My Daily Routine as a Software Engineer and Dad of a 1-Year-Old

I'm finally feeling back up to speed at work after returning from my parental leave.

In this post I want to share what my daily routine looks like as a software engineer with a 1-year-old.

My Daily Routine

• 0530-0630 - Wake up. My alarm is at 0630 but I frequently get up before then typically around 0615 but sometimes as early as 0530. Once I'm up and ready I don't see the point in going back to sleep so whenever that is I start my day.
• 0630-0800 - Gym. I have been doing morning workouts for a few years now and I absolutely love them, they are a sacred part of my day. They help with mood, energy, focus, longevity, jitteriness, anxiety, etc etc etc. I do 4 lift sessions a week (chest/tri, back/bi, legs, upper accessories) with 2 cardio sessions. Lift sessions are 60 mins lifting, ~20 mins cardio (when I have time) and cardio sessions are 60 mins. 0800 is a hard cut so if I get up late, my gym session gets cut short.
• 0800-0830 - Breakfast + get ready. My wife typically makes breakfast (usually 3 eggs + a bread slice) and we eat together then I get ready for the day.
• 0830-0845 - Prep baby for daycare / Play with baby. I like to get some play time in with the baby in the morning and at night. Always a few things left to get in order before daycare like bag, diapers, lunch, snacks, clothes, etc.
• 0845-0930 - Drop baby off at daycare / errands. I drop the baby off at daycare usually around 0900 when it opens and then am back by 0915. If we need to pick smth up from the store this is often when I'll do it as traffic isn't too bad and usually not busy at stores.
• 0930-1000 - Morning ritual. This is when I meditate, journal, and plan my day. I find that centering myself for 30 mins pays large dividends the rest of the day in terms of mood, focus, and ensuring I'm focusing on the main things.
• 1000-1200 - Work Block 1. Log in and check my inbound messages, check in on tasks / PRs from the previous day, set my todos for the day, schedule in my calendar, and send out my daily (async) standup update. Then I get to work - usually wrapping up tasks from the previous days (often continuations or wrapups of agents I kicked off previous day) and trying to transition to start work on the main thing for the day.
• 1200-1230 - Lunch. Usually a small homecooked meal. I work from home and eat quickly so this is often just 15 mins somewhere in this time frame. I will sometimes read an article on my phone / think about things but typically focus eating and if my wife is wfh chat with her.
• 1230-1400 - Work Block 2. Continue working. This block is also the most common to have meetings in as it aligns with West Coast mornings so typically is a bit fragmented.
• 1400-1600 - Work Block 3. Continue working. I typically block my creation blocks into 2h windows because I think that's typically how long it takes to actually get meaningful work done (deep work block). But with AI it is changing and really I just use these as reminders of what to focus on vs hard goals on what to do in a given window.
• 1600-1700 - Wrap up tasks, close loops, and kick off agents for the next day. Usually this is just continuing whatever is left over and ensuring finished things are fully finished, logged, and communicated.
• 1700-1800 - Project Time. I build a lot of side projects and this is my dedicated time to do so. That said I haven't been very good about leaving these open as usually work spills over into this bucket and I just end up doing side tasks there. But if I ever get back to finishing work a little early this would be the time for those side projects.
• 1800-2000 - Family Time. We usually eat dinner around 1800 as a family and then give baby a bath around 1900 then hang out and play before her 2000 bedtime.
• 2000 - Baby bedtime - Very important! We basically always hit this between 1945-2015. We try not to stray too much or else it really messes up the sleep schedule.
• 2000-2030 - Work check-in. I've gotten into the habit of checking in at work one last time before bed and I think it's pretty useful for closing any additional threads that may have come in from the West Coast and also for checking in on agents and unsticking them / kicking them off for an extra turn. I'm trying to lean into a day/night cycle idea with agents where we let them cook while we're not there so this often kicks off a few extra PRs' worth of work overnight for me to review the next day.
• 2030-2100 - Shutdown. I have a shutdown system each day that tries to close open loops and plan the next day so I've closed all open loops. I find this helps with my anxiety and allows me to relax more / get to sleep better which is a virtuous cycle for the next day.
• 2100-2200 - Parent time. This is our window to do whatever we want without needing to watch the baby. Usually ends up with both of us on the couch - me on my computer researching/building/playing with Obsidian while my wife watches tv / plays vgames.
• 2200-2230 - Bedtime. Usually in bed, read a few articles, read a chapter of my book and go to sleep. I've read that reading before bed helps reduce stress and allow easier sleep and anecdotally I think that's true. Sometimes we're bad and watch tv in bed a little late but not great to do so. I sleep with earplugs, a sound machine, and an eye mask to help protect my sleep.

What about the kid?

You may have noticed that there's not much talk of the kid - who is taking care of the kid?!

• 0700-0830 - Wife takes care of baby
• 0830-0900 - Me
• 0900-1300 - Daycare
• 1300-1800 - Gparents care for baby
• 1800-2000 - Me + Wife take care of baby

So we've got a pretty good setup so I can work out in the morning and focus during my work hours. If we didn't my schedule would likely look a lot different but I'd imagine we'd try to extend daycare to a real 9-17.

I have to say that daycare has been amazing and being near grandparents that are able and willing to take care of the kid has been a godsend so we're lucky but also taking advantage as much as we can to get the best life for all involved.

Next

So that's what my current schedule looks like. Will probably fluctuate as kid daycare and stuff changes.

If you wanna see how I'm coding with agents, I snapshot my ai-dotfiles each month and make it available to HAMINIONs.

Read Next

• How I plan my day as a Senior Software Engineer - A Simple Scalable System for getting the most important thing done every day
• My Morning Meditation Ritual as a Senior Software Engineer
• What I did on Parental Leave