Lex Fridman's Daily Routine

Lex Fridman is a computer scientist and MIT research scientist who has hosted the Lex Fridman Podcast since 2018. His daily routine has no clock times at all, only blocks of fixed length in a fixed order, with 8 hours of deep work at the center.

It opens with a mantra and 4 hours of deep work, then 10 minutes of social media and 20 of guitar. Next come 2 hours of exercise and a second 4-hour block of deep work. He eats once, about 10 hours after waking, then gives 4 hours to shallow work and 2 to reading before about 6.5 hours of sleep. He set out the order in a video and a post on X, both in 2020.

It suits researchers, writers and anyone whose best work needs long, unbroken stretches. It's also for people who like a fixed order and hate deciding what comes next.

Few people could hold 12 hours of work a day, but the shape scales down: hardest thinking first, something physical in the middle, shallow work last. Try it with two 90-minute blocks. The clock times, counted from a 7:00 AM wake, and the weekend are our estimates.