In the world of vlogging and independent filmmaking, one of the most recognizable names and faces is that of Casey Neistat’s. His YouTube channel has amassed over 8.8m subscribers and 2.02 billion views, earning him an estimated net worth of $12 million.

As a filmmaker he has produced projects for clients such as Samsung, Nike and Mercedes-Benz. Aside from his video and film productions, he also co-founded the technology company Beme, which was eventually acquired and shuttered by CNN in late 2017 before becoming the multimedia organization Beme News.

The secret to Casey’s success

Neistat might be known for his on-screen presence, but his off-screen actions are what have shaped his career and turned him into one of the most successful vloggers of all time. Neistat is known for having an incredible work ethic and places a huge amount of emphasis on the importance of working hard, which is effectively summed up during an interview with Tim Ferriss:

“You realize that you’ll never be the best looking person in the room. You’ll never be the smartest person in the room. You’ll never be the most educated, or the most well-versed. You can never compete on those levels. But what you can always compete on, the true egalitarian aspect to success, is hard work. You can always work harder than the next guy.”

If you need more convincing of how hard Neistat works, take a look at his daily routine, as outlined in Ferriss’ book, Tools of Titans: he wakes up at 4.30am and goes about his day splitting his time between work projects and his young family. He falls asleep at 1am, usually on the sofa or at his desk, and repeats it all again the next day.

His approach might seem radical, and to an extent it is, but Neistat has always maintained that your failures and struggles define your success.

“It’s always the struggles that define you in life. Look back at your life whether you’re 13 years old or 80 years old and it’s always the hardest times that made you who you are.”

How to form habits to build a work ethic like Casey Neistat’s

Despite arguments of it being an innate quality or an attitude that can’t be developed, a strong work ethic is largely based on a person’s habits. In other words, optimizing your habits and approach to work will inevitably lead to more, better quality results. And as with most habits, breaking them down into smaller, easily doable tasks makes the challenge of developing them much more manageable.

1. Start NOW

There comes a point when you simply have to start, and what better time to start than now? Neistat puts it brilliantly:

“I’m never going to get any younger, but right now I’m completely healthy, I’m full of energy, and who knows how long this will last. I doubt I’ll be feeling that when I’m 50 or 60 years old — so I want to do it, now.”

Spend 5 minutes working on a new task/project

This project or task could be anything from starting a blog, getting started on a business plan, or taking up a new hobby. Effort tends to lead to progress, and committing as little as 5 minutes each day to working on something you’ve been intending to do will help to build some upward momentum and get you moving in the right direction of completing your goals.

2. Manage your time

Scheduling your day will often reveal where you have (or don’t have) spare time available to work on other projects or hobbies. There’s a great example of this during an episode of the David Dobrik podcast in a discussion about Neistat:

“He’s got it figured out. He knows how to time manage. I was in New York, right, and I ask Casey to hang out… it went something like this:”

David: “Hey Casey, I want to hang out, I want to see you. I’m like 20 minutes away.”

Casey: “Ok cool, I have 37 minutes to spare.”

David: “Oh ok, maybe another day.”

Casey: “No I have 37 minutes, come by right now. You’re 20 minutes away. That gives us 17 minutes to hang out.”

David: “(oh shit) Yeah, I’m on it”

“…I went over, we shot a video, we got work done, and we hung out. I didn’t even realize that that time was there because I just don’t think like that. I don’t think that I could get something done like that.”

You can train yourself to develop a similar approach as Casey by using tools or processes in order to help you spot gaps in your schedule: For example, in your calendar, you could:

Fill every slot in your day tomorrow

Commit every block of time to something. Initially it’s wise to be conservative with your time, taking into account things like travel/commute times and even breaks. Be realistic. By doing so, you’ll avoid overcommitments and the potential frustration of clients or colleagues. Over time, you’ll be able to refine your definition of “realistic” and apply those insights into making more accurate time commitments in the future. The key is to start getting in the habit of granular scheduling and building that familiarity with your time now.

3. Supplement sleep with exercise

A controversial one, we’ll preface this bit of guidance from Neistat with advice from other experts, such as Arianna Huffington and Tim Ferriss, both of whom are staunch advocates of ample sleep for the benefit of your mental and physical health.

Neistat has suggested that by supplementing your sleep with exercise you’ll feel more rested, have more energy, and generally feel better. While that might be true for him, sleep requirements vary drastically between individuals. With that in mind, you can take steps to reduce the amount of sleep you get each night gradually in order to avoid major consequences to your health. For example, you could:

Gradually reduce your sleep by 5 minutes each week

and/or

Add 5 minutes each week to your daily gym/exercise routines

For an even more gradual approach, you might consider increasing the amount of activity you do each week by 5 minutes before you begin reducing your sleep. Keep in mind that you may already be getting just the right amount (or not enough) sleep as it is so take it slowly and listen to your body.

As always, the suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, visit and subscribe to our blog at evolution2.co/blog.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How to Build a Strong Work Ethic Like Casey Neistat was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Arnold Schwarzenegger has been a household name for the better part of 50 years. His is arguably one of the most iconic representations of the “American Dream” that exists, as his rise to fame has ranged across a host of industries and fields. Originating in Austria, Arnold moved to the USA in hopes of becoming a successful bodybuilder. He achieved that dream several times over, winning the Mr. Olympia title a record 7 times.

After dominating the fitness industry for over a decade Schwarzenegger moved into the film industry and Hollywood launched him into the mainstream spotlight. He got his first big break when he starred as Conan the Barbarian. Shortly afterward, his acting career took off and he has since starred in several blockbusters including The Terminator series, Total Recall, Kindergarten Cop, and many more.

A shift towards the political arena culminated in Schwarzenegger becoming Governor of California between 2003 and 2011. With an estimated net worth of $300m, Schwarzenegger has been able to forge a personal brand that is globally recognized from essentially nothing.

Why Arnold Schwarzenegger makes a habit of a daily routine

If you’ve been following our articles you’ll know that most, if not all, successful businesspeople have some form of routine or daily habits that they practice and attribute to their success. However, it will be difficult to find an individual whose life has been so heavily shaped by such a repetitive routine, both inside and outside of the gym as Arnold’s.

Schwarzenegger has long praised the benefits of a strict daily routine, claimed that it’s “a good way of introducing more discipline and control in the rest of your life.” Having a routine that you follow religiously ensures that you not only get things done on a consistent basis, but also that you make the most of the hours you have in each day.

How to make a habit of a daily routine like Arnold Schwarzenegger

As with success in general, shaping your daily routine isn’t going to happen overnight, so don’t expect it to be easy. However, as Schwarzenegger points out, there are a few small tasks or sub-habits that you can use to build foundations for a strict daily routine that you’ll be able to stick to for years to come.

1. Clean and tidy your home

Cleaning probably sounds mundane and boring — for many people it is, particularly young people. However, for Arnold it forged part of his everyday routine when he was building his physique in the early years. In his autobiography “Total Recall,” he outlines his typical cleaning routine:

“We vacuumed regularly; the dishes were always done, with nothing piling up; and the bed was always made, military-style. We were both into the discipline of getting up in the morning and straightening up before you leave the house. The more you do it, the more automatic it becomes, and the less effort it takes. Our apartment was always way cleaner than anyone else’s I went to, men or women.”

You might be thinking, “what does cleaning have to do with fitness?” Well, as Arnold points out, it’s all to do with forming the discipline around a task you hate or dislike doing: the more you do it, the automatic it becomes. It becomes second nature to you, rather than something you have to actively pursue and motivate yourself to do each day. These principles can be carried over to fitness, and other aspects of your day. You can start putting this sub-habit into practice when you:

Spend 10 minutes cleaning up before you leave the house in the morning

Obviously, depending on how messy your house is, 10 minutes might not be enough to tidy it completely, but that’s fine. If you gradually increase the time each day you’ll end up having parts of your house tidied that you didn’t know were dirty!

2. Workout at the same time every day

For most of his life, Schwarzenegger has prioritized fitness above all else. He has built his daily routine around the gym and his workouts rather than fitting them in whenever he can. Showing up at the exact same time every morning for a hard workout before work shows dedication of the highest order according to Schwarzenegger, “but it’s this kind of dedication that yields the best results.”

Work out(!)

It’s as simple as that — work out: something that Richard Branson — using those two very words — has been a strong advocate of as well. Be realistic if you aren’t already in the habit (or have never been in the habit) of working out. For example, pick two or three days per week to start, gradually increasing the frequency of your workouts over time.

3. Create an environment to support your habits and routine

It’s not easy to start building a tough routine or new habits alone, so finding someone, or people, to help you achieve the regularity of a routine can be a big help. This person might just be a training partner with similar goals, or it could be a friend who you live with who is also motivated to succeed.

Arnold trained at a gym with other aspiring bodybuilders. As you can imagine, it probably wasn’t too hard to find the motivation to show up every day when your competitors are training in the same space.

“Franco would just do his 5 sets of squats and 5 sets of leg extensions, and he would just walk out because he had naturally big thighs, but I had to do my 25 sets,” Arnold explained.

“Franco would leave three-quarters of the way through the workout. Sometimes in the evening, he wouldn’t come. So I said to myself, well, I’ve got to go, since I’ve only got 8 or 9 weeks left to and to train for the Olympia, I’ve got to get someone who’s as hungry as I am”

This is a great example of how Arnold used his training partner to a) motivate himself to improve, but b) realize that he needed to change his partner to improve further. For your fitness goals, you could:

Workout with a training partner [x] days per week

You can apply this to things other than fitness as well. Having a friend or colleague who acts as support for your business or when you’re studying for an exam or preparing for a new role can be helpful. In that case you could tweak the habit to say “meet with business partner [x] times per week to discuss career progress or strategy,” for example.

As always, the suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, visit and subscribe to our blog at evolution2.co/blog.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How to Use Habits Like Arnold Schwarzenegger to Build a Consistent Fitness Routine was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Steve Jobs is arguably the most impactful individual (so far) on the way that we interact with technology in our daily lives. He co-founded Apple in 1976 with Steve Wozniak and began what is widely known as the microcomputer revolution with the launch of the Apple I. Apple is now one of the largest companies in the world with a market value of $880 billion.

With an aggressive personality and reputation of abrasiveness amongst his colleagues, Jobs was forced out of Apple in 1985. After leaving Apple, Jobs founded NeXT, a computer platform development company that specialized in producing machines for higher-education and businesses. He also played a vital part in the early stage development of Pixar, whose visual effects-based technology used in the production of their first film Toy Story was made possible by Jobs’s funding.

Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 and introduce products such as the iPhone, iPod, and iPad. Jobs passed away in 2011 after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer, but his legacy will undoubtedly live on for years to come.

How Steve Jobs used walks to boost his creativity

As mentioned in the book Becoming Steve Jobs, Steve often took brainstorming walks with others to inspire creativity and it’s suspected that several of his breakthrough ideas came during these walks — whether they were with colleagues or on his own.

In the book Neurowisdom, neuroscience researchers Mark Waldman and Chris Manning suggest that when one is focused on a task, he or she is using the decision making mind. “Aha! moments” often come when one takes a break from a task and engages the creative mind by allowing for mind-wandering activities like daydreaming.

This is exactly why Jobs was a fan of walking — it was a time when he had perfect opportunity to explore his imagination.

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while,” according to the former Apple CEO.

How to incorporate walking into your day to boost creativity

Walking is a great mechanism of inspiring creativity and we’ve identified a few sub-habits that can help you to develop and maintain this healthy and potentially (intellectually) rewarding routine.

1. Take a walk each day

Setting aside some time to walk without purpose in order to let the mind flow and think naturally is the most obvious first step and something that Jobs did extensively. A good time to do this is usually in the morning or evening, when your mind is less distracted by tasks and decision-focused questions. So,

Go for a [x] minute walk in the [morning/evening]

If you have a dog this can be great time to use as creative thinking while also checking off another task that you’d have to do anyhow.

2. Make use of airplane mode

Turning on airplane mode before you go for a walk is a useful trick that helps reduce the chances of distractions like vibrations or ringtones. This allows you to focus on your thoughts, your surroundings, or the person or people accompanying you. So you should also:

Turn on airplane mode before every walk or walking meeting

You can use any number of things as a trigger for switching your phone to airplane mode. For example, if you live in a colder climate perhaps your trigger is putting on a coat or jacket. Better yet, simply leave your phone at your workspace before heading out for your walk.

3. Skip the bus or subway commute

If you’re only a 15–20 minute walk from a meeting or a date why not use your legs instead of driving or using public transportation? It’s another excuse to go for a walk and another opportunity to get creative without having to think about setting aside additional time. You should:

Walk to all appointments that are within [x] miles

One added bonus for this habit is that you’re increasing your steps each day which may help you keep on top of your health and fitness goals over time. Just make sure to plan accordingly and lengthen your commute times in order to arrive in time.

All of these suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, visit and subscribe to our blog at evolution2.co/blog.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

Build a Habit of Walking Like Steve Jobs to Boost Creativity was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Jack Dorsey started out as a computer programmer and fast became one of the most recognizable faces in Silicon Valley. He has amassed a net worth of $3.3 billion, primarily through his work as co-founder and CEO of Twitter, and founder and CEO of Square, a mobile payments company with a $17.22 billion market cap.

After returning to Twitter in 2015, Dorsey put into motion a series of changes in an attempt to turn around what was then a struggling company. They included the introduction of ‘Moments,’ an increase in the length of tweets, and a revamped advertising strategy. You could argue that Dorsey’s impact as the once-again CEO is starting to show, with Twitter’s stock price up 42% in 2017 and at the highest price it has been since December 2015.

Why Jack Dorsey includes morning meditation in his daily routine

Dorsey was removed his original position as CEO at Twitter in 2008. His focus on non-work related hobbies, including sewing and drawing classes, coupled with frequent appearances at parties annoyed his co-workers. He then had a spell where he went “rogue” and managed to alienate his former colleagues at Twitter even further.

Dorsey turned to meditation in order to “steady the boat”, and as part of his consistent routine, he added 30 minutes of the practice to his morning each day.

“I look to build a lot of consistent routine. Same thing every day. Allows a steady state that enables me to be more effective when I do have to react to something out of band,” said Dorsey during a 2016 Product Hunt Q&A.

The idea of building a steady state is something that Tony Robbins refers to as a result of his morning routine. As humans, we can’t make rational, logical decisions when we’re emotionally turbulent. Meditation is Dorsey’s way of stabilizing his mind and body before a day of work, and potentially tough decisions.

What’s more, as Dorsey himself puts it, “a healthier lifestyle ultimately makes me more creative and allows me to think more cohesively.” With that in mind, his morning meditation forms part of his healthy lifestyle and is critical to his ability to manage not one, but two large organizations.

How to build a habit of morning meditation like Jack Dorsey

While attempting to build a habit is tricky in and of itself, people seem to really struggle with morning habit building over those during any other times of the day. Here are a few ways, inspired by Dorsey, that you might use to go about building your morning meditation routine.

1. Sleep in total darkness for optimal sleep quality

Naturally, you’ll be much more inclined to get up earlier after a good night’s sleep. This is vital if you’re planning to wake up early and even more important if you expect to practice meditation. You can blackout your room by ensuring you have good blinds or curtains, but by also removing any potential artificial light, such as:

Avoid using devices or looking at bright screens 15 minutes before bed

Light inhibits the secretion of melatonin — the hormone that controls your sleep and wake cycles — and reducing its impact on your sleep should be a high priority.

2. Pick your meditation spot in advance

Most people will benefit from meditating in the same spot as it helps them build a habit around the daily practice. Setting up your meditation spot the night before so that when you wake up you can just go straight into your meditation without distraction is a great way to reduce the chances that you’ll skip the exercise. So make it a goal to:

Meditate [x] minutes after you wake-up

A daily alarm or reminder just in case it slips your mind after your deep sleep is always helpful, particularly in the first few days of trying.

3. Start with a short meditation and simple technique

As mentioned, meditation can be hard to get into and tricky to make a habit of initially, so start with a simple form of meditation and only expect to meditate for a few minutes at a time. Try to:

Meditate for 5 minutes each morning

You can increase the length by 30 seconds each day or week if you wish. Over time, you might also want to experiment with different forms of meditation, for example, Heart Rhythm Meditation (HRM), Kundalini, Zazen, Transcendental Meditation, or even Vipassana Meditation.

All of the suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, visit and subscribe to our blog at evolution2.co/blog.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How to Build a Morning Meditation Routine Like Jack Dorsey was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

We recently wrote about the slow-carb diet that Tim Ferriss used to help him get into shape while he was working on his various books, advising some of the world’s largest companies, and traveling the world. However, and perhaps more importantly, Ferriss has a habit of, well… making a habit of things!

The famous host of ‘The Tim Ferriss Show’ has also been known to focus heavily on optimizing his nighttime routine in order to improve his sleep quality. Sleep is important to everyone, but for someone like Ferriss who chronically suffered from insomnia for much of his life, getting enough shut eye can be priceless. Add along with the pressures associated with tight book deadlines, plus the strain of running multiple businesses, it’s not hard to see why Ferriss has attempted to use an evening routine to maximize his sleep quality.

“Ours is a culture where we wear our ability to get by on very little sleep as a kind of badge of honor that symbolizes work ethic, or toughness, or some other virtue — but really, it’s a total profound failure of priorities and of self-respect,” said Ferris, in one of his works, Tools of Titans.

Here, Ferris rightly identifies that as humans we simply need to ensure we’re getting enough sleep. This is something that several high-profile business people have alluded to (most notably Arianna Huffington) but despite their advice and guidance, many people still prefer to dodge those precious hours of shut-eye.

For those who have tried, and ultimately failed to achieve an evening routine that optimizes their sleep pattern, there may be some things that you can learn from Tim and his experiences.

How to build an evening routine to optimizes your sleep quality

Tim Ferriss is known for experimenting with tools, foods, drinks, and anything else that he can get his hands on that might improve any aspect of his life. This holds true for his evening routine — he even has a separate one for his evenings when he is travelling.

Here, we’ve taken inspiration from his more commonly practiced and proven-effective techniques for maximizing sleep quality.

1. Drink a hot, decaffeinated beverage to help you relax

One thing to mention before anything else: it’s strongly advised that you avoid drinking caffeine after 5 or 6 pm. As Ferris himself says, “Even if you don’t feel it, it’s in there.”

However, that doesn’t mean to say that you should completely cut all hot beverages, in fact, Ferriss actually recommends a hot, decaffeinated beverage before bed. Not only does it help relax your body, it also helps digestion before and during sleep. One way you can start making a habit of this is to:

Set an alarm [x] minutes before you go to sleep to remind you to prepare a cup of hot tea or decaf coffee

Setting an alarm is a good way to not only remind you to prepare a hot beverage but it can also act as a notification to remind you that it’s time to begin winding down your body and mind for sleep and begin your evening routine.

2. Take a hot bath or shower to relax your muscles and sooth your skin

Ideally, you’ll be able to soak your body in a hot bath and use some epsom salts which are “for systemic magnesium supplementation and muscular relaxation” and “speedy recovery after workouts,” according to Ferriss.

If you don’t have the patience for a hot bath, take a shower and try to relax, even sitting down in the shower might help. You can even use the hot-beverage queue as a trigger to remind you to run your bath or turn on the shower. Or you can:

Set a reminder or alarm to run a hot bath or shower (x) minutes before you want to sleep

An added tip: leave your towel and evening wear ready for once you get out of the bath — again, over time you’ll begin to associate each of these with sleep, and thus, prepare your body for rest.

3. Read a book — ideally fiction — in order to relax your mind

Ferriss is another advocate of reading before bed to tire your eyes and relax your mind, decluttering it of technology or business-related information. However he takes it a step further by suggesting that you read books based specifically on fiction.

“I’m not going to read something like a nonfiction business book that’s going to keep my problem-solving apparatus in sixth gear. That’s not helpful, I need to turn that off. So I’ll read fiction.”

You can begin to build a habit of reading just before you sleep by:

Leaving a book beside the bath, (or your bed if you’ve had a shower) — read (x) pages

You can increase the number of pages that you read each night or week, which not only means you use reading as an effective — and productive — part of your evening routine, but also ensures that you’re engaging in activity that doesn’t revolve around a screen or device, which has been shown to interfere with sleep.

As always, each of the suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, including Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington and Jeff Bezos, visit and subscribe to our blog here.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How Tim Ferriss’s Nighttime Routine Maximizes His Sleep Quality was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Billionaire media giant and philanthropist Oprah Winfrey is best known for hosting her own talk show, “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” from 1986 to 2011. In the show’s first year, it reached an audience of 10 million people, grossing $125 million, of which Winfrey received $30 million. She is now worth an estimated $2.8 billion, according to Forbes.

In 2000, she founded O Magazine, which according to their website, now has a circulation of 2.4 million — mainly consisting of paid subscriptions. Winfrey launched “Oprah’s Book Club” as a segment on her show — TIME magazine later referred to the club as “the greatest force in publishing today, with the power to raise authors from the dead or crucify them on the national stage.”

Not showing any signs of slowing down, Winfrey then launched her own television network, “The Oprah Winfrey Network,” and recently sold 24.5% of the company to Discovery Communications for $70 million. She also has a 10% stake in Weight Watchers that is worth an estimated $344 million.

How Oprah Winfrey uses journaling to build her mental strength

Winfrey has without doubt achieved more in her lifetime than most of us can come to expect, but it hasn’t been without her fair share of low points. Brought up in extreme poverty, and subjected to abuse as a child, Winfrey has had one constant that she claims has helped her throughout her life — her journal, in which she writes on a daily basis.

After being swept away by a busy schedule, Winfrey revisited her journaling routine in the 1990s and has continued it ever since, citing it as an excellent way to build mental stability and strength.

“You radiate and generate more goodness for yourself when you’re aware of all you have and not focusing on your have-nots,” according to Winfrey.

It’s Oprah’s way of practicing gratitude, and remembering the smaller things in life that are important to her amidst the frantic chaos of her busy lifestyle.

How to make a habit of journaling like Oprah Winfrey

Implement the following sub-habits into your daily routine if you want to incorporate journaling to your lifestyle.

1. Write down things that you are grateful for every day

Writing down your thoughts and feeling is much more powerful than just saying them out loud or keeping them in your head. As outlined in our piece on Tony Robbins, people tend to make poor decisions when they’re angry or fearful, but gratitude can alleviate both of these, according to Robbins. You can start by:

Writing down one thing you’re grateful for each day

For example, maybe someone held the door open for you, or gave you the change you were missing for an item you bought in the grocery store. You can then increase this each week or month until you reach 3–5 points each day.

2. Read back and reflect over previous journal entries

Reminding yourself of how grateful you’ve been over the last day, week or month is a much more effective practice than you’d think.

“How had I, with all my options and opportunities, become one of those people who never have time to feel delight? I was stretched in so many directions, I wasn’t feeling much of anything. Too busy doing,” said Oprah.

Her approach was to read through her older diary entries to remind her of times when she felt gratitude in it’s abundance. It’s a simple practice to start, for example:

Each day, review one entry from a previous day

As you enter more into your journal you can take more time to review weeks, or months worth of entries, and thus, building up a stronger sense of gratitude.

3. Share your gratitude with other people

Rather than discussing the things you want or don’t have, share the things you do have and why you’re grateful for them with other people. Oprah took this to a whole different level by sharing her older diary entries online, but you can begin with:

Share one of your journal entries with a friend or colleague once each week

You can then increase how often you share your journal entries each week or month, and with different people.

All of the suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your free account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, including Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington and Jeff Bezos, visit and subscribe to our blog here.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How Oprah Winfrey Uses the Habit of Journaling to Build Mental Strength was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Richard Branson is one of the most iconic entrepreneurs in the world. The prominent English-born owner of the Virgin Group, which now controls over 400 companies, began his entrepreneurial journey in the 1970’s and has since built up a net worth of $5.2 billion. What started out as a modest mail-order record business evolved into a chain of record stores known as Virgin Records (and then Virgin Megastores from 1972). After a period of rapid growth Branson set up the Virgin Atlantic airline in the 1980’s. Richard received a knighthood for “services to entrepreneurship” in 2000, and in 2004 he founded the spaceflight corporation Virgin Galactic.

Branson has also dedicated a large portion of his life to philanthropy, and in 2013 he joined the long list of wealthy individuals involved in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, devoting half of his wealth to the cause. He’s also an author of many books, most notably ‘Like a Virgin: Secrets They Won’t Teach You at Business School’, ‘Losing My Virginity: How I Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way’, and his latest release, ‘Finding My Virginity: The New Autobiography’.

Richard Branson on making a habit of looking after your health as you get older

If there’s one thing that Branson is well-known for outside of the business world it is his commitment to health and fitness, particularly as he has gotten older. He has always stressed the importance of staying healthy in relation to his success and happiness.

“I seriously doubt that I would have been as successful in my career (and happy in my personal life) if I hadn’t always placed importance on my health and fitness,” said Branson in one of his regular blog articles.

At the age of 67, Branson is still a staunch advocate of rising early to make sure he gets in a morning of exercise, whether it’s through a sport or gym session. Other than physical health reasons, he also stresses that this routine has helped him maintain a steady mental state.

“I definitely can achieve twice as much by keeping fit, it keeps the brain functioning well,” said Branson in an interview during an event at his home on Necker Island.

How to stay fit and healthy like Sir Richard Branson

Branson has built this habit of daily morning exercise over the course of forty years as a businessman, proving that it definitely takes time to cement a habit into your lifestyle. With that said, there are a few achievable sub-habits you can adopt that will help you along in your development of a daily exercise routine.

1. Wake up and exercise first thing in the morning

We’ve explored the benefits to waking up early several times, and it’s no surprise that once again as a tendency of Mr. Branson. In the morning, distractions are at a minimum; it’s also the perfect time to get exercise out of the way and let you get on with your tasks.

Doing some exercise early in the day guarantees that you’ve at least stretched your legs and the release of endorphins early in the morning can set you up nicely for the day ahead. You can start a simple habit, for example, such as:

Do [insert exercise] for 10 minutes in the morning after you wake up

Sticking to the same exercise for the first few weeks will help, and as you get familiar with the routine you can increase the time gradually.

2. Initially, do an exercise or sport that you enjoy

Richard Branson actually supports the idea of doing an exercise that you enjoy above all else as it makes it much more likely that you’ll get out of bed and moving in the first place. What’s more, if you play a sport such as tennis or surfing you can do it with a friend or family member. You’ll find then that not only do you spend more time with people you care about, but that you may also hold each other accountable, and are therefore more likely to motivate each other to get your day started as soon as possible. You can therefore set a goal like:

Exercise with a partner 1 morning per week

You can start by arranging to do a sport or exercise with someone on just one morning each week. As you progress you can increase the number of days on which you workout with other people (and alternate workout partners themselves), and use that as a mechanism to try new sports or exercises.

3. Go to sleep earlier to ensure that you’re rested

Sleep is a highly discussed topic, and it’s something that fluctuates greatly across a range of successful business people. Richard Branson himself suggests that getting to bed earlier and ensuring you’re rested will also increase the likelihood that you wake up and repeatedly work out before doing anything else. A good way to introduce this into your routine is to:

Move your bedtime 5 minutes earlier every day until reaches <<insert your target bedtime>>

A side effect of working out in the morning before work will be that you gradually feel more tired in the evening, and thus, feel more inclined to go to bed earlier.

As always, each of these suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

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To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, including Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington and Jeff Bezos, visit and subscribe to our blog here.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How to Stay Fit and Healthy Like Sir Richard Branson was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

It’s not easy to follow in the footsteps of someone as iconic and impactful as Steve Jobs. However, it’s fair to say that Tim Cook has done a solid job as CEO since the Apple co-founder resigned in August 2011. Cook, formerly of IBM and Compaq, moved to Apple in 1998 and he was a integral member of the team that took Apple from a declining position to being the largest company in the world with a current market cap of $872 billion.

With an estimated net worth of $625 million, Cook has certainly done well during his time at Apple, but he is also known for his philanthropic efforts and has pledged to give all of his wealth towards a range of charitable means.

Tim Cook’s sleep routine and habits

Cook has historically kept his personal life well out of the public eye. As a result, outside of Apple, there’s not much we know about this CEO. However, there is one aspect of his daily routine that he is renowned for: being a very early riser. He wakes up at around 3:45am PT every day. He’s tweeted “Got some extra rest for today’s event. Slept in ’til 4:30.” which puts into perspective just how much he advocates the early start.

Cook sees this as an opportunity to catch-up on what has been happening in Asia and Europe that day and to get ahead of emails, which he likes to do first thing in the morning. He also uses this time to get a workout in, which is a common practice of many early-risers with busy schedules. However, as he points out, it doesn’t feel like a chore for him to get up that early:

“The thing about it is, when you love what you do, you don’t really think of it as work. It’s what you do. And that’s the good fortune of where I find myself,” said Cook.

How to build sleeping habits to wake up early like Tim Cook

1. Establish a sleep routine that you can repeat every night

Repetition is key when attempting to build a habit so it’s important to realistically consider what your sleeping routine could be. If you’re a night owl and enjoy staying up late you’re unlikely to suddenly start sleeping from 9pm until 4am. It has to reasonable based on your work hours, family circumstances, and lifestyle. You may need to trade some of this evening time for morning time so make peace with that now.

Pick a time that you’d like to wake up and set incremental targets to shift towards that time, for example, set yourself two targets of:

“Move your alarm forward 5 minutes every night over the course of a month ”

And

“go to bed 5 minutes earlier each night”

This ensures that whilst you’re getting up earlier you’re still also maintaining enough sleep by going to bed slightly earlier — it’s important not to sacrifice your sleep length just to wake up at 6am.

Note: this is a habit that you’ll only need to maintain until you reach your desired wakeup time.

2. Know what you’re going to do when you wake-up (just like Tony Robbins)

Planning what you’re going to do when you wake up before you go to sleep not only puts your mind at ease, but it also means that when you do wake up you’ll have a clearer thought process. You can start small by selecting one thing to do as you get out of bed.

“<task to do> as soon as alarm goes off”

This doesn’t have to be a difficult task, rather it should just act as a kickstart for your day, or an indicator to yourself that you’ve now woken up and you’re starting your day. It could be as simple as making the bed or packing your bag for the day.

3. Remove electronics and devices from your room before bed (Arianna Huffington recommends this too)

This ultimately serves two purposes:

1. it compensates for using your devices earlier in the day i.e. you’re doing more work earlier in the day rather than later at night.
2. it helps you associate device downtime with bedtime. You’ll be able to build a habit of going to sleep a period of time after putting away your devices for the day.

One way you can achieve this is to:

“Activate airplane mode 10 minutes before bed”

You can do this in-sync with sub-habit (1) above or you can choose to do this separately.

One thing to note is that although Tim Cook chooses to wake up at 3.45am, it doesn’t mean you have to do that as well. He has found over time that it works for him based on his goals, lifestyle and profession. You might find that waking up at 6am or 9am works best for you — and that’s a much more effective approach to success than simply copying someone else’s routine. The key is to be thoughtful about how you set up your routine and not just run on autopilot.

The suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful like Tim Ferriss, Arianna Huffington and Elon Musk, visit and subscribe to our blog here.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How You Can Use Habit Building to Wake up Early Like Tim Cook was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Tony Robbins is a globally renowned life coach, author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Robbins is best known for his seminars and self-help books including ‘Unlimited Power,’ ‘Awaken the Giant Within,’ ‘Unshakeable: Your Guide to Financial Freedom,’ and ‘Money Master the Game.’ He has helped more than 50 million people from over 100 countries to achieve breakthroughs and transform their lives. In his work with the Anthony Robbins Foundation and Feeding America, over the course of 38 years, Robbins has fed more than 42 million people.

Robbins has an estimated net worth of $480 million, and in 2015 and 2016 he was listed on the Worth Magazine Power 100 list. He has worked personally with a diverse range of individuals including President Bill Clinton, Serena Williams, Margaret Thatcher, Nelson Mandela, Usher, Hugh Jackman, Oprah, and many more.

How Tony Robbins prepares himself for success

So, how does a man who went from rags to riches manage to prepare himself for success every day? Robbins put a huge amount of emphasis on the importance of a daily routine, and he chooses to do a 10-minute ‘priming’ routine every morning.

“If you don’t have 10 f — -ing minutes for your life, you don’t have a life,” suggests Robbins.

It prepares him mentally, spiritually, and physically for the day ahead, and allows him to receive a mental state whereby he can begin to make optimal decisions.

“If you do something from a pissed off state, from an exhausted state, from a frustrated state, from a weak state, it won’t matter what you do. The thoughts are weak when you’re in a weak place. The actions are weak,” said Robbins.

How to build a morning routine habit like Tony Robbins

1. Practice gratitude

People tend to make poor decisions when they’re angry or fearful — gratitude can alleviate both of these, according to Robbins. Starting the practice of gratitude can happen at any time during the day you want, but getting into a routine of doing it in the morning can set you up for the day ahead.

“Write down one thing you’re grateful for each morning when you wake up”

Initially, for the first few weeks you might think it’s quite difficult to write down multiple things each morning, but once you get more accustomed to the process, you’ll realize that it’s simple and incredibly fulfilling.

2. Reduce the decisions you have to make when you’re not 100% awake

If you have to make tough decisions as you wake up or as you’re not 100% awake, you’ll be less likely to make positive ones. With that in mind, you want to automate your actions every morning.. You can achieve this by starting with a simple energy giving task in the morning like this:
“Do <enter task here> for 5 minutes every morning of the week”

For most people, this might be something like a workout, or yoga, for others it might be 5 minutes of writing or reading.

3. Visualize your goals/targets daily

Understand why you’re doing the tasks you plan to do today. It’s all part of a bigger picture for you and your future, so try not to let short-term frustrations or disruptions get in your way. You should align your daily tasks with your long-term goals, which is much easier to do if you regularly remind yourself of what it is you want to achieve:

“Review my long term goals every morning for 2 minutes”

If you don’t have any long-term goals, you can start by thinking of one and writing that down by itself. If you feel the need to or requirement to, add goal to the list you can do that too.

The suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful like Elon Musk, Arianna Huffington and Jeff Bezos, visit and subscribe to our blog here.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How to Prepare for Success Like Tony Robbins was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Few entrepreneurs have had such a profound an impact on as many people in the last 5–10 years as Tim Ferriss. The list of achievements under attributed to his name speaks for itself, but Ferriss is perhaps best known for his books and podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show.

In 2007, he published his first book, ‘The Four Hour Work Week’ (2+ million copies sold), largely inspired by his time running his first company, BrainQUICKEN, which was sold to a London-based equity firm. Follow-up books were ‘The Four Hour Body’ (1+ million copies sold) and ‘The Four Hour Chef’ (350,000+ copies sold). He launched ‘Tools of Titans’ in 2016, which subsequently debuted at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. His fifth book, ‘Tribe of Mentors’ was released in November 2017.

Habit building and diet with Tim Ferriss

Tim Ferriss is a staunch advocate of habit building, and a prime example is his approach to diet and nutrition. In ‘The Four Hour Body’ he details the slow-carb diet. In short, the slow-carb diet — one high in protein and fats but low in carbohydrates — is Tim’s suggested approach for people who want to lose weight. Rather than restricting people to “clean” eating seven days a week, the program allows for a cheat day each week.

Tim himself struggled with health and fitness and recognized that many other people struggle for similar reasons. “The decent method you follow is better than the perfect method you quit,” said Ferriss. It’s this belief that inspired him to form dietary guidelines around a lifestyle, rather than an out-and-out diet.

To help himself and others stick to the routine of a healthier collection of meals throughout the week, Tim developed a couple of tricks to help him build habits in order to achieve a regular eating schedule. These three suggestions aren’t necessarily steps; instead, they’re stand-alone sub-habits that Tim suggests through his guide. Some people might find that one or two of these apply more to them than the third, for example.

1. Eat the same meals for breakfast and lunch every day

It might sound boring, but ultimately it will ensure that you get into a routine of eating nutritious, filling meals six days of the week. By starting the day with the same breakfast and then topping up with a repetitive lunch, you’re restricting the opportunity to stray from your set meals. The easiest way to do this is to pick a breakfast that you enjoy and have it, perhaps with slight variations, every single day. Preparing it in advance is also strongly advised.

“Eat the same breakfast every morning for a week”

Note, that while it’s important that you enjoy the breakfast, it’s also essential that it’s a nutritious start to your day. As Tim suggests, as part of the slow-carb diet you’ll be eating predominantly fats and protein, with minimal carbohydrates. With that in mind, your repetitive meals should primarily consist of items from those foods groups.

2. Eat whatever you want one day per week

The element of the slow-carb diet that appeals to many people is the one day per week where you can eat whatever you want. Tim recommends that you do this on a Saturday, or a day when you know you’re more likely to be socializing with friends or family for example. The habit building aspect of this comes from eating your foods of choice on the same day, each week and sticking to it, for example:

“Have three meals that you don’t eat the rest of the week every Saturday”

You mainly want to be eating meals that you can’t eat during the week, but that you’d maybe like to. For example, if you like burgers, then you might choose to have one on Saturday in the above example.

3. Do a weekly food shopping trip so you always have “good foods” in your fridge/cupboards

One of the key elements of the slow-carb diet is preparation. It’s important to understand that although you can mean well and intend to eat the same meal for breakfast and lunch every day, you’ll probably fail a decent percentage of the time if you don’t have the ingredients you need. Similarly, it’s easy to be tempted by foods that are “unhealthy” if you have them in the house.

For that reason, it’s a wise idea to clear out your refrigerator and cupboards before you begin the slow-carb diet, and then write a list of everything you’ll need for the week ahead. If you don’t have the storage space for a week’s worth of food you might want to try:,

“Shop twice a week for the ingredients you need for the next three days”

This takes into account that on the 7th day of the week you’ll be eating whatever you choose. Having exactly the right amount of ingredients you need not only saves money and reduces waste, but it ensures you’re steadily in a routine of going to the store on the same day each week.

The suggested habits throughout the above article can be copied into the Evolution 2 habit tracker. Just sign-up for your account here.

Want More?

To learn more about the daily habits of the ultra successful, visit and subscribe to our blog.

Originally published at www.evolution2.co.

How to Lose Weight Using Tim Ferriss’s Slow Carb Diet was originally published in Evolutionaries on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.