New Dad Productivity Routine
A breakdown to the new format to my daily life and work
Yes, I’m doing it — a temporary routine for the first 3 months of fatherhood.
This will most likely change, but I wanted to share — as it might be helpful to new dads, like me (1 month ago) as they work from home, aim to work productively and start their new journey.
100% Khe Hy inspired me to do this.
Otto is our 3 month old little one (for reference)
Mornings
🌙 4–5AM: Feed (10m, +10m burping)
💤 5:30AM: Additional Sleep Time (optional, if only 1 feed — stay awake)
If I fall asleep, I use Balance — a meditation app to get be back to sleep… and also works to put Otto to sleep — maybe an association thing…
📨 5:45AM: Admin (if 1 good sleep, wake up and be open to daytime nap)
☀️ 8–9AM: Rise (wake-up and fight fires with baby *if any)
🥊 9:30AM: Box (short max 15-minute, agreed with wife)
So all in all, I’m getting probably around 6–7hrs sleep a day, with naps.
📖 Lessons
- Don’t over-stack to-do list — done in the second month and makes you feel you’ve done nothing with your work day.
- Work in small stints of time — 20 minute blocks is where it’s at, starting with admin so you’ve felt like you’ve done something.
- Break larger, hearty tasks down — Edit 1 x YouTube is now — get to marker 4mins, so that I can secure some easy wins — and be open to pausing to help where I can.
- Try and separate yourself — I try my best to be around. But at the same time, those 20-minute stints of work, work best when you’re focused. Using the 2nd bedroom as a base is key.
- After admin, do the most important task — Coming back to this. I think it helps to get at least a few smaller things done, helps to make the day feel more fluid — wets your flow state.
- Introduce 15-minute workouts — Unless my wife is out the house with the little one, 15-minute is the maximum workout time.
- Avoid the use of your phone — major mistake I had in the first months was going on my phone more than ever, probably a COVID thing — as I was FT’ing a lot of people, but still — the limit now is 2hrs.
These tips probably could be more relaxed. Our baby the first 2 months had/has a cow’s milk allergy — so he was much more irritable.
But you could adapt this accordingly to your sleepiness or restlessness of your son/daughter.
Also — this is an attempt at trying to balance work and life — working from home and trying to be a worker — you may have less freedom than I do, but
Daytime
💼 10AM — 3PM: Work
🏃🏻♂️ 3PM: Run
Lessons
- Logging in Huckleberry — We use a sleep tracking app, and general baby tracking app called Huckleberry — it helps us track poos (nice), wees, sleeps and feeds. This does help predict, even without premium, when the next major sleep is coming up and when he’ll be sleeping deeply.
- Spend healthy time — 30-minute Impromptu walks and time with the little one is nice. Occasionally coming downstairs and looking after him whilst Becs is resting is a way to help out your partner but give you some relax time.
Evenings, Night
🧀 6PM: Dinner (refuel)
😴 8PM: Potential Nap Time (make up 1hr if I feel sluggish)
🧁 9PM: Becs and I time (if we can)
📊 10PM — 11PM: Admin Work
Lessons
- Reset Goals — Before Otto, I had all my goals in mind. Now, I’ve adapted it to be more focused towards removing me from the equation. I probably won’t see the full value of this in the next month or even August, but as I introduce new steps, it’ll put Keep Productive at the forefront, not me.
- Conscious Planning — I’ve started this new weekly activity in Notion — essentially where I plan my week, but by almost speaking my mind on a new document. You can see below — it’s a weird new thing I’m doing, but helps to just focus on the goals at hand and not the smaller projects.
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And that’s it folks 🥕
A small insight into the way I’m doing stuff — I hope it helps new dads or those looking to boost their productivity generally. Fatherhood is so fun and it actually comes more natural to me attempting to juggle two or more things…
If you struggle, that’s natural — I have, and I can see why people do.
