Cal Newport's Daily Routine
Finish your deep work by 5:30 PM and keep the evening. Cal Newport plans every minute of his workday, after a morning run and 25 pull-ups.
By Colin PaceUpdated
Overview
Cal Newport is a professor of computer science at Georgetown University and the author of Deep Work, his 2016 book on focus. He practices what he writes: every minute of his workday is planned, and it ends at 5:30 PM.
He wakes between 6:00 and 7:00 AM without an alarm, runs to the park and does 25 pull-ups, as he told My Morning Routine in 2018. Breakfast is with his family and the paper, and his kids get him until 8:30 AM, with no email before then. From 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM he works to a plan blocked out to the minute, a habit he explained on his blog in 2013. He is in bed by 9:30 PM and asleep by 10:00 or 10:30 PM.
Anyone buried in reactive work should give it a go. The hard stop, which he calls "fixed-schedule productivity", makes every block earn its place, so the deep work gets done without spilling into the evening. The wake time, the meals and the weekend are our estimates.
At a glance
- 8 hr 30 min sleep per night
- 59.5 hr work per week
- 3 meals per day
- 12 hr eating window
- 3.5 hr movement per week
- 7 hr play per week
Sleep
59.5 hours/week8 hr 30 min per night
- Every day10:00 PM → 6:30 AM· 8 hr 30 min
No naps.
Work
59.5 hours/week8 hr 30 min a day
- Deep work8:30 AM → 12:30 PM· 4 hr · Every day
- Deep work1:00 PM → 5:30 PM· 4 hr 30 min · Every day
Eat
14 hours/week3 meals12:12 eating window2 hr eating
- Breakfast7:00 AM → 7:30 AM· 30 min · Every day
- Lunch12:30 PM → 1:00 PM· 30 min · Every day
- Dinner6:00 PM → 7:00 PM· 1 hr · Every day
Off
Move
3.5 hours/weekRun 6:30 AM
- Run6:30 AM → 7:00 AM· 30 min · Every day
Play
7 hours/weekFamily 7:30 AM
- Every day7:30 AM → 8:30 AM· 1 hr