Success Show. This is the only show designed for fleets where we won't pitch you on products, but rather we're gonna pitch you on ideas. Ideas around the four pillars of fleet success: stakeholder satisfaction, intentional culture, resource efficiency, and risk management. Ideas from business and technology to to fleet and leadership. These are ideas for tomorrow from the lessons of yesterday and today. This is the only show designed to help you raise the lid on your fleet because your fleet can only be as great as you are. We see that greatness in you. This show is for you and we're glad you're here. We hope you're ready. Now let's get into the show.

All right, welcome back for another episode of the Fleet Success Show. I'm your host, Josh Turley, joined with my co-host, Jeff Jenkins.

Hey, is there anywhere to go but up after 100 episodes?

Yes. Down, very quickly down. The quality of this might just go down, down the crapper.

I don't know if that could happen.

We apologize to everybody in advance, but I don't know. We're coming up with ideas still.

So yeah, we could use some too.

Yeah, please, podcast@artafeely.com. Just send over anything you want to talk about. So today we wanted to talk about, um, the power of routine.

Do you have a routine right now?

I don't, not yet.

Okay.

So this is something I'm working with my coach on. Uh, we talked about like these, hey, going out and getting, establishing daily routines, morning routines, right? Like just these habits. to help get really clear, um, and just kind of disciplined, you know, focused, create clarity, create focus for your day, for your week. Uh, so that way, you know, you leave the day feeling more energized and you get more done and less distracted. And like for the last, you know, I don't know how many years I've been doing this, I've just kind of like been Yeah, whatever's in the calendar today is what's going to happen. Uh, if I get up at the same time every day, like, that's a miracle, right? Because every night I feel like, you know, it's just every day is different, right? Um, so yeah, no, yeah, routine's been— that's something that I've never really had in my life. But for the last 2 weeks, I'm like, nope, we're gonna start establishing routine. I went through a whole process on building it and everything, so The first part was every day getting up between 5 a.m. and 6 a.m. Have you been doing that? I will give myself a passing score of 73%.

And how do you feel?

Good on the mornings that I do it.

You're like tired? Yeah.

Well, and that's the idea too, right? Is that, you know, normally— I mean, lately I've been going to bed at like 1 a.m., right?

But yes, you have.

It's been a bit much, but it's been one of those things that, you know, if I am doing that and going to you're waking up early, then by the time, you know, 8:30, 9 o'clock runs around, it's time for bed, right? You just naturally kind of gravitate and you get yourself into more of a healthy rhythm that way, right?

So you said something earlier when you were talking about your calendar. So just to clarify, routine and organization are two different things.

True, true. But I think good routine leads to and helps with organization.

Correct.

Right. And if you're just reacting to your day with no routine at all and you're just kind of like, yep, all right, well, I get up when I get up, I do this when I do this, and there's something else that pops up and it just kind of is like you're reacting to your day. I feel like a calendar is like, no, I'm going to proactively— what you do every day is probably going to change quite a bit. Correct. But part of the routine can be setting a calendar and filling in like, what am I doing today? And being intentional about planning your day. Um, and that's one of the things that I'm like, instead of reacting to the day and reacting to life, like routine helps you kind of just make sure that you always have consistency in at least one element of your life instead of getting blown, blown whatever way the wind goes.

And I would imagine most people are in that same space as you. They don't have a typical routine that they do every single day or week or month.

Yeah.

What, what spurred, what spurred this?

So I've got a coach, you know, as a CEO coach, I guess it's somebody else who runs a technology company. You know, he's grown his company to 9 figures and beyond. And that was just as he and I were talking, that was one of the first things he's like, okay, before we do anything else, we're going to work on your, your routines. And so we did. We went through and if you're, you know, you're in the boat I was, where you're trying to figure out like, well, how do I decide what to work on and what goes into my routine and when do I start and how do I do it? The first piece of advice he gave me was just start, right? And he said, what I want you to do is just sit down and list out all of the things that you think you would want to do, right? And list them out with the idea of like, is this something I would do in the morning? Every morning? Is this something I would do every day? Is it something I would do every week? Something I want to do at least once a month? And kind of, you know, when I did— when I took this approach, I blended some of the things I got from like Dan Martell and his group, and this idea of like, what gives me energy and what provides value? And making sure that I was kind of focusing on those things.

Yep.

And not on things that, you know, drained me or, you know, just weren't very value-add. You know, at least didn't give me something, didn't put something back in the bank, so to speak. Um, and so I did. So I, you know, spent some time, uh, talking to my wife about it, like, hey, what are things that you see that when I do, like, I just get a lot of energy from, or I feel really good about? Uh, and I came up with this huge long list.

Really?

Yeah. Oh yeah. And so, and then I sat down and I carved them out and said, okay, like, this is more of a morning thing. This is a daily thing. Weekly, monthly, quarterly. I broke them into the buckets, you know, and this probably took me maybe an hour tops. I had to go back and forth to it a couple times.

Yep, add things.

But total time on it was probably about an hour, maybe 90 minutes tops, right? Just like thinking, what else does it, what else does it, right? And that was probably actually too much. So if you're intimidated by that, don't spend an hour on it, spend 10 minutes on it, you know, like you'll get further in 10 minutes than you know, than you need to.

Well, it's their routine too, so they can come back to it whenever they want.

Whenever you want to. It's iterative, right? So it's continuous improvement. You know, your first version won't be your last version. So just recognize that. And that's why I say just start, right? As you do it, one of the first things that he said was like, I want you waking up earlier, you know, like wake up between 5 and 6. Now we have kids coming into our bed anytime. So like I wake up at 2. 3 AM, 4 AM, it doesn't really matter, but I don't get out of bed until usually between 6 and 7.

So he wanted you to actually physically get out of bed?

Get out of bed, right? Like get out of bed and be moving, get up and moving, walking around.

Did he say why? I'm just curious.

Uh, as far as like the 5 to 6 hour, he just like, he felt like there's something magical about that 5 to 6 hour, you know. I don't know that there's anything magical about it, but it's You know, like the sun is coming up and as humans, I think there is a bit of a, like, there's probably like a hormone or, you know, like a mental chemical that comes from being around when the sun rises and being able to watch the sky get lighter.

Yeah.

Of course that's happening earlier now, especially in Arizona.

So is 4 going to get magical?

4 might become magical. I don't know. But being up for the sunrise, right? Like beat the sun up. Yeah. I think is a, you know, that's a piece of advice I've heard for a long time.

Well, it's like what Ben Franklin said, right? Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.

Yeah, that's true. Um, and so that was the first thing. So I started with that. I was just waking up early. And then it was like, okay, well, what else do I want to put in? And, you know, I had a big long list to pick from.

Yeah.

Uh, so some of the things like, you know, it could include yoga or stretching or working out, right? Like, you know, we've got a tonal, and so going out and working out on the tonal, uh, reading, you know, like, and I just kind of went through like this list of things. Um, but the key is, is like getting at a cadence where it's like, no, every morning I have this time. And his routine, I think he spends like 2 hours on his morning routine. He's up by 5, and you know, his routine includes a lot of like self-reflection and meditation and then planning his day.

Oh, okay. Right.

But he's like, that time, that space, because he used to be really terrible at morning routines. All right, he says that that space, by doing this, uh, it has given him more clarity. And so he's able to be more focused at work, uh, he's able to think about things in a different way. So he's less reactionary at work, and he's able to like sit with his own emotions and his own feelings and process thoughts in a different way, um, all because he's dedicating time in the morning to just sit with himself and just think, you know, and I've heard really powerful things about just thinking. Like, you know, from a, from a CEO standpoint, I don't know that anybody really just sits and thinks a ton.

I don't think so. No, I, you know, I've tried. Yeah, like the meditating and all that. It doesn't take, huh? Like, and maybe I'm not forcing myself to do it long enough, but I'll sit there, no noise, and just sit there and try my thought. My thoughts go all over the place, like the weirdest, stupidest stuff. Like, I wonder what dog breed doesn't shed that's actually black.

And it's like one of those things too, it's like chasing a dog through the woods. Yes, it's going through every path which way, and you end up on the other side and you're like, how did I get here, right?

I was supposed to be thinking about improvements and stuff.

Yeah, well, but I think there's something too, you know, like we've had Rich on the podcast and he talks about mindfulness a lot, right? And just like letting it go and letting it kind of direct where you want to go, and then picking something like, oh, okay, that seems like there's something there. Let's really drill down on that. But even then, it's hard to focus, like, because I've done that in sessions before and it's like, oh, hold on, I'm getting distracted again, off topic, bring it back, right? But I find something to kind of anchor to and then I just work on that thought pattern.

You know what my biggest issue is? I love music. Yeah. So whenever I have dead space or dead air and like there's no sound, I'll pop on music.

You're not comfortable with like the silence?

I'm not. I'm not comfortable at all. Like I've tried to go on walks or hikes without any music, huh? And it's terrible for me. And I think I've trained myself. I think a lot of people have, right? Because we're always used to noise, whether it's, you know, you got your AirPods. And I mean, you've had headphones forever. There's always TVs or whatever else. And so we just get trained to where we like the noise.

Yeah.

Around us. But it is distracting because you hear a song, then what do you do? You start to sing along or—

or like I'll start drumming or something like that. Or, you know, Yeah.

Yeah. You watch a movie, like you're obviously not usually thinking about anything, but movies are the worst. Yeah.

Cause I won't think at all during a movie, like as a total distraction. So it's, it, there's something about the silence.

I wonder if there's tips on how to, how to do that more productively.

White noise, maybe.

Maybe. Yeah.

Yeah. You could try something like white noise generators. Whoever thought we'd talk about white noise generators on a Fleet Podcast. I told you guys, 102 episodes is going downhill. Just no promises at all.

Get a routine, right?

But I think the idea of just like, you know, having your morning start off the same— and that's what I think he's really trying to instill— is find those things that fill your cup instead of drain you. And then in the morning, you're kind of building up your energy for the rest of the day, right? And I'm not a morning person. Like, my energy usually comes in in the afternoon or late at night. Um, And that's where I find like I end up being my most productive. And there's people who will tell you is like, find your time and then just lean into it. But on the flip side, like, no, my business operates between 9 and 5 and my people hate getting emails from me at 1:30 in the morning. Right. Because nothing's going to happen because like I'll have, I'll have questions or something like that, but I know I won't be able to get an answer until the next morning.

Right.

So getting more in a mindset where mentally I'm healthier and ready for the challenges of the day, and I can make decisions in a clearer, more focused way. Um, and just having the energy right for the rest of the day and having a better, you know, uh, oh, what's the word? It's not just headspace because there's a, there's a physical element to that as well.

Yeah, well, you're— because it's, it's emotional, it's mental, like it's, it's pretty encompassing.

Yeah, but the routine sets that up, right? And if you don't have a routine, you're just kind of reacting to the day and you're reacting to things that, you know, like you just don't— you don't feel right. Right. And I know for you, like, working out is a huge part of your routine. And when you don't work out, it's—

I feel it.

You feel it.

I feel miserable.

Right. And most of the time, like, you work out and you're supposed to feel sore and all that. But because of the, you know, it totally has got to be brain chemicals, right? You miss that, and now all of a sudden it just— it radiates to everything else.

I think I've been doing it so long, like, my mind goes to I'm lazy. Like, it's weird, right? I, I do feel better coming out of a workout, especially in the middle of the day. For whatever reason, that's when I feel the best, you know, after a workout. But when I miss it, it's not even necessarily, gosh, I feel like crap because I didn't do my workout. It's like, dude, you're kind of lazy today. You need to figure this out. Yeah. And that's just because I've been going to the gym for so long. I don't know why.

And so like the time you don't, it's because, well, then clearly you're just a lazy person.

Yeah, right. Yeah.

And you just don't like feeling that.

So you know what, actually, that is the root of— that's how I forced myself to go to the gym when I first started. Like I would sit there and like, yeah, I'm just gonna skip today. And in my mind I'm like, dude, don't be lazy. Do not be lazy. Just go.

Just do it.

Just do it and go. And I actually, now that I think about it, it's probably where that root is, is I just told myself, no, be lazy. And so now when I I guess I'm lazy.

So now it's part of your routine, right? It's like, oh, well, if I do this, then I tell myself I'm lazy. And even though I'm not, you know, like, that thought motivates me to go change and, you know, get back in my routine. Right, right. But I, I think too, like, whenever I'm out of routine, like, the rhythm of the day just feels off, you know? And when I've— like, what I've been noticing is by getting up at— okay, this is the best part, right? So I'm waking up between 5 and 6 And, you know, normally, like, if I was getting out of bed at 7, sometimes that would push to 7:30. Like, if, you know, the kids were up late last night, you know, we usually get 2 or 3 that somehow make it to our bed, right? And they're like, I've got a head between my shoulder blades, so it's not comfortable.

Yeah, you're feeling good.

Yeah. So I got all the reasons in the world why I could sleep in, but what I've noticed is that by getting up at 5, by the time 7 rolls around, I'm dressed, I'm ready to go. I've got energy and it's like that cloud that you usually wake up with is like it's had time to dissipate instead of me like, oh, I'm going to drag into work, you know, by 8 or 8:30, sometimes 10, right? Depending on the day, because there's always something going on at home, I feel like. But the idea is that instead of dragging in, I'm like, oh no, I'm energized, I'm ready to go. And I didn't do anything different. I just woke up earlier.

Yeah, it's the morning haze. Yeah, it's funny. You can notice in the office the people that arrive just after they woken up. That's basically, I woke up, I put my clothes on, I'm out the door.

Yep.

And you can tell those people because they're still in that little bit of a funk.

Yeah.

That they haven't gotten out of yet.

Morning haze. That totally is a thing. Yeah. So waking up earlier, like eliminating some of the morning haze. Um, who really got me, you know, and like I've read a lot of stuff, right? But it took me a coach to finally get me out of the, out of not having a routine, the routine of no routine. But who really wrote really things that I got a lot out of. Boy, I'm having a mental fog right now. Was James Clear with Atomic Habits. And so if you're in that where you're like, oh, I'm trying to set a routine or I'm trying to build a habit or something like that, he has a really good segment in his book about, you know, like the biology of creating habits in our mind, like wanting to have habits. But what really I loved was the idea of habit stacking. So that if there's like something you really want to do, if you already have a habit, being able to insert a new habit in between existing habits.

So not dropping—

not dropping some of your other habits, right? But just like, okay, well, before I watch TV at 7:00 at night— oh, right— like, why don't I go for a 10-minute walk, right? And it's just like you insert it right between two good habits or two habits you already have. Um, and the morning routine is kind of that same thing too. Is once you start one layer, so like I've started this 5 or 6 AM layer, adding another layer on top of that now becomes easier. But because I've got time to do it and like the habit's already formed, so now I add another habit that I want to do in addition, right? And you start stacking habits that way.

Just add it to your routine and then it becomes commonplace.

Yeah. Now my advisor, he kind of said like, hey, stop at 7. Right? Like, find your 7. But those are the same 7 things you're going to do every morning.

Right?

And this is iterative. So once you have your first 7, that won't be your last 7. Right? Right. And honestly, it's probably going to change my entire life. But the idea is that I want to start somewhere because I had a list of probably about 15 or 16 things. And a lot of us, when we see that, we get overwhelmed by like, oh, here's all the things that I want to do this morning.

Too much to do. So you don't do anything.

So you just say, well, I just can't do it, so I may as well not do any of it, right? And it's the same thing for any of us who've gone on diets or something like that. You're like, oh, well, you know, I had one bite of ice cream, maybe I'll have two. Oh, I had two, maybe I'll have a bowl.

I had the bowl, maybe I'll have a half gallon.

Eat the tub. It's like you were there in my freshman year of college.

I've been there, right?

I never ate a tub until that. Anyway, that's a different story for another day.

I saw my dad do it so many times. It just, you know, hey, this is what people do.

No, no, thank you. I was so sick after that. I was like, whoever said this was a good idea? But the idea though was creating these habits, right? And stacking them and getting them to that point that you feel like, okay, I can do one thing and I can do that one thing and then I can do another thing. And then I'm doing those two things. Now I can add another thing. Right. And then when you get to about 5 to 7, you know, mentally, like, that's enough. It's enough for you to be able to do, uh, you know, in a 2-hour chunk of time in the morning, I can set myself up for success for the rest of the day.

Yeah. Would you recommend, um, just based on what you're doing and what you've read, that people start with multiple routines in the morning or start with one and gradually, like, lean into it?

Um, I would start with one and gradually lean into it.

So, like, the first one for you is I'm waking up between 5 and 6, and then after that I'm gonna add— I'm gonna read 10 pages or I'm going to work out or whatever the case may be.

I think there, there is a danger in not having the next thing, right? Jim Collins actually talks about this for a totally different reason, but it's this idea of like, well, you've already done that one thing, so— and you don't think about what's next, right? Like once you've accomplished a goal, once you're getting up at 5 or 6 a.m. in the morning, you're being consistent about it. If you don't add something else to it pretty quickly, what'll end up happening is you'll revert. Because you say, well, what's the point?

What's the point? I'm just going to lay back down.

I like— I don't have anything to do. And like, this was nice and I enjoy how I feel when I do it, but I think I'm just going to go lay back down again. Yeah, right. And so the idea is that, you know, like, get a little bit going and then quickly bring something else into it and it keeps it fresh and it keeps your mind invigorated, keeps you wanting to do more stuff. And so for me, my first start was like, okay, well, I'm just going to get up at 5 or 6 and then whatever I want to do, like, I'm just going to go do it, right? But the first step was, let's do this, getting up between— in that magic hour. And then the second piece was, okay, well, now I'm going to add reading to it, and I'm going to read for 30 minutes, and I'm not going to fill up the full 2 hours. I'm just going to focus on reading. Okay, now I've got reading in there, and I'm going to do reading, and then I'm going to, you know, meditate or do yoga or something like that. So I'm just starting, so I haven't added that third step yet, but getting into that morning routine now I've got the opportunity to add another layer.

Yeah, right.

Whereas if I hadn't even started, I don't have the opportunity.

Yeah, I tell you, it's— once you start, it's fairly easy. Yeah, I've had the same morning routine for years. I'm at 5, up at 5. I walk on a treadmill for 30 minutes afterwards. I get ready for the day. I go make breakfast for everybody in the house. Yeah, and then I usually head to work. I I mean, it's what I've been doing for years and years and years.

Yeah.

And it's actually hard for me to break out of that.

And what do you do? Because I think the easiest thing for me, I already know it's going to be, is like when we travel, right? You're in a hotel, it's a different space.

Yeah.

It's a different, like you're not making breakfast, right? You're not. And so like, what do you do to make sure that you don't fall out of routine when you're out of routine, like out of your normal environment?

So it's actually a lot easier, obviously, to get out of that routine, especially if you don't sleep well in hotel beds, which I don't.

Yeah, but I just force—

I mean, I force myself. I'm not that person that they have an alarm and then they keep hitting snooze, right? Right. If my alarm goes off, I'm typically up. And if I'm not up, I lay there for a minute or two and then I get up. But it's, it's all mind games. Yeah, like honestly, like I tell myself, oh, you can just lay here, you don't have to be anywhere until 7, you can get an extra hour sleep, you got some time, right?

You don't—

you do you really have to work out? I mean, come on, you're out of town, you have to go to this crappy hotel gym, right? And if the gym doesn't work, you can go outside. Oh crap, it's cold, I don't want to do that.

Or like, we were at Luxor, you know, the other week, and it was like, you know, gym didn't open until 8.

8 to 5. And what'd I do? I went and ran stairs in the morning. Yeah, I ran up and down the stairs because there was no gym, because I had to force myself to do something knowing that was part of my routine to get myself in the right headspace every day.

Yeah, well, and nobody really wants to go walk the streets of Vegas at 5 AM.

No, it's probably not that interesting.

No, but not that interesting. And you know, just a little bit edgy.

Yeah, probably. Yeah. So good call. Yeah.

Uh, well, I think that's going to do it for us today. So you got anything else you want to add on that?

I, I guess the only thing I would add is do not beat yourself up if this is not a perfect science as you get started. Yep. Right. That's the worst thing you can do is you can say I did a routine and then I did it for a couple of days and I fell out and saw crap, screw it. I'm not good. I can't do it. It takes practice.

Yep.

It takes years and years. I used to get up at 4 AM and go to the gym for probably close to 10 years.

Yeah.

And then I toned it back to 5 AM, right? But it's one of those things that once you actually get into it and you've committed to yourself, your routine, you won't fall out of it and you'll feel so much better. Like, and notice when you start your routine versus when you stop, how you feel. Because honestly, if you're not feeling better with your routine, you probably need to switch up your routine, right?

Or change something in it, right? And you don't have to change the whole thing wholesale, but find the one thing that, oh, you know, like, I'm not enjoying this, I'm not getting as much joy out of this as I thought I would. Yeah, switch it out. Don't be committed to the thing, just be committed to the idea of the thing.

Yeah, if your thing is not waking up in the morning and reading because you fall asleep when you're reading, yeah, guess what? Go for a walk. Yeah, do yoga, meditate, do something different.

Yep.

But you've got to change, change it up a little bit if it's not working. Just don't get disgruntled.

Yeah, you've got to find stuff. And James Clear actually does a really awesome job talking about this in Atomic Habits too, is you have to find things that feed your dopamine loop, right? They give you joy and give you pleasure, because otherwise you're not going to get that reinforcing chemical reaction when you do something, right? You got to find stuff that brings you joy and it gives you satisfaction and fulfillment.

Yeah. So yeah, if your thing is your dog, go play with your dog for a little while. Yeah, go take it for a walk, something.

If your thing is your kids and they're asleep don't wake them up. Have a— have an evening routine.

There you go.

That's part 2 of this, right? And that's the other side of this. We talk a lot about morning routines, but your daily routine, you know, what are your daily 7 things? Your weekly routine, what are the 7 things you want to accomplish every week? Uh, monthly, you know, like I was going through and like, you know, date nights with my wife. Weekly planning, uh, you know, monthly doing a trip with the kids or a one-on-one date with each of the kids or something like that. Yeah, but the idea is that you don't have to— you're not gonna be able to cram everything into a single morning. Find the rhythms that work for you. And we talk about this in the Fleet Success Playbook, right? It's like meeting rhythms. Well, your personal rhythms are just as important as your meeting rhythms. So, you know, we do a weekly tactical, we do like monthly strategic meetings, we do quarterly offsites. It's all the same, right? Like, you got to get into your rhythms. Yep.

All right.

Well, that's going to wrap it up for this episode of the Fleet Success Show. As always, if you have some suggestions or topics, things that we could talk about instead of morning routines, email us podcast@rtafleet.com. We would love to hear from you guys. Love to hear too, you know, if there was a favorite episode or a topic you want us to spend more time on, send it over. We did just have the Fleet Success Summit, which was awesome.

Great show.

Great show.

Honestly, great group of speakers.

Yeah. I think it definitely was better than the first year and the first year was good.

Yep.

So, but, you know, maybe we'll do another episode on like a little recap remembering Fleet Success Summit from 2023.

Yeah.

Some of the highlights from that. And then, you know, be on the lookout for some new announcements as we talk about, you know, the future of Summit and when the next one's going to be. But otherwise, there's no real call to action today.

So, well, there, if you want a playbook, that's a call to action.

Yeah, there you go.

You can email us there too. Yep.

Just send an email to podcast@rtafleet.com or you can go to fleetsuccessplaybook.com and you can fill out the form on the website there, I believe. So.

Yep.

All right. Well, listeners, thank you very much. And until next time, go get in your routine.

We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Fleet Success Show. Rate it, go subscribe to it. You know the drill. Be sure to share your best takeaways with your peers because nobody walks the road to greatness alone. Now, get moving, go and be the great fleet leaders that we know you are. Until next time.