Lex Fridman’s — A Day in Life
Gayashan Wagachchi
Senior Software Engineer | Tech podcaster | Agile mindset | BISTEC Care®
I have been in the search of ways of how to utilize the day most effectively. During the quest I found Lex Fridman’s daily routine in a video in his YouTube channel. And that made a lot of sense to me.
Lex is the host of “The Lex Fridman Podcast” which got 4.2 million subscribers on YouTube at the time of speaking and has interviewed leading figures, including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerburg, Jordan Peterson, Michio Kaku, — recently Donald Trump.
He is a research scientist at MIT and a someone I have been really inspired by.
Here is the breakdown of a day in life of Lex Fridman.
Mantra — 30 Minutes — Morning
He starts the day with the Mantra, a list on a sheet of paper that he goes through each day. His Mantra consists of six parts.
Rules
Gratitude
Meditate on the idea that you might die at any moment today. In another words try to accept the notion today is your last day on Earth. So, embrace the fact that it’s amazing to be alive. Life is amazing. Meditation is simple; Breath in — Breath out — pause.
Long term goals (Read out loud)
The goals for next five years. These are ambitious, big goals.
Short term goals (Read out loud)
The goals for this year. These goals are the ones just out of reach, but achievable.
Visualize
Visualize going through the rest of the day and how you are getting things done successfully, focusing the timing, the beat of the day. Visualize the hardest part of the day. It’s a quick visualization like a game of Sims, on fast forward.
Principles
Core principles that you strive to live up to as a man. There are set of phrases (which he didn’t revealed) centered around Compassion, Empathy, love, Character, Integrity and Strength.
Deep work — Four Hours
First deep work session of the day. Focused on a single thing, No interruptions.
Only interruptions allowed are water, coffee, bathroom, but minimal. No phone, no music, no social media.
If an interesting idea comes to the mind during the deep work session, write it down on a google document and put aside to be addressed later on.
There are two deep work sessions in Lex’s day. He says all of his day is centered around these two deep work sessions, 8 hours of focused work, and it’s all about getting the work done no matter how hard it is. You need to gain focus and hold on to the focus. If nothing is working still stay in focus waiting for the breakthrough. He says, “The breakthrough always comes.”
Social media — 1o Minutes
Upload contents and check comments from the previous day. Keep this under 10 minutes, no exceptions.
Music — 20 Minutes
He enjoys playing guitar, piano or music. This is a relaxing time after the hard focused deep work session. He says, “It’s a private moment of joy.”
Exercise — Two Hours
“Private moment of suffering AKA Exercise.”
Lex’s exercise routine is, 1. Run a minimum of six miles in about an hour. 2. Short intense session of body weight exercises.
In the video he briefly describes how he does exercises.
“I usually start out listening to brown noise as I run. It really focuses my mind, lets me think deeply. […] And then about two, three miles into the run, when I start feeling a little better, I’ll switch to listening to an audio book. […] And afterwards I do a short but intense session of body weight exercises. […] I now do the David goggling inspired Nickel and Dime workout. So, every single minute you do five pull-ups and ten push-ups, minute on a minute. […] 15 to 20 minutes of that. […] I find it really great intense way to get the exercise in without taking too much away from your day. Hard on the mind, hard on the body, but good for the soul.”
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Cold Shower — One minute
Right after the exercise he jumps in a cold shower for one minute. He has songs playlist to play during the shower.
He might eat if he’s feeling like it, if he’s eating two times a day, depending on the day.
Deep work — Four Hours
Second deep work session of the day. Focused on a single thing, No interruptions.
Eating — 20 Minutes
He is following a keto diet, at the time of recording the video.
The meal is simple, consist of meat and vegetables.
He takes a supplement drink of multivitamins, some pills for sodium, potassium, magnesium glycinate and fish oil.
He says, “Much of nutrition science is barely a science. I like to listen to my own body and do one-person, one-subject experiment of what makes me feel good.”
Shallow Work — Four Hours
He does check emails, video editing, filming and web designing in this session. Also watch Netflix, YouTube, hanging out with friends or girlfriend time as he says, depending on the day.
He says, “This is where the possibilities of chaos are wide open. So, I can just do whatever the hell I want.”
Reading — Two Hours
Lex reads academic paper reading for one hours and fiction or non-fiction literature reading for another one hour.
And then he drifts in to sleep.
Sleeping
Lex says he tries to take 6–8 hours of sleep each day.
How ever in the beginning of the video he says, “The day starts now, after about six to eight hours of sleep. There are periods of my life where I do sprints, where I’ll pull all-nighters work crazy hours, and so on. But regularly I try to get six to eight hours of sleep plus the mythical epic 30-minute power nap.”
So, that’s a day in life of Lex Fridman. There are couple of key ingredients I found in his daily routine to maximize the productivity, and better time management and to live a better life in general.
Sleep, Diet and Exercise
In general, 6–8 hours of sleep, fasting during the first half of the day and low carb diet, and exercise at least for an hour is great for the body.
The Growth Mindset
The mindset of getting the job done, no matter how hard it is, is crucial for— get the job done. You have to set your mind first, if you want to overcome challenges and archive goals in the process.
Lex says, “Just get the job done. Don’t think about it too much and feel good once it’s completed.”
Mantra
Rules — to break bad habits and for long term good health. Gratitude — for the fact of being alive and for the amazing life. Goals — for long term and short term. Principles — that you strive to live up to.
Ritual of discipline & find joy in little things
Lex says, “Everybody is different, I think, how they discover focus, inspiration and motivation. But I’m a big believer in the discipline of ritual.”
I agree with him. Everybody is different. If you really get into Lex’s daily routine, you’ll realize that it’s built around the disciplines. He sticks into the disciplines and have little joyful moments after each hard part of the day, such as music after deep work session. However, what’s most important is to find focus, inspiration and motivation in your work — and your life.