A Typical Day for Ivan

I’ve recently been having people ask me what a typical day looked like for me.  The last person that asked me that questions caused me to ask a question to him in return.  I asked him, why he was curious about?  He replied, that he believed that “successful people had some routines that helped them achieve their success” and that’s why he was curious.

I thanked him for including me in that list of people he thought were successful and told him I would write about it in an upcoming blog – and here we are.

I believe my friend was correct – I too believe that successful people have routines that keep them focused and engaged.  Routines are truly different for every successful person.  What is the same is that they have a routine and they follow it. I can’t say that mine are that exciting but, they are mine and I like them.

I should note that I travel a lot and when I’m traveling – the routine is much different.

If I’m not traveling or attending a meeting, this is my normal routine.

1. 7ish wake up.
2. 30 minutes exercise in my home gym. Nothing crazy – walking, (sometimes outside – but often in the home gym watching the news), push-ups, crunches, stretching, simple bar weights.
3. Steam shower (contemplative meditation).
4. I try to eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.  (All the meals are generally organic and always healthy).
5. 9 am I walk the 51 steps to my home office and tackle email communications
6. I am a zealot about my schedule. Almost every hour is scheduled with something (including time to think, research, and/or write).  Most importantly, I color code my calendar to know what kind of activities I have scheduled for the day.  The things I love doing are all in various shades of green.  (Red is bad, very bad.  They are the things I don’t want to do but must do – yes, I have some of those too).
7. My primary focus is writing, speaking, and doing interviews.
8. On writing days, I only tackle urgent emails and then focus most of the day on writing related activities (research, writing, editing).
9. Throughout the days I do scheduled media interviews (these are always a priority) or record videos for BNI regions.
10. End around 6 pm.
11. Wine O’clock on the balcony to watch for deer or wild turkey on our property. Almost always a big bold – “hit you over the head” – red wine. 😊
12. Dinner around 6:30 pm.
13. Around 7, I watch some movie or TV shows recorded on my DVR (yes, I have some guilty pleasures that I do NOT feel guilty about).
14. If necessary, I go back into my home office around 8 – 9 pm to get some work done.
15. Head to bed between 10 pm and 11 pm.
16. Read the news or a book for up to an hour.
17. Generally asleep by 11:30 pm.

This is a normal day – I don’t always have those but when I’m home, this would be pretty normal.  The routines I have that I think are worth noting include daily exercise, contemplation, healthy food, a specific routine for the work, guilty pleasures (wine, TV, or movies), and reading time each evening.

And that my friends, is a day in the life of Ivan Misner.

What surprises you or what would you like to add to your list?