A Day In The Life Of Dan Koe (My Routine As A Writer & Founder)

Intro Thing People Start Vlogs With

This May Be Boring

00:19This could end up being either the most boring or the most inspiring video that I've ever made. And while I feel like there's a place for social media highlight reels to show the accomplishments of others, to be inspired in your own life, I also feel like there is a lot of merit in the boring day to day tasks that actually lead to the highlights in someone's life.

00:44So in this video, I just want to show you some of my actual life. This is much different from my other videos. Maybe it will become a thing, but I just want to show you my general morning routine. I just showered, I took the dog out. I did all the normal stuff that normal people do, but beyond that, I also want to show a bit of my planning in the morning and a bit of my writing routine that has allowed me to build this life, because that is one thing that seems very boring.

01:13Just when you look at the day to day grinding out 1000, 2003 thousand words and very few people see where that leads, and they can't think long term to see how that pays off in the future. Now, just for the sake of numbers, because people are interested in that.

01:29I've made multiple videos on this in the past, but last year or two years ago, I have a video where I made $800,000 writing two hours every day. Last year I was doing the same exact thing, but I made it 4.1 million.

Espresso & Rant On Becoming A Creator

02:09So to start things off, I want to go over how I plan out my days. Because without this kind of routine to get in and having a daily habit that leads to long term results that you can execute day after day after day. If you don't have that, then you can't expect much results from this.

02:25Now, you don't have to be a writer to benefit from this routine, but you do have to be an entrepreneur of sorts. You do have to be attempting to gain full control over your income, so you can be in full control of your life. So for a lot of people, this falls under creative work or creator work.

02:42Creative work. We think of design, writing, art, etc. creator work, we think of self-improvement, productivity, fitness, etc. they're all relatively the same thing, and you're going to have to do creative work in order to do creative work. I would argue that writing as a habit is something that every single person needs to do.

03:00If they want to build a life of their own. Because one. How else are you going to attract people that are going to pay you? That's through media. Where is all of the attention right now? It's not on the radio anymore. It's not on the newspaper, it's not on TV.

03:16Some of it is, but it's all transitioning over to social media. So that means you need to get on social media because that's where the attention is. And without attention, you're not getting attention on your work. So you need to build an audience.

03:31People still think that this is some kind of optional thing, as if it's like a new internet job that people just fall into, when in reality, there's a reason why, corporate companies are having their employees get on LinkedIn and start posting.

03:46There's a reason that was it. It's Tucker Carlson. I'm not big into politics, but he's going from mainstream media to just going full time on his YouTube channel because he doesn't need them to survive anymore. Looping back to writing. Writing is the one thing that you do on a daily basis that builds an audience.

03:57You write posts, you write video scripts, you write emails, you write newsletters, you write texts. You write messages to your clients, to your potential customers. You send outreach messages. It's not as simple as just becoming a YouTuber and creating a video like this.

04:15Sometimes it is. Sometimes you get lucky. But marketing, sales, persuasion, all of the things that make writing impactful are only going to benefit the videos that you create. If you're not getting results in your videos or anything that you do, it's usually because you lack persuasion and therefore you have lacked practicing persuasion with writing.

My Daily Routine & How I Plan My Morning

04:44So the way that I like to build out my routine is separated within three time blocks. These usually last 60 to 90 minutes, and they're separated by walks or making breakfast or food that's around like 9:00 am and then going on more walks. And then I end the day, my workday, by going to the gym.

05:04So a day in the life for me that we're going to go through is going to be composed of me going through that productivity routine, me going to the gym, and then maybe some stuff after to show you what I actually do. But I usually just go on walks, I chill out, I eat dinner, I talk to my friends, I message business partners, etc.

05:20so these three blocks that I lump my productivity stuff into, you can do it in two different ways. There's the build, publish and maintain option, where each of those time blocks is dedicated to build, publish, maintain. If you don't have much time on your hands, if you're working a job, if you only have one hour, then you have to fill that with building.

05:40Your first hour of your day has to be building something that can potentially be profitable enough to allow you to do it full time. So for a lot of people, if we're going the social media route, that's building a social media audience. So that you can eventually monetize it, building anything else, a newsletter, anything, aside from writing social media content and getting very good at growing on social media, is a waste of time.

06:02Aside from learning a skill and doing other things that you can monetize. But that's main priority. So for me in the build, publish, maintain, I have building, which I'm writing books now, so that's my long term project. But in the past it was building products out digital products or my freelancing business and trying to land clients anything that moved the lever forward to my next phase of evolution in business.

06:26Now the publish block. So 90 minutes of building, go on a walk or do something, and then the publish block is to publish to social media, because that's how I split things up now, where that's not a main priority, just because it's automatic and then after that is the maintain block, where I'm maintaining projects that I've built in the past that are earning me income.

06:47So I'm talking things like the last book or certain courses or cortex, or client work for Cortex University, or responding to emails, managing finances, going through the rest of my to do list, doing spillover tasks, etc. the second way you can break this down into three different blocks is the long term, short term, and immediate.

07:02So the first block of your day is long term. This is usually if you're doing something full time right this is your full time thing. So I'm writing the book and building cortex because those are very long term projects. They take a long time to build.

07:18They take day after day for months and months and months until finally it launches. And then I can move it to the short term or the immediate and fill something new with the long term. Because if you're not building something new, always, I've found that you get into this repetitive routine and you kind of put yourself in a second 9 to 5.

07:40Now these short term blocks. So after the long term, going to walk the short term block is for things that don't pay off immediately but pay off in the near future. So a newsletter for me that turns into a YouTube video, that's second priority.

07:50That's what I write after the book and then the next is immediate. So these are immediate things like in the maintenance category of the other way of doing it. This is like responding to emails, messaging people, sending direct messages, all of the little things that just check things off of your day.

08:12They check the to do's off of your day.

My Writing Process & YouTube Process

08:15A lot of you are curious about my writing process, so I want to give you a few things here. I want to go over how I outline my newsletters and therefore my YouTube videos. My other ones, the ones that where I talk to the camera, the ones that you guys know about.

08:25And it'll also give you a sneak peek into the app we are building for writers and creators. So this is a quick look into my writing process. Hopefully we can see this. So the first thing that I do is I create an outline for the newsletter itself in there for the YouTube video.

08:48Right. So what I do is I brain dump ideas at the top and then I have connections. So the notes or ideas or previous things that I've written that I want to reference and then research is where I'm not finished with this part yet, but this is where I go through.

09:03I ask ChatGPT things. I go through my previous content to see if there's any good ideas that I want to reference. I research YouTube videos and medium articles to see what angles or ideas I want to include, and then I start brainstorming hooks for the headline or the title of the newsletter.

09:23Video. And this is like an ongoing process. This isn't something that is finished right now. It's at throughout the week. Today is, Thursday. I wrote the newsletter for this week already, so this is for next week, so I'm giving myself over a week to add to this outline as I'm writing the actual content.

09:43And then I go through and I create just a soft outline for it. And throughout this time, I'm looking at the connections so I can open these in a side panel and read through and get ideas for what it is that I want to write about. Now, when it's actually time to write.

10:00This is when I create the actual docu moment where I'm writing the newsletter and I use what we call cortex elements to start outlining it. And I can get rid of these when I want to make it an actual newsletter. So if I go to a previous newsletter, like the last video or one of the previous videos, this is what it looks like to actually write in cortex, right?

10:24So this is how I write the newsletters. We have a lot of features planned, so eventually you'll just be able to publish them. But going through here I outline things. I write it throughout the week and in the side panel I can just look at my outline and I can also open the connections to look at them.

10:43Here. So just a quick sneak peek into what we're doing and my process for actually writing the newsletter itself. Hopefully that helps a tiny bit.

My Breakfast & Diet Philosophy

11:58So at this point in my day is when I eat breakfast after writing and before I go on a walk. And while I eat breakfast sets, while I knock out some tasks, like checking into the community, messaging people, etc.. Just making sure I'm keeping on top of my day.

12:13Now you're probably wondering what I actually eat for breakfast and I have a very weird breakfast. So here's my entire nutrition philosophy. Half as well as I can put it. So in the morning I have rice, eggs, spinach, sardines, and like coconut oil to actually cook it in.

12:35Now the reason behind that is I'm trying to knock out as much of my protein and micronutrient intake in the morning, so I don't have to worry about it too much later. As you can tell, I front load everything in the morning from my work to my nutrition to the gym, etc.

12:46so that I don't have to worry about those things at night. So I eat this because eggs are very nutrient dense. Spinach. Get your greens in sardines. Extremely nutrient dense omega threes, heart health, blood pressure, cholesterol, etc.. After I eat this, I take my morning supplements which contain beef liver, which is like nature's multivitamin is just natural or desiccated beef liver.

13:18What I try to do with this is I get in 50 ish grams of protein with this. I used to add cottage cheese with it, but then I go to the gym, I have lunch, potentially a protein shake, and I'm 220 pounds, so I'm trying to eat 220g of protein by the end of the day.

13:36So I'm trying to hit 150 plus by the time that I am done with the gym. Like when I eat after the gym, I'm trying to get in as much protein so that later when I go to dinner, I don't have to worry too much about like being it, being the healthiest or the most micronutrient dense, or having the most greens.

13:54I still eat relatively healthy at dinner, but when I do go out, it's like, okay, get like a bowl, a good tasting bowl. Don't worry about it too much, because if it has chicken, you're probably going to hit your protein goal, etc., etc.. So I'm going to eat this.

14:08I'm going to check up on some stuff on my computer for work, and then going to go on a walk. I walk about 15,000 steps a day, and on those walks I like to listen to audiobooks and YouTube lectures

The Importance Of Walking

14:31and just educate myself on things that I want to learn that can fuel my work or just make me a smarter individual. I feel like that is a lot more beneficial than not really doing anything, or always working all the time. So right now I am listening to the way of the superior man.

14:46Once again. I listen to it often, maybe once a year. I highly recommend it for anyone looking to live a life of purpose. Now, a common question that I get is, Dan, do you do anything like sauna or cold plunge or anything like that? And the answer is no one, because I just don't fucking like those things.

15:06They don't sound fun to me. Sauna isn't that fun. Cold plunge is just pure torture and I don't have the time to fill my routine with all of those things. Like, I don't know how people get things done if they're doing cold plunge in the morning, run in the morning, sauna sometime in the afternoon, getting sunlight going on a walk, doing a run, doing whatever.

15:31It doesn't matter. I like to think from a big picture what is it that I'm trying to accomplish? What is the ideal future that I'm leaning towards? And to me, I've found that walking 10 to 15,000 steps a day, going to the gym and doing cardio in exchange for one of my walks, occasionally is how I achieve that.

15:49I get sunlight, which is absolutely necessary. I would rather just sit in the sun for the benefits of that, rather than sit in a cold plunge or a sauna. Just makes more sense. So if I can walk in the sun, especially shirtless on the roof like I do later in the day, or just shirtless around when it's sunny and I can get some form of a base tan.

16:08That just makes more sense to me too. Well one. Not only am I generating ideas for my content, am I thinking through ideas and using this as a part of my creative process? I would say that I'm technically working. I would consider walks a part of my work and my wife.

16:23The second thing there is that walks that much walking burns quite a few calories, so I'm not too worried about how much I eat. What one I have to eat a lot. I weigh a lot. I go to the gym. I am trying to build muscle. Obviously, and walking at it on top of that makes it so I burn.

16:40I would say my maintenance calories are around 4000 calories a day, so I have to eat 4000 calories and I'm allowed to do that. So therefore I'm allowed to have nice dinners with my friends and family and loved ones. Because I live this lifestyle early in the morning, I get my writing done, I get my work done, I go on multiple walks, I go to the gym.

16:59I fill my food in the morning with micronutrient dense foods and high protein, so that later in the day I can live a normal lifestyle with the people that live that lifestyle. And it doesn't take anything away. In fact, it actually benefits my life because I'm not so stressed and neurotic about going to the cold plunge, going to the sauna, eating extremely strict in the afternoon.

17:21I'm solely focused on doing what I need to do in the morning and then doing what I want to do in the afternoon.

Hitting The Gym & My Split

17:29There are two keys to any good gym session carbs and caffeine. So I've seen a few Instagram Reels and such that talk about the most natural pre-workout, which is pretty much just putting honey on your hand and putting Himalayan sea salt on it.

17:52And I prefer to take the more synthetic approach. Just like synthetic oil in a car. Helps it run longer, helps it run faster. Maybe nobody really knows, but Rice Krispie treats fast, digestible carbs as salt makes for a good pump. I don't really care if I have a little Rice Krispie treat.

18:08Tastes good. Second thing is Monster Energy. I drink these quite a bit. Not necessarily monster, but like ghost energy or other things like that. I only get this because of the nostalgia when I used to watch fitness people online, this is what they would get.

18:26It's kind of on brand with me, black and white. It just looks good taste, pretty good taste. Kind of like an off sprite. So it is about 130 right now. I just had a mastermind call with a few students from the people I'm working with, and before that I went on another walk.

18:52So so far today we have been through my writing routine. The monstrosity that I eat for breakfast, including sardines. Babe, what do you think about sardines? Just great. But she doesn't like that. I make the house stink in the morning. The fish.

19:11But it's well worth it. The omega threes. I'm your big. It's called home bacon strong. Yes. So after the writing routine, after eating, going on one walk, listening to an audiobook on that walk, I had a call with my book guy to discuss, like hardcover coming out, other things like that did a bit more work.

19:35Went on another walk. This time it was like in the sun. So getting my sunlight had the call at 12. It's not 130. We're on our way to the gym, got my calves, got my caffeine and yes, we were going to train arms. And for those curious, I do train almost every day.

19:50I like going to the gym every day to keep a routine. I have rest days occasionally, sometimes I take like multiple rest throughout the throughout the week. But in general I train every day. I train 4 to 6 sets per body part per workout, and I do each body part twice a week.

20:12So that's 8 to 12 sets per week, which is like on the lower end of optimal volume. But I go to failure as much as humanly possible. So we're training arms today seeing there I haven't done this before, excuse my terrible vlogging abilities.

20:54So we just finished up at the gym. my workouts are usually, like, 45 ish minutes, because since I go every day, my volume is split across those days, and my workouts aren't that long. But I wanted to go over what could be a common theme for this video.

21:13I'm predicting the comments ahead of time because I'm doing things that I normally don't talk about in my videos, like I'm writing a lot. Like I normally don't show these in my videos, so I'm writing a lot. I went to the gym, I went on walks.

How To Stay Disciplined

21:27So I can assume that a common question will be, how do I develop that discipline? Or how do you stay so disciplined and do those things? I want to reframe that a bit where I don't think it's about discipline. I think it's about becoming the person that automatically does those things, and they don't even have to think about it.

21:48It's just about cultivating an identity and the actions that that identity takes toward specific goals lead to those actions, and it leads to you doing them without thought and enjoying them. So rather than focusing on being more disciplined, you need to focus on making better decisions on the small scale so that those condition yourself into adopting the identity that just does those things.

22:13So there's two things there, which is one, gaining perspective. There's perspective and there's perception. So you gain perspective of your situation where you zoom out and you think about the future that you don't want, in the future that you do want, and where your current actions are leading you.

22:29So in terms of going to the gym, where do you not want to end up in life? Fat, ugly to feel like shit. It's not a good life. Where do you want to end up in life? Jacked, rich, tan, happy. Makes sense. You can get more specific than that. But then in between, now that you understand that you have perspective, now you need to gain perception and bring clarity to your day to day actions so it becomes easier to make better decisions.

22:58You're of course, still going to make mistakes and you're going to fall off track, but it's good to think of it on like an averaging basis, where over the average of a year are you at least 51% making good decisions? If so, you're on track in terms of perception of your current situation.

23:16You need to hold your perspective and the top of your head what you don't want in life, what you do want in life, and break that down into what you need to learn and what you need to practice. So what you need to learn comes from education, like YouTube.

23:27How did I learn about going to the gym, watching people on YouTube, studying their techniques? Right? You don't just learn how to go to the gym, you study someone's program and then you try it out. Do I like this? Do I not like this? Am I seeing results?

23:45You have to stick to it for a decent amount of time to see progress and feedback, but then front then okay, I want to try something else. You test someone else's program. This is not shiny object syndrome. This goes for business too. You don't just like fall into the right business model.

24:01You test a bunch of different ones, you fail at them and eventually you learn the patterns and principles that make it work. So by trying multiple training programs, you learn, okay, I need progressive overload. I need a certain amount of volume per week.

24:11I need to get pretty close to failure. I need to train with enough frequency once a week, twice a week, maybe three times a week. And you try them out. You try out different nutrition models. You just experiment with everything in your life and eventually you're able to create your own path toward the life that you want and the way you filter out what's useful and what's not useful for your life.

24:34That's perception. You determine whether or not it's leading to your ideal future, your perspective. So hopefully that helps understand discipline and to not think of it as discipline. And just think of it as compounding choices that lead to the life you want.

24:49So after the gym, we are going to protein House to get protein and just a bowl of food like decent calories. I'm probably not going to film anything later today. I'm probably going to go on more walks. I'm going to write a bit more. It's everything you've already seen.

25:09It's just split up throughout the day. then price it around, go to dinner with baby, have a good time, come home. Usually we watch Netflix. We've been watching lost and we've been meaning to try, like reading every night. But we haven't really done it.

25:26Just because lost is more interesting. That is too good. But tonight we're going to read or we're going to do something, maybe go on a walk and just have quality time together. So all in the video here, because I'm sure you don't want to see me just do the same thing over and over again.

25:43Some people like that, I don't know, leave a comment letting me know what you thought of this kind of video. By.