How a schedule cured my depression

3 minute read time

Today’s issue: In this one she shares her depression and how routines help. Maybe it might help you too. Bonus: She doesn’t even force-feed the ‘right’ routine to you.

If you read these newsletters, you know how important your mental health is and read by mini monologs on depression.

I spent most of the past months laying on the floor in darkness unable to get up. Between my neurologist and psychologist saying ‘you need help’, unable to ask for help, and an X post basically saying, ‘If you can’t get your mental health together, you can’t be an entrepreneur’ it didn’t help.

Now before we continue: I’m not a professional but I’m uniquely qualified to talk about how much depression sucks.

Exhibit A:

Don’t worry it gets better.

After helping a friend with his schedule and having my weekly whine session with another friend — I realized my problem:

My routines are shit.

You know what I mean when you stop doing what’s good for you because you create the excuse of ‘time’ and ‘priorities’ and whatever excuse you use to explain away doing what’s good for you? Yeah, me too.

Here’s where my problem started: I followed the work when you feel ‘called’ to it ideology when meant no schedules or plans.

Maybe that works for you but if you’re unironically an A-type personality here’s how it played out for me in two months:

I stopped my 4am wake-ups, exercising, my nutrition went to shit, and everything in my life went south. The scariest part is, I somehow convinced myself it wasn’t my schedule because I’m so ‘zen’.

The actual fuck.

[Quick pause for the insanity of it all.]

Then asked friends who actually have businesses and still manage a life and their sanity and noticed a trend: They all have schedules including the artsy-fartsy ones.

Here’s what I changed: Set up morning rituals and productive breaks that make me naturally feel good and feel like a badass:

Before I get into what I do, let me explain something:

In Stephen Timoneys Loop of Success course, I learned something called ‘productive breaks.’ It’s about killing distractions that make you feel like crap and replacing them with well productivity for 15-60 minute breaks.

He adds exercise, but my morning rituals and routine breaks all revolve around my overall well-being meaning: Mental, emotional, physical, nutrition, and business.

Here’s some of mine:

• Exercise. Not because some random fitness trainer said ‘do it because you can’ or because it’s ‘healthy’. I do it because when I’m done complaining and dying mid-workout I feel energized.

• Waking up at 4am: Beyond the cult movement, waking up before most people feels like I’m already winning the day even though I haven’t done anything.

• 3 To-Do’s: I used to think every to-do item needed to have a million steps and felt anxious for not finishing until I heard entrepreneurs talk about theirs. Realized I’m overthinking and doing things. I keep the list simple. Don’t really know ‘needle moving’ tasks but right now it’s working as is.

• An hour to do absolutely nothing: I have a bad habit of feeling like I always could be doing something and trying and failing to push through overwhelm. This time helps tweak my anxiety and actually have good ideas.

There’s more but you don’t need my whole life.

Bottomline: Create breaks or routines that naturally makes you feel good — not what you’re trying to fool yourself into liking.. Think of them as weapons against depressions.

Disclaimer: You will still have moments where you struggle to get up — it happens but please don’t try to force yourself to be ‘okay’.

cool stuff

1. A Skill Called Luck Jakob Greenfeld breaks down how to get lucky online and offline without a lottery ticket. It’s free, good, and the only book I’ve started and finished.

2. Notion Network Tracker I track people I want to network with and built a template for you. It’s 100% free. But if you use it please let me know how I can make it better for you.

3. What I’m testing: Reid Hoffman & Ben Casnocha co-wrote a sick book called The Startup Of You and each chapter has a list of action items. Here’s one that’s blown my mind for their competitive advantage:

   1. Audit your calendar, journals, and old emails and get a sense for how you spent your last 6 Saturdays. What do you do when you have nothing urgent to do? How do you spend your free time may reveal your true interests and aspirations; compare them to what you say your aspirations are.

What about you?

I’m curious. What do you do not to be sad? Because lets be honest you can’t always be happy when you’re building or attempting to anyway.