There’s something about saying “have a routine” that just inherently sounds boring. However, as a full-time artist manager, owner/operator of Brooklyn Basement Records, and part time cool side project taker-on-er (that’s a thing), I can tell you that the most productive & successful people I know (creative or otherwise) work off of some sort of routine. Remember when I said we’d come back to having a routine? Don’t freak out, but here we are! It’s an invaluable piece of your career that you can learn to do.

That’s right - you don’t have to be Type A to make this work for you - you can totally learn this.

Googling articles based around this topic can be daunting. Reading successful CEOs’ daily routines might make your head spin and scare you right back into bed. That’s cool. You might not need to wake up at 4:30am, do 30 minutes of meditation before your homemade juice. In fact, you very likely don’t need to do that. Unless you want to.

Maybe you work it out by day: Mondays: write songs; Tuesdays: email industry people; Wednesdays: workshop songs; Thursdays: go to shows; Friday: Catch up on everything.

Maybe you work it out by hour & do the slightly same thing every day.  

IT’S TOTALLY UP TO YOU. You have to make the routine work for YOU - don’t work for the routine. That’s a good way to burn out.

Your routine can grow and change as you do. Recently, we’ve gotten extra busy, so I’ve had to find more time in my day. We signed a new artist, Ron’s new album cycle is heavily under way, and our 2 other artists have lots going on as well. The best thing for me to do was to start waking up at 6:00am, go work out, and then start my work day about an hour earlier than I normally do. On Fridays I work from home, so I try to use that day to catch up and work on my creative projects since there’s less noise in my brain. Right now it’s working for me, but it will likely change when things start to even back out.

To help inspire you to add a little structure to your week, I’m putting examples of typical day routines that Ron and I try to follow below: 

Blair:

5:30-6:30 AM - wake up; scroll through email for anything urgent; watch the news
7:00 AM - work out
8:00 AM - shower/breakfast/work from phone
9:00 AM - either head to the office or work from home for a bit
First part of my day: respond to emails & initiate new projects
Second part of my day: less emailing, more checking off to-do list items
6:00 PM - Wrap up work
6:30 PM - walk the dog (best part of the day - I’m religious about it)
7:00 PM - dinner at home or out to a show/industry event
8:30 PM - if I’m home, the phone gets plugged in and put away for the night
10:00-11 PM - Bedtime

Ron:

8:00-9:00 AM - Wake up; scroll through email
10:00 AM - practice guitar, work on songs
11:00 AM - writing sessions or go to the Brooklyn Basement office
Afternoon - work on A&R for the label, work on producing jobs, organize upcoming recording sessions, do promo stuff for artist project, etc.
6:00-7:00 PM - wrap up most work
6:30 PM - walk the dog (Instagram the dog)
7:00 PM - dinner at home or out to a show/industry event
Work from phone until bedtime
10:00-11 PM - Bedtime 

After about 7p our routines are basically the same… because we live together! Except for that phone thing… I have to put mine away or it causes insomnia (true story). Also, we are not so married to the routine that shit falls apart if we don’t stick to it, but it really does help maximize our productivity and go to bed feeling a little less stressed.  

I’m super curious about everyone’s routine, so let me know what works for you! We’ll post some of them to hopefully inspire others.

Reason to ignore this advice: You were born with a productivity superpower and can just get shit done no questions asked. If so, please teach me your ways!