Get more done. Have more free time. It’s possible if you build structure. Here’s how to plan your perfect day (and a look at my routine).

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What does a perfect day look like to you?

A day of getting shit done with minimal stress, eating right, moving your body and just generally being awesome and living your best life.

If you could take a minute right now to jot down:

• What it would look like to hit all of the items on your To Do List
• Still have time for the workout
• Crush your nutrition without eating like an asshole
• Have downtime for you and your family

How would that feel? How would that even happen? What are the necessary steps to fit all of this into a day?

Well today, I’m going to help you plan your perfect day by breaking down what my daily routine looks like from start to finish.

I’ll share:

• Why you should plan your perfect day
• How I get my day started
• Where I manage to fit in my workouts and meals
• My simple strategies for building mindfulness into my day to day
• Why structure is so important for high performing parents

Let’s get into it.

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Structure Promotes Freedom:
Why You Should Plan Your Perfect Day

This is an exercise that I run every single one of my online coaching clients through, once I think they are ready.

It’s a fantastic way to realize a few things:

• You have more time in the day than you realize
• Planning ahead in dieting is one of the most under-looked aspects of sustainability
• It keeps you accountable to yourself
• You get far more done in a day when you plan ahead than you thought possible

How to get started planning your own perfect day schedule

The idea is to plan out just about everything for what your perfect day would look like. But this must be based off of what you have available to you.

So, if you are in an office job working 9 to 5, your perfect day cannot include a trip to the beach.

Instead, this is meant as an exercise to help you optimize your workday from productivity to fitness and nutrition.

This is the template that will provide the structure you need to realize that yes, you can plan ahead your meals, make them all fit your calorie deficit, fit in that workout and still find a few minutes at the end of the day to relax.

Here is my current daily schedule:

5:15 am –– Wake up and Start the Day with Intent and Purpose:

The key to my day is getting up early before the Interns can start to wreck my productivity. I’ve found the 90 minutes or so before my kids wake up to be my most productive of the entire day.

It’s when I can set my intentions for the day through mindfulness and then bang out some of my most important work.

First thing I do is exactly what I preach to my clients: Pop up … hit the bathroom … step on the scale … then smash a big glass of water.

Taking your weight daily and then tracking the week over week averages is a more effective method of tracking weight, along with weekly measurements and monthly progress pics.

For women, you might want to compare month over month averages due to your cycle.

After the quick weight and water, it’s time to prep the mind for the day.

I start the day with mindfulness in the form of meditation and journaling. I’m not one for extended morning routines, find my guide to that here, instead I keep it brief so I can get to work.

5:40 a.m. –– Writing and Creative Project Work:

My goal is to write at least one page of content.

That can be one of the many articles I end up featuring on this website. Or it can mean some other piece of content in the form of emails or captions for my social media posts.

But, I will write for about 30 to 40 minutes.

Alternatively, if I have a major project that I’m working on that needs total focus, this is the time I will choose to do just that without the kids around to pull my attention.

This is commonly referred to as “eating the frog.”

In other words, I’m getting my most important task completed before the rest of the day can wreck my schedule and productivity. If all else fails, I’ve at least knocked out the most important part of the day.

For you, that might mean cranking out a workout or prepping meals for the day.

Or it could simply mean spending some time working on an anti-stress protocol to prime your brain for the day.

6:30 a.m. –– Coffee and Kids:

By now, the Interns have risen from their slumber and are ready to take over my day.

Which means it’s time for plenty of coffee to give me that jolt.

7:30 a.m. –– Dressed and Drop-off:

Time to get the kids dressed for the day and then I walk my daughter to school (her school is about a 7 minute walk from here).

On most days, I’ll opt to take a longer walk home as a bit of a meditative stroll to clear my head and get ready for the day. 

Walking is my preferred form of cardio.

And increasing your daily activity by increasing your steps is a fantastic way to boost your metabolism and promote more efficient fat loss.

9:30 a.m. to Noon –– Technical Work:

This is where I get the brunt of my work done for the day in terms of chatting with clients, creating programming, building new options for potential clients.

This is focused work, but it’s also technical work. It doesn’t demand the creativity that I require in order to write blog posts or crank out major products.

I like to work in blocks using a method similar to the Pomodoro Method. Set a timer for 50 minutes and work undistracted for that entire period of time.

At the end of the 50 minutes, then I can break for movement or even a glance at social media.

Although, I try to avoid most social media browsing throughout the day, with the exception of my own posting to places like Instagram, TikTok or my private Facebook Group.

I’ll spend some time monitoring my content to answer any questions that come in through my direct messages to try and help folks during my 10-minute break periods.

Noon –– Time to workout:

You’ll notice that I haven’t eaten anything. This is by design.

I typically fast during the morning hours so I can keep my focus on my work and getting things done.

Oftentimes, I can get a little queasy, even nauseous, while working out after a meal. So if I do decide to put something in my stomach before I train, it’s something small like a protein shake. That’s about it.

Otherwise, I’m pretty much training fasted.

1 p.m. –– Lunch

When I talk about removing decision fatigue from your day and sticking to a staple rotation of meals to make things easier, this is exactly how I approach my lunches.

Every single day, my lunch will consist of some kind of BAS (Big Ass Salad).

The contents of the salad vary from day to day based on what I have available in the house because I’ll usually toss some leftovers into the bowl, but the idea is still the same day to day.

This staple food is simple to make, packs tons of protein and nutrients from the veggies. And I don’t have to give it much thought.

I follow that BAS with a big bowl of PrOATs (or protein-packed oatmeal). It’s just a bowl of oatmeal with protein powder added in and usually with a nice scoop of peanut butter … carefully measured, of course, because nut butters are incredibly calorie dense and you should always measure that shit.

Protein. Carbs. Healthy fats. Vegetables. Fiber.

Checks all of the boxes and it’s enough to fill me up for most of the day.

When planning your own perfect day schedule, I want you to also take into consideration every thing you’ll be eating.

Take you current allotment of calories and protein and build a few meals to fit those targets. I explain this process in more detail in this guide to simplifying your diet.

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. –– Finish up outstanding work

By this time of the day, my mental capacity is just about shot.

Not to mention, my daughter is home from school, so we’ve got both kids demanding attention.

As a result, the least important tasks of my day are scheduled here. I’m not creating new training programs for clients with limited mental focus.

Instead, it’s simple things like following up on emails and checking in on social media.

If you are an entrepreneur, self-employed or really any high-performing professional, it’s imperative that you schedule an end to your work day. And that’s exactly what I do with my day …

4 p.m. –– Shut down and down time

Every single day, my wife and I schedule alternating time to ourselves to decompress. I’ll handle the kids for 30 to 60 minutes and then she’ll take her turn doing the same.

It’s during this decompression period when I practice a few deep breathing exercises, read a book, unwind with a video game and just chill.

This time period is a priority and it happens every single day. Even if it is just 10 to 15 minutes.

I cannot stress this enough. Make this happen for yourself.

And during this time, no social media is allowed. Unplug from as much technology as possible and try to chill.

5 p.m. to 8 p.m. –– Family time

The next three hours are devoted to the family.

• Cooking dinner
• Bathtime
• Getting the kids ready for and off to bed for the night

Dinners are not the same thing every single night. But, they are based on a solid rotation of easy to make meals that I don’t even have to think about.

It makes grocery shopping so much easier and meal prep is not something I have to worry about (I’m simply not a fan of it myself).

8 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. –– Relax with wifey

Finally time to enjoy a few minutes of quiet time with my wife. We catch up on the day, gossip about dumb shit, maybe watch a show or start a movie.

I’ll even enjoy a glass of wine or bourbon during this period occasionally.

If for some reason I’m behind on my productivity for the day, I’ll carve out a few minutes here to wrap that up. But usually, I’m spent and work is the last thing I’m able to do here.

9:30 p.m. –– Brain dump for tomorrow

This is the most important thing that you are not doing:

If you are not planning your day ahead of time, you are already behind schedule.

Spend a few minutes the night before to go over your To Do list for the following day. It will help clear the mind before bedtime to allow for better quality sleep.

And it provides an actionable roadmap so you can hit the ground running as soon as you wake up.

Once I’ve completed my To Do list for the next day, then it’s off to bed. I might read a page or two of a good book beforehand and then I’m out.

That’s a solid day of productivity, work, creativity and even mindfulness. With a ton of parenting, life, health and fitness mixed in there.

This is how I operate and perform at a high level while taking care of myself to be lean for life. All on top of managing to survive the day to day drama of parenting.

Is it easy? No.

Is it doable? Yes.

Because as you’ve seen here, I’ve built structure throughout my day. And that structure started by mapping out what a perfect day of productivity would look like for me.

This is my schedule, yours could look similar or completely different. Up to you. But, I highly encourage you to spend a few minutes breaking down how your perfect day would look.

Will you be able to stick to it every day? Of course not.

But, just like dieting, if you go off course on your nutrition for one meal, or even one week, you’ll have the guidelines and structures in place to simply get right back on track.

Structure promotes freedom.

Let me help you figure how to plan your perfect day … 

Finding the right time and right workout plan can be incredibly overwhelming. But, I’m here to help you out.

If you have any questions, reach out. I answer all of my emails at pete [at] petecataldo [.] com … Hit me up with the subject line “Plan your perfect day” and I’ll answer any questions you have about productivity.

Or you can hit me up anytime on the socialz on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

If you enjoyed this post, maybe you’d like more knowledge bombs from me. I’d be honored if you join my mailing list to get regular updates every time I post something pretty dope.