A productive day in the life of a new dad

This is a realistic day in the life of a dad, business owner, and YouTuber. My day usually starts at 6 to 6 30 a.m. depending on when my son wakes up. You say good morning. Yeah. Today it was 5 a.m. I've made a few of these productivity vlogs in the past but this is the first time that I'm doing it as a parent. You wanna go get breakfast? And oh my how things have changed. Instead of starting starting my day with pour over coffee and emails. It's messy nappies and chores. Did you turn the oven on? So Nat and I basically rotate mornings with Frankie depending on whether or not he's in daycare and now he's pouring milk everywhere. When he's not in daycare, it's usually a day that I have him for the morning. And so it's just getting him fed, getting him dressed, getting him sunscreened, ready for the day. Usually takes about an hour and a half and then I'm off to work. While I sometimes genuinely struggle with this dramatic shift in my morning routine, I really do love spending time with my son and getting to start my day with him. Cheers! So Frankie is a pretty slow eater. It's taking him about 40 minutes to eat a piece of toast. Oh my god, we forgot to get your face. Oh, is that mommy? Go get mommy! Go get mommy! Frankie's been having so much fun. Boom. You're getting so big, buddy. All right, Frankie's ready for the day. Now it's daddy's turn. Bye-bye, Frankie. Bye-bye. So at the very beginning of my day, I always look at my calendar and my to-do list just to see what I have on. I wanna make sure that I don't forget about any events, meetings, or interviews I have scheduled. And then I will bring those over to my to-do list to accompany my tasks for the day. Oftentimes, I'm overly ambitious about what I can get done in a day, so I rarely finish the items on my to-do list and end up pushing them to the next day. So we'll see how productive I can be today. So this is what my to-do list is looking like for today. I'll walk through each of these real quick with you now. I'm gonna be vlogging my day, so obviously that's what I'm doing right now. I need to import footage for an interview I just did. Create a shareable link so I can get the footage from the person I interviewed. I'm gonna hopefully write a whole YouTube video. I've got the outline done, I just need to go through and finesse it and kind of beef it up a bit. writing a newsletter, sign up for a director ID. I'm in the process of moving my business from the US to Australia, and this is just one of those small tasks that I need to complete. I've got a Melbourne trip coming up that I need to book. I wanna shoot a YouTube thumbnail, record my voiceover for the script that I'm working on today. I've got a YouTube strategy call. So this is a call with some podcasters here in Australia, one of my favorite podcasts actually, and they were looking to get some advice on how to grow their YouTube channel. I'm playing squash with my friend Jazzy, and then finally, gotta take out the rubbish. That's right, rubbish, not trash, not garbage, rubbish. Who am I? All right, time to get to work. So last night I did an interview with James Hoffman because he's based in the UK. You might have heard of him. He's got this amazing YouTube channel where he talks all about coffee. He's kind of helping me get into the whole world of espresso. I didn't have a chance to import all the footage, so I'm gonna do that now. I think for the longest time, I was trying to force my old life onto my new life as a dad. I used to go to the gym five, six days per week. I'd spend an hour to an hour and a half at the gym every time I was there. That is over. Basically everything comes at a cost. And so if I were to go to the gym four days a week, work out an hour every day that I was there, then I wouldn't have as much time with family. then I wouldn't have as much time with my work. I've had to make some very difficult decisions, decisions that are actually not great for my physical health and my well-being, but that's the trade-off that you need to make. Like, yeah, it would be amazing if I could work out six days a week, but that's just not gonna happen anymore. So it's 11.30, I'm having my first meal of the day, which is a leftover gyro. Is it gyro or gyro? I've been doing intermittent fasting for a while. I've actually done a couple YouTube videos about intermittent fasting. Basically, they've come out with a lot of new research that has led experts to suggest that it's not nearly as helpful for humans as they once thought, like all these metabolic effects. I like intermittent fasting because it just helps me to restrict my calorie intake. Once I do eat, it starts to kind of like kick into gear my craving cycles for food. And so if I wanna restrict the amount of calories I'm eating in a day. One of the ways that I can do it is just by like not eating for the first half of the day. This video is sponsored by my new favorite tool, Descript, an all-in-one video editing platform that I recently discovered that's honestly blowing my mind. Let me show you. So I'm gonna upload a video to Descript. Descript automatically creates a transcript in the video. And then get this, I can edit the video by editing the text. So if I delete this sentence, it deletes it from the video. What the... I can say f*** in this? F***. One of the most impressive areas they've developed is their AI tool. This is genuinely one of the first times that I've been blown away by AI. It can automatically detect and remove filler words and spaces, saving you hours. Create animated captions with a click. Maintain your eye contact with the camera if you're reading from a script. This one's a little bit weird, but still very impressive. And you can create crisp studio audio without pricey microphones or soundproofing. I genuinely believe that this is the future of video editing. It's intuitive enough for a beginner and has features advanced enough for experts like me. Get started for free and play around with all of these features by clicking the link in the description below this video. Definitely make sure you click that link because that will help convince Descript to keep partnering with me in the future, which would be pretty awesome. Seriously, go click it. I'll wait. Okay, I'm not gonna wait that long. Coffee number two today, let's see if I can pour it without spilling it. Not as bad as the first time but not great So today I'm working on a script for a video called I quit the news for one year Wasn't something I planned on turning into a video Maybe in the back of my mind I thought, you know, there's a video there But this was kind of during that whole period when I took all that time away from YouTube Usually it takes me a day or two to write a video like this I usually find that I can kind of get most of my thoughts down on most of the things that I wanna cover and talk about in the video. And then the next day helps me to kind of refine and eliminate a lot of the garbage that I wrote. I find that I'm a decent writer, but I'm way better at editing, way better at rewriting. The first thing that I usually write is complete trash. I find that writing helps me to make the most engaging, interesting, and entertaining video. I pretty much finished the video. I think I'm gonna need a little bit of time tomorrow to finesse it and finalize it. I'm just preparing now for my one phone call of the day. I'm having a chat with a few podcasters about their YouTube channel. It's gonna help me kind of get clarity on my own podcast because I just recently started a podcast and I've got a YouTube channel for it. It's doing pretty well, but I'm still learning about how to create a podcast YouTube channel and how to grow it because it's something very different than what I'm used to. I can hear you now. Oh, yay. Ah, there we go. Hey guys. I don't know if all content is shifting in that direction, but it seems like people are getting a little bit tired and fatigued by the kind of over sensational content. It's gonna have a place just like reality TV does. But I do think that there's a big appetite for people that can create with authenticity and integrity and not always resort to clickbait. Like, yeah, you probably lose views in the short term, but the goal is long term, you'll have an audience that shows up for every video and every podcast you make. So I've recently started to play squash with my friend Justin, and it gets pretty intense. This has just been a really great way for me to kind of unwind, burn some cows, get some sweat going. So I am very excited. I always look forward to this every week. You know my biggest mistake was not playing some pump-up music before I got in here cuz shit's about to get real This is unfair. You're gonna practice him Can I get a like a postgame recap so I was gonna read that recap. Yeah, I dominated That's it 3-0 right 3-0 and then Solid fucking ticket nice. Good stuff I'm somebody who basically never does cardio. I always try to pick up like a running habit or a cycling habit after my lifts at the gym, but just have never consistently done it. So doing squash now once a week even has been one of the most consistent cardio practices that I've ever had. And I think it's working because it's fun because it's not just exercise for the sake of exercise i'm actually enjoying the process so this is typically what our house looks like when it gets a little bit closer to dinner time actually this is pretty clean this isn't too bad jazzy who just absolutely destroyed me at squash today he came on my podcast a month ago and he brought me this homemade chili sauce called chili chutney hot sauce and it's so freaking good i think I think I'll put it on a chip. Oh, that's a lot. I'm basically a college student at this point. What the fuck happened to me? I used to be the guy that made well-balanced, if not very boring meals, but these days I'm just getting by. Like today, surviving on nothing but peanut butter sandwiches, high protein yogurt, and some tortilla chips. Not exactly peak performance fuel, but right now it's about survival, not optimization. taking a look at my to-do list that I set out in the beginning of the day. I did okay. I mean, I definitely didn't do as well as I thought. The fact that I was able to write the YouTube video, I think is the biggest accomplishment of the day. The rest of the tasks weren't super urgent, and so I'm probably actually just gonna push them for a few days. You know, that's the way it goes. I have to focus on the most urgent things first, and then as those deadlines get a little bit closer, the trips get a little bit closer, I'm gonna have to be a little bit more realistic about those things. So one of the unique skills that I have mastered since becoming a dad is assembling and reassembling the car seat. Frankie gets very nauseous when we're in the car, so he tends to throw up a lot. We have to constantly strip our car seat and throw the coverings inside the wash. That's dad's job. Now you might be wondering, you're like, Frankie is over one and a half now. What is he still doing in a baby car seat? Oh, Frankie's on the shorter side, like mom and dad. Some of the early doctor's appointments we went to, they're really obsessive about height and weight of babies and children. And Frankie, you know, constantly ranks in the lower percentile. But the doctor looked at Nat and I and was like, oh no, yeah, that actually makes sense. As I mean, obviously with you guys. We're like, no doc, what do you mean? What do you mean with us? No, we're short, we're short people. Hi Frankie! Can I get a hug? Oh, thank you. Oh, I love you, Bubba. Oh, I missed you. You guys have fun today? We had an action patch. Really? Non-stop? Non-stop. Da-do. Da-do. Da-do. Da-do. Look at all those Legos. Dude, I gotta look into getting better at squash. I think I need to hire a coach. Like secretly I'll hire a coach without Justin knowing. So what do we have for dinner, Shay? We have a little couscous, chickpea, lentil, tabbouleh. Okay, okay. And we have some lasagna from our neighbors because they made extra. Oh, nice. I know. Yeah. This requires some explaining, I think. So ever since Frankie was a baby and started solids, we've had a bowl filled with water. He's messier than almost every baby I know. We've had to take unusual measures. Precautions. Hey, buddy, we're almost ready to eat. This right here. Hey, buddy, come here. I'm not gonna finish the story about the water bowl because I think that's the most parenting thing ever. You start stories, they never get finished. Thanks for giving me the nice one. I know you want to film it. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Are you all done, buddy? Thank you, thank you, bye-bye. okay bye-bye you can leave my food there yeah I'll finish my food later bye bye mommy bye-bye if you want to become a better stoic and you want more real world training my advice have a kid oh Frankie you just hit me in the head bubba the only certainty is that things won't go as planned midnight wake-ups getting sick right before a huge deadline the moment you think you've got a routine it changes at first that unpredictability drove me nuts it kind of still does but now i am beginning to expect it and that makes it a little bit easier to handle so yeah i'm not as productive as i used to be at least not in the same way but i'm learning that productivity isn't about squeezing every Second for maximum output. It's about making sure that the things that actually matter get done and the people that matter Feel like I've given them my full attention Some days that means I'm working a little bit more other days means I'm taking off work to be there for my son and honestly I wouldn't trade it Be careful here Put it in here nice and gentle nice and gentle. Oh my god Good job Watch your fingers. It's fine. You got to watch your fingers. Okay. Good job. No, let's not do that Bye-bye Frankie. I love you. Good night So Frankie's going to sleep now. It's 8 0 7 p.m which means Nat and I have about an hour to ourselves before we go to bed. Sometimes we watch TV, Maths is on. If you don't know, it's Married at First Sight. Nat likes to watch that show. I tune in a little bit. But right now, trying to pick up my reading habit again and I'm reading this book, Grit, by Angela Duckworth, which has been very good. Yeah, overall today was a pretty good day. I'm tired, I'm trying to read, but I'm fucking tired, dude. I don't know if I could do this. I might just watch TV.

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Hi there 👋 My name is Matt. I made a documentary called Minimalism that trended on Netflix a few years back and now I make YouTube videos. Please subscribe so my mother-in-law thinks this is a better career than being a doctor.

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