H Mode

H mode is a protocol/framework to follow in order to get things done.

First of all, we need to set up the environment:

• No clutter in your physical desktop, and no clutter in your computer desktop.

Having an organized desktop will make everything better:

During your H mode periods, you will have a set of rules that you must follow every single day. No excuses:

1. No alcohol. I don’t care what you have to say, this rule means absolutely 0.
2. Two deep-work slots a day. Deep work means no distractions. No phone in the room, and no notifications allowed. Only focused work.
3. 10.000 steps a day. A little bit of movement every day will allow you to have clearer thoughts.

On top of that, I encourage you to add up to 3 more rules, but no more than that, otherwise, it could become overwhelming. Some examples:

• Eat healthily
• Exercise
• Read
• Play an instrument
• Zero or limited social media time
• Etc

You will quickly realize after a couple of weeks of H mode how much more productive, less distracted, and more focused you become. Also, how you can work towards your goals by adjusting your daily rules.

As an example, here is how I’ve structured my H mode for the last couple of months:

• 07:00 - Wake up, make the bed, and drink a glass of water.
• 07:15 - Weight, cardio training or an outdoor walk.
• 08:00 - Prepare mate 🧉, read a book for 15 minutes and read an article related to my industry. After all of that, I pick up the phone for the first time in the day.

Note: For a detailed guide on where to find articles, read this post

• ~08:30 - 12:00 - First deep-work slot. No phone in my office room, no notifications on Slack.
• 12:00 - 13:00 - First meal of the day.
• 13:00 - 13:30 - Brief walk. Answer Slack messages, check emails.
• 13:30 - 16:30 - Second deep-work slot. No phone in my office room, no notifications on Slack.
• 16:30 - 17:00 - Answer Slack messages, cool-down from second deep-work slot.

At this point the day is over, so I don’t have a clear agenda until ~20:30.

• ~20:30 - 21:30 - Dinner + Brief walk.
• ~21:30 - Shower.
• ~23:00 - Go to sleep.

On Fridays, I plan out my next week, I keep a table view in Notion for each month (which I set up the last Friday of each month) that is grouped by Day and sorted by time, it looks like this:

Whenever I mark any task as Done it dissappears from the list, due to other filter in the table view.

This keeps my weeks organized and is also a historical database of the things I do in my life. I can easily find on these databases the last time I did something, for example: medical appointments, work meetings, travels, etc.

It takes quite some time to set up this framework, but once its up and running, maintaining is pretty straightforward and it doesn’t take too much of my time.

How do you organize your days/weeks/months?