Monk mode is a waste of time

When you look online, there are 100’s if not thousands of people telling you to get an optimised routine.

And I agree.

Having an optimised routine usually helps you get more work done and feel less stressed.

But - does having an optimised routine = a high work output?

No.

They are completely different things.

If you wake up in the morning and you already feel good, do you need to meditate?

No.

Your routine is just a tool to get more work done.

You could be drunk and scroll Tiktok for 5 hours, and if you still did all your work, it wouldn’t matter.

Obviously it will be harder to focus, but you get the point.

That is why Monk Mode isn’t that necessary.

For example, the core pillars of Monk Mode are:

1. Meditation

2. Cutting out alcohol

3. 30 minutes of exercise per day 

That is basically resting and recovering. If you are trying to change your life, resting and recovering is probably your lowest priority.

I’m not saying routines are bad, and this doesn’t mean you have to stop doing that stuff like meditating, but you have to consider if they are actually helping you or just wasting time. Ask yourself:

“By spending that amount of time doing X, am I going to be able to get more work done than the time I spent doing that thing?”

So for example, if I spend 10 minutes meditating, is that going to help me get more than 10 minutes worth of productivity back?

If I can spend 10 minutes to earn an extra hour of focused work, that is super worth it.

It might be yes, it might be no. 

The point here is that it’s never really “should I meditate and do this routine or not” it’s much more of a “is this a good trade for me right now.”

Let’s say you wake up feeling super fresh and focused one day - do you still need to meditate? Or do you just start working?

Another example is that I’ve tried quitting coffee cold turkey and never having any nicotine gum (which I absolutely love, guilty pleasure)

What happened was I was less focused, I had less energy and I enjoyed my life less because I actually really like coffee and I really like nicotine (sue me). 

So after a while of not having any coffee I was just thinking to myself “why am I doing this? What benefit am I getting by doing this health thing?”

It was zero. It wasn’t helping me at all. So why would I keep doing it? It’s just a bad trade. Maybe I didn’t stay off the coffee to get through withdrawals or something, but even then, is it really the time to focus on a 1% boost in my health when I’m trying to change my life?

And that’s what I’m saying for all this Monk Mode stuff. 

If you have a morning routine, the only purpose of it should be so you can get more work done during the day.

So my 1 hour morning routine should mean that I get 8 hours of productivity instead of 6. Which means my one hour investment gets me two extra focus hours. 

If that isn’t the case - DONT F*CKING DO IT.

I go deeper into this topic in a recent video, you should check it out here (link)