Publishing The Bulletin part 1: Weekday routine
This is the first of the “weekly on a Wednesday” that will be appearing in the Notes area of this site to provide more behind-the-scenes of The Bulletin, productivity and other observations that I feel you, the subscriber, will find useful and relevant.
Last week, two subscribers asked me how I put together each edition of The Bulletin, whether I had a workflow and whether it takes a lot of time to research and write. So I thought it would be a good idea to write two posts on this, one being my weekday schedule below and then second post (due next Wednesday) that will summarize my weekend schedule right up to publication day.
I’ve never really thought about my daily schedule until now, as over the last four months it has become quite rigid especially with many of us not being able to do all the extracurricular activities or travel due to the pandemic. It has also been rigid as I only have so much time outside of work so getting each edition out has required more focus and commitment. It will certainly be interesting for sure to revisit this post when the world opens back up and I find myself tempted outside of this newfound routine to travel and spend less time writing. That said, my writing process has drastically improved and it takes me less time to write copy.
My weekday schedule:
I rise and shine usually around 4-5 am. I’ve always been a morning person and after all these years of living mostly in the EST time zone, my body clock still seems to lean towards GMT and sometimes I find myself awake at 3 am already plugged into the UK and European morning news developments. Once I start reading that’s it though, I’m awake and my day starts, even if it’s 3 am.
The first thing I do when I wake up is turn off the alarm on my phone and then look at my phone notifications, a habit that goes against every single wellness or “productivity” tip in the book but working globally, I will already have many messages, emails and alerts that I may need to deal with and that could then dictate the next 30 minutes of my day, especially if there is an urgent task to tackle.
5am
The radio in the kitchen (I say radio but I mean the Amazon Echo) fires up BBC Radio 4 and I start the coffee. French press, milk and sugar (sorry, nothing fancy) Breakfast is usually oatmeal and various fruits and seeds but recently it has been bacon and eggs.
5.10am
I’ll then sit down with my coffee, breakfast and my iPad and will comb over a variety of news apps including the FT, WSJ, The Times UK app and the BBC website, to just get a sense of what other times zones woke up to earlier that morning. Regardless of what industry you work in, global news, politics and economics, particularly during this time, are affecting every business sector, so I believe that being up to date on global affairs provides you with a good foundation for judgement, decision making and foresight in your own career, industry and global outlook.
5.30am
I start combing through my email newsletter subscriptions to see if there is anything interesting to save for later and then will start looking through all my incoming aggregated news feeds. I aggregate posts from approximately 200 websites (news, digital, tech, politics, lifestyle, music, film & TV) and having them all together in one funnel makes it easier to scan the headlines to get a further sense of what is happening. I also start writing the outline of a blog post or set up the next edition of The Bulletin around this time as I tend to write better in the morning.
7am
During the winter it is still dark at 7 am so I crunch through some early work emails, review my schedule for the day and make note of any chores or tasks not on my to-do list. As soon as it starts to get light I get ready and head out for my 10,000 steps daily walk, making sure that my phone has downloaded the latest morning podcasts (usually news or industry-specific) that I listen to along the way. I try to meet and exceed 10km walking each day as I used to commute to the office on foot and miss the morning and evening exercise, so this acts as a “pretend commute” to at least make sure I get the heart and body moving.
8.30am
I return home, make some tea and start setting up for the days work. I will also check back on my news feeds to see if anything else has come in that I need to mark as “read later.”
9am - 12pm
Work
12pm-1pm
Lunch can be varied. Sometimes there just isn’t a slot free from Teams calls to fit lunch into the day’s schedule but if I manage to have 30-minutes or an hour free I will make a sandwich or soup and try to catch up on the daily discussions on Linkedin and other industry news that has come in, while also checking global news while the world service plays on the echo.
1pm-5pm
Work
5pm-6pm
Final review of the daily industry news. Usually, around Wednesday I have a good sense of some of the topics I will add in an upcoming edition of The Bulletin. It’s all about getting the story on the street, what people are talking about, what companies are doing, what innovations are appearing and how changes in other sectors could affect the world of entertainment. I don’t tend to write much in the evening as my brain isn’t in a writing mood after a day of work.
6pm-8pm
Unless there are some late calls (usually on PST time zones) after 6 pm it’s family time or personal time (if my teenage kids are busy doing something else which is usually the case) I will also close up some emails for the day that may have been sidelined if the day was spent on Teams calls and will also chat with some partners in different time zones.
8pm
Final review of the day’s news and feeds. I try to clear down everything as “read” but most days there are 2,000 article daily headlines or more that come into my aggregator setup so some may have to wait until the morning. I will also listen to a “catchup of the day’s news” podcast from a variety of sources. I am also working on some other projects including a podcast series and a new section of The Focus (soon to be launched!) so will fire off some emails on these or make some more notes in the notes app.
9pm
Bedtime. Yes I know, it’s early but as they say “nothing good ever happens after 9 pm” and I much prefer to wake up early than go to bed late. I may glance at one or two items that came in on my phone but prefer to lie back and let the day sink (and out)
So that’s it! A typical weekday for the past 4 months especially as all travel (and many social interactions) have been halted. It will be interesting to see how my weekday schedule shifts once the weather gets better in the spring and hopefully when we can all jump on a plane again and leave Teams behind.
Apps and services used
Feedly - Great for aggregating news sites, blogs and anything else that publishes with RSS.
Instapaper - Saves articles from many sources across the web and make them easier to sort through and read
Things - I have been using this project and task management system ever since it first came out over 10 years ago and haven’t found anything else with such a simple and easy to use interface. I keep day work and side work separate. Day work is all on Wrike. Personal and The Bulletin etc are all managed in Things. When I am working during the day I don’t want to be distracted with chores or personal items I need to also remember and manage.
Notes - Yes the simple app on the iPhone. I used it to plan the next edition and jot down some ideas for each section or themes or topics I wish to explore.
Hey - a new email service I stumbled across. I have ditched Gmail now and all my email from the 15-year-old Gmail account forwarded to Hey and then let Hey automatically filter out what is relevant or not (the rest get screened out and I never have to see them again) Hey is like having a butler to your stately mansion of email!
In next week’s post, I will outline my weekend schedule and will delve into how each edition is put together from initial setup through to publication.
C