The daily habits that let me acquire 8 businesses without burning out

One thing I’ve never understood about most entrepreneurs:

They’ll spend all their time obsessing over optimizing their business... while totally neglecting their health.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m no Bryan Johnson.

But I do credit my success to building healthy habits early and sticking to them.

As a married man with four kids (all under the age of five), who’s acquired a portfolio of eight businesses in five years, it’s what allowed me to stay sane while still being there for my family and performing at my best.

My nightly and morning routines have had the most impact by far.

So for those interested, I’ll share them here.

Nightly routine

Sleep is the foundation of my productivity. There’s no skimping here!

Having small kids, I rarely sleep through the night. But I maximize it where I can.

There are three habits I never skip:

• Keep the room pitch black

Turn off every light — your TV, computer, wi-fi router... all of it. Get blackout curtains and a sleep mask if you have to.

• Keep the room’s temperature cool

Science shows we sleep better in a colder room (roughly 65°F). Snuggle up under those blankets!

• Don’t fall asleep watching a screen

Avoid watching movies or YouTube right before you sleep, especially on your phone. I know it’s tempting, because I used to do this... but it’s terrible for your sleep.

Morning routine

My biggest priorities each morning are to get sunlight and exercise.

I take morning walks just as the sun is coming up, and try to get at least 5-10 minutes of sun on my skin. I also use this time for meditation and prayer. All of this does wonders for my mental health for the rest of the day.

And if I can’t get to the gym, I do at least 100 pushups and 50 squats to get the blood flowing.

Finally, I want to sneak in one last piece of advice that applies to ALL hours of the day:

Limit your social media usage.

Hey, don’t look at me like that!

I do use social media to promote my business. It’s probably how you found this email list. But you know why I’m saying this.

You can’t expect to get any meaningful work done unless you put strict guardrails on your social media consumption. So at a minimum, don’t go to bed scrolling or wake up scrolling.

These are small habits, but they compound in a big way over the course of a year.

Alright, that’ll do it. We’ll be back to our regular acquisition tips and strategies in the next newsletter.

See you then,

— Ben Kelly

P.S.

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