
20 Life Hacks To Master Your Day
A new day will come without delay. Whether you have the intention to take advantage of it is a thoughtful question to consider. A day is consistent whether we’re ready or not to make the best of 24 hours. I’m a driven person who wants to be successful in life and make meaningful contributions to the world. This leads me on a quest to find balance within a day. Over the years I’ve used my skills of observation, research, and use of technology to make the most of my 24 hours. My goal is to share some insights on how you can master the day without much overhead.
A simple Google search on the definition of day yields the following.

At times some of us driven busy folks wear the activity of busy as a badge of honor. Whether in the pursuit of success or not we rarely in Western culture want to come off as an idle body. But what it really it boils down to within 24 hours of a day: was I productive, laugh, play, and enjoy my efforts.
The foundation of mastering a day
It’s great that you want to take the next steps in automating your day so you can master it. Let’s address the foundation of setting up a day so it yields the results you desire. In a world where fake news, constant advertisements, and decision making is at an all-time high it’s important to remember a few simple elements that could be draining your time and energy.
Mindset
Doing a few good things right can yield great results. Setup the framework for a great day by first knowing that it is the most important intention to have when you wake up. You can’t settle for quick fixes because habits and results take time to achieve. If someone told you something is quick, it just flat out means they don’t really care or are trying to get some money from you. You will see that the act of patience is the cornerstone element to success time over time from books, authorities on success, and any person that achieved great success.
Tough times never last, but tough people do.
— Robert H. Schuller
Rest
That’s right. Real simple and basic. No rocket science or ahh ha moment. Rest allows you to maintain your schedule and to think straight. You can go down a rabbit hole on research whether you need 8 hours, 4 hours, or whatever. I think what’s important is that you find YOUR sweet spot. For me, it’s 6 hours. I have good energy, feel focused, and have the ability to maintain my schedule for days before feeling like I need some sort of nap. What is your sweet spot? Try a few different routes and see what works best.
A healthy diet
Another simple day to day element you can’t just overlook. What is your diet? Fast food every day, does it take you a few days to drink water or eat something green? How about wasting money on soda every time you eat out? Knowing how to eat to prevent sickness, cancer, and to maintain energy is a task easily overlooked. To master a day your health can’t be sacrificed. A great way to kick off any day is a glass of water with lemon juice and vitamins. Some of my go-to vitamins are Turmeric, Fish Oil, Vitamin B, and Ginkgo Biloba. Do some research and see if these vitamins are something you are missing out on.
Meditation
In some shape or form, you need to understand you! Taking the time to connect to your thoughts, current feelings, and soul is important. This practice will guide you and provide support; guiding you back to good times when bad times come. Life is a roller coaster ride so knowing when you are up or down is important so you can address issues quickly and not fall out of whack.
Taking action to master a day
Focus on the most important task daily
Will this move you a step closer to your big goal now? Remember this idea in all goal setting: Keep it simple! You can easily create hundreds of tasks to achieve a goal but did you take the most direct route and did it yield the results you want. Focus on done! Done is better than perfect. As you work to achieve new heights of success be direct and learn from your mistakes. Set benchmarks and keep striving to optimize what works and quitting what doesn’t. One book I can recommend on this concept is One Thing by Gary W. Keller.
Observe and Act
In reading Creator’s Code by Amy Wilkinson I was introduced to the OODA loop that I find helpful in observing and getting to the point of action. The OODA loop is the decision cycle of observing, orientate, decide, and act, developed by military strategist and United States Air Force Colonel, John Boyd. This strategy used in battle has been helpful in my day to day life managing all the decisions, tasks, and thoughts coming my way. In all that you do see what’s most important and what isn’t meaningful work. The goal is to go through this cycle as fast as possible multiple times to achieve the goals of a win. Observe everything around you and get a sense of where you should be. Orientate yourself to evaluate is this worth you engaging. Once you decide that this thing is most important it is now the time to put your undivided attention to the task at hand and eliminating it. As you master the cycle your decision making becomes more direct. Through mastery of the OODA loop, you will now start seeing more check marks on your to-do list and results of your effort going up.
Flow
To achieve the state of flow or the state of being in the zone is important in mastering your day. Flow allows you to hone your craft and be fully immersed in the task at hand. Doing what you’re best at for extended periods of time allows you to become a master. To be a master making contributions to your industry is of the highest honors to move the world forward. Why else would you be reading this article? It takes some practice and having some good habits in place. Once you know how to fly the OODA loop and say ‘No’ to what doesn’t contribute to getting meaningful work done you then will be able to create valuable products.
Compound Effect
One thing that all hard workers, hustlers, and makers should experience the benefit of. Seeing a return on investment from your efforts compound over a long time. Knowing the times you didn’t want to do something now yields results you desire from this machine running and paying big dividends.
Now that we covered the basics of what it takes to have a meaningful day. Here is a list of opportunities for you to adjust your day and complete your tasks a tad more seamlessly.
Frameworks to master a day
Theme days
Theming your day is a quick way to bring automation to your day. For example, Monday is for fitness, Tuesday generating leads, Wednesday networking and painting, etc. This allows you to be more productive using a framework where you know what is coming the next day or if you should push a task to an upcoming day that is more fitting. You have the ability to now evaluate if a task fits your theme or should be reconsidered. Strike a balance between personal and business related tasks.
Time blocking
Look for scenarios where you can fit your tasks in time boxes. This will allow you to make time for what you love the most. The main goal set your target and show up.
Examples of time blocking your schedule.
- Workout Tuesday & Thursday at 12 PM
- Read Daily for 30 minutes.
- Arts & Crafts once a week for 2 hours at minimum.
- Answering emails at 10–11 AM daily.
- Watching Netflix and TV for 2 hours max on Friday.
- Plan your week, month, and year last day of the month.
Social media planning
It is hard to achieve goals when you spend 2 hours a day aimlessly looking at Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook doing infinite scrolls that do not provide value to your life. The 5 minutes scrolling here and there pile up most of the time without you noticing. What are some simple ways to use social media less in your life? Deleting apps, use an app every other day if not for business, or using an app once a week are ways for you to get meaningful work done.
Deep work or focus time
This is where it all counts. The time that really matters. Doing the one thing you desire to be great at and provide value. This is where you disconnect from distraction and connect to done. What is your intent in this time? How can you commit valuable hours in one sitting consistently? Where are you doing this? These are questions you have to answer to see a difference. I’ve read books, seen the news and watched others perform what interest me. It’s now time to finish that product you plan to deliver. Put the time in and measure the time it takes. Track your hours daily, weekly, monthly, year in and year out. Google Sheets is a solid way to track time over the months and years. See how to use Google Sheets to track your productivity and study hours here.
Organize your space
Tell me one great success who appreciates clutter and unsanitary conditions? Good luck finding that person because it’s a rarity. Organizing your space allows you to think freely and to relax. If you don’t know Marie Kondo please do some research. Her book “The Life-Changing Magic Of Tidying Up” is one of the best books I’ve come across. It will change you for the better. With over 13,000+ reviews it’s definitely a winner.
Some key concepts of Marie Kondo
- Less is More
- Purge and Tidy — When I’m doubtful to keep something one question I always ask “Does this bring me joy?”. If it doesn’t go ahead and throw it away.
- Learn how to fold and organize your closet!
Ways to automate your day
Use streaming services or API’s to automate your day
- IFTTT — Means ‘If This Than That’. This app is a great way to let two different apps communicate with each other by listening to events. Using IFTTT to automate your day will be a handy tool. For example: Press a button to track work hours in Google Drive
- Buffer — Buffer is a great way to bring traction to articles and links you discover while browsing the internet. Buffer has a feature called re-buffer allowing you to repost previous posts. I’ve used Buffer to curate cool articles (usually found using Feedly) to share with my network through the Buffer Google Chrome extension.
- Zapier — Similar to IFTTT but allows you to have greater control over integration. Zapier offers you more apps and features to integrate with. From Slack, Salesforce, and Paypal integrations you can take advantage of the products you currently use and let them integrate with other services in a pretty seamless manner.
- Done Productivity App — A solution I created to prevent you from choosing between a habit tracker, to-do list app, or using paper to manage your day. Done is Google Chrome extension that allows you to focus on what is most important and to create tasks the way you need to. With powerful AI integrations coming down the pipeline you will be able to plan your day quickly and let the app take care of the rest from reminding you of what is most important, upcoming, and updating the completion status.
- Todoist — One of the most popular to-do list apps that you can make use of to manage your day. Todoist offers a full suite of services that can help guide your days better.
- Trello — Is a good way to use digital stickies to manage tasks. It’s pretty straightforward and an app worth considering.
- Evernote — Another heavyweight in to-do apps. It adds a tier of note taking, archiving, and highlighting.
Have an idea, set a reminder, and set a deadline
Simple in practice but difficult to be consistent with. If you think of something to get done be sure to have a deadline of some sort so you don’t have lingering tasks. Scratch paper, Siri, Alexa, or Google Assistant is your best friend that wants to work for you. Protect your willpower by having these tools remember for you. As you begin to automate your day and chisel away items that may not be important this allows you to have the energy and willpower to get things done.
News in one place
I stepped away from the news as a constant daily task because it flat out made me concerned about everyone else and their ideas instead of mine. Using apps like Feedly and Google Alerts has helped me digest news and important information when I think I need it.
- Feedly — Is just like an RSS feed that is well designed. Now I am able to set up various channels like Tech, Sales, and Atlanta to set what is going on and get back in the loop when I feel like I’m ready. This app saves a lot of time of you constantly checking in on what’s the latest news.
- Google Alerts — This has become one of my favorite tools for mastering my day. Google alerts allow you to get the most important pieces of news without research. Some ways I use Google Alerts is to follow competitors, industry news, topics, and people from any source. I’ve picked up some pretty cool articles from unexpected resources. Use this to stay in the loop as you get your hustle on!
Automatic payments
If you can automate paying stable bills and when this is a must. Using this method has kept monthly reoccurring payments from being a burden for years. Get as many stable bills as you can on auto pay. It’s a way I’ve built my credit to almost 800 in a fair amount of time being consistent. Click here to see my process.
Typing
- Grammerly — Just type and go. This Google Chrome Extension is a spell checker that makes most of your writing clear, mistake-free, and concise. I don’t worry about misspelt words or whatever I’m typing out too much. I’m still a work in progress on proofreading lol.
- Google Doc —If you haven’t been living under a rock you should definitely be using the Google Doc and Suite in some shape or form. One thing I like to do sometimes do in Google Docs is voice typing. This allows me to quickly go from thought to text. Also using Google Doc allows me to be online or offline and on multiple devices. Definitely, a tool a master of the day need to use.
Grocery Shopping
Week in week out it’s a reoccurring task that can be done wisely to save you time and money. There are a few players in this space worth considering using to manage your diet.
Flight Trackers and finding deals
Flight tracking is good to find deals without manually doing the search yourself. Whatever may be your reasons for travel, you should consider planning one epic trip a year. Reward yourself for a win and being consistent in meeting your goals. Some of the best flight trackers I’ve used
I hope these tips help you take advantage of each day of your life allowing you to seize more opportunities and achieve a greater happiness. If you have some ways that you have mastered your day please share I’m always open to optimizing tasks in my day and helping others.
