My mornings begin like most busy dads. I get my 9-month-old daughter, Regan, out of her crib at 7am, change her diaper, turn on some tunes, and start breakfast. While either my wife or I feed Regan her puréed fruit mush, the other one of us heats up her bottle, makes coffee, unloads the dishes, and starts replying to whatever urgent flurry of work emails have started blowing up our inboxes. Once the nanny arrives, I jump on my bike for a workout—all before 9 o’clock.
If these two hours are any indication of just how much I need to get done in a single day, then you can tell I’m busy. Becoming a father in 2021 has forced me to declutter my life, and instead focus on the practices that help me make the most of each day. These tips and tools—like the Citizen CZ Smart hybrid Smartwatch—help me balance my family, career, and fitness, and my hope is that they’ll help you too.
Invest in the things you use most often.
Coffee is a serious thing in our apartment. We use a digital scale to weigh the beans, then we run them through a burr grinder (the type that uses revolving burrs instead of blades) before dumping them in the coffee cone for the pour over. My wife and I are specific about every single part of this process. It sounds complicated, but it’s such a hardwired habit at this point that trying to do anything different would be a hassle.
I’ve invested both time and money into my coffee-making routine, trying out different beans, water ratios, and, some time ago, even different methods altogether. The process led me to the Fellow Ode Brew Coffee Grinder, an amazing bean grinder that makes my mornings run way more smoothly. It’s as powerful as the bigger models you’ll find in fancy coffee shops, but it’s smaller and easier to use. And unlike some other grinders I’ve used, it’s also relatively quiet. (That comes in super handy when Regan goes down for her morning nap.)
Thanks to the pandemic, I haven’t been to an actual gym since early 2020, but staying active is a big part of my life. A few times a week, I hop on my bike and ride from our home in Queens to Central Park. I do one lap, which works out to be a quick 16-mile loop from our front door. I cherish this post-morning routine, pre-work time to myself, but I happily take whatever I can get—which is often an apartment workout.
Thanks to Tempo Studio and my Oculus Quest 2, I’m able to do quick workouts that keep me in shape for the trail loops I like to hike on the weekends. Within minutes, I can hand over Regan to the nanny, then fire up Tempo and stream strength and mobility workouts, or a yoga class. Likewise, the Oculus Quest 2 provides serious cardio. There are some VR games that make me sweat more than when I used to go to the gym. My Citizen CZ Smart hybrid Smartwatch tracks my workouts automatically, so I can regularly check in on my progress. On days when I jump into work without sweating first, I feel frazzled and disorganized. A dose of morning cardio fixes that. It makes my brain work faster, so I can get more done in less time.
Keep your important information close.
I know, I know. In an article where I’m supposed to be giving you tips on how to organize your life in 2022, this one kinda feels like cheating—but hear me out.
As someone whose entire life is kept in several 60-page journals, I’m admittedly pretty set in my ways. But the Citizen CZ Smart hybrid Smartwatch fits seamlessly into my routine—not necessarily changing my work and fitness regimens, but enhancing them.
Unlike so many fitness trackers on the market that rely solely on touchscreen, the hybrid smartwatch uses a crown and pushers like a traditional watch. Considering I love to cycle and hike on cold days, real buttons mean I can still use my watch without getting off the bike or taking off my gloves and freezing my fingers off. I check in regularly on my heart rate (which is measured via a sensor on the back of the watch) and other fitness stats, which all sync to the Citizen Connected app.
Having calls, email, and text notifications on my wrist is huge as a parent. I don't have to feel anxious about missing a message from the nanny when I’m sneaking in a mid-afternoon bike ride around the city. And I never have to feel nervous about missing a work call or meeting with calendar reminders to get me home in time. The watch is super simple to set up and use. It would be counterproductive to learn a complicated operating system to get organized, but the hybrid smartwatch allows me to easily do it all: track my sleep (I haven’t gotten as much of since Regan was born), my steps (which I’m lucky if I hit 7,000 these days), and stay on top over everything with its 15-day battery life.
Fill your life with multipurpose tools.
Having spent the past two years at home like many people, I’ve learned that decluttering physically can also help to declutter mentally. Let me explain.
After realizing how many different baby items we needed for a simple cabin getaway upstate, I took a look around to see how many single-purpose items I use myself. While there are certainly many (note to self: host a rummage sale), I realized that some of my most cherished daily items get used not twice, but sometimes three or four times a day. So, I’m not saying you need to challenge yourself to fillet and cook dinner with only a Swiss army knife and use 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner (please don’t actually), but filling your life with multipurpose tools will drastically change your mindset and daily productivity.
For example, it may seem like a no-brainer but my Lodge Cast Iron Skillet and my chef’s knife are my most-used kitchen items. I like to cook, but I rarely get fancy, which means lots of chopped veggies in the skillet. Cast irons are insanely versatile. I use mine to make everything from vegetable omelets in the morning to stir fries at night. It never leaves the stove and rarely ever needs to be washed. It takes a lot of the guesswork out of cooking, leaving me to focus on the more important parts of my day.
When I work, I swear by these TWONE travel journals. I’ve probably filled 200 of these notebooks keeping track of deadlines, to-do lists, grocery lists, and everything else I’d rather not keep stored in my brain. My main gig is satisfying but stressful work, and these journals have been the best way to keep track of it all until now.
Power down at night.
We all know what it’s like to feel “cranky” after a poor night’s sleep, but according to this article, that crankiness is way more than just a feeling. Not sleeping well impacts your daily productivity. You may notice a lack of alertness, excessive fatigue, impaired memory, and lack of focus. So, when push comes to shove, getting organized in 2022 starts with better rest.
After my wife and I put Regan down for the night, we sit down for dinner, talk about our days, and watch TV before putting ourselves to bed too. In the span of a day, our apartment serves as a home, office, gym, daycare center—it’s endless chaos. I like to calm things down by flipping on my favorite fragrance diffuser. It uses canisters that you can swap in and out. Mint and eucalyptus do a great job of putting us in the nighttime mindset.
Since Regan wakes up between 6 and 7am, I need to get to sleep quickly, so I try to avoid using too much blue light at night. I bought this cheap red-light reading light online, which has been great for winding down, and the Citizen CZ Smart hybrid Smartwatch tracks my sleep, so I can make sure I’m getting the rest I need.
Then it’s up at 7am to do it all over again—Regan’s morning mush and our morning coffee, dishes, and a flurry of emails as I slowly but surely master the art of organization.
