Summary: Your time is an asset, and therefore should be utilized to its maximum potential. This post provides a way you can think about structuring your day to maximize productivity and get things done.

Body:
Morning (4 AM-9 AM):
- Wake up at 4/4:30 AM: I choose to wake up at 4:30 AM to make sure I'm not waking up in the middle of a sleep cycle. I'll go into more details on this in a second.
- Make your bed: Starting with a small task like this can spur your productivity, and lead you to continue this throughout the day.
- Make sure you've gotten 7-8 hours of sleep: For this, I aim to get 7.5 hours of sleep. This gives me roughly 5 sleep cycles and leaves me well-rested throughout the day, despite the time I wake up at.
- Workout in the morning: I used to workout in the afternoons, but I found that getting my workout in during the morning leaves me energized and ready to tackle the day ahead of me.
- Take a cold shower: Cold showers are a great way to revitalize your body and mind. Also wakes you up pretty quickly, too.
- Don't overthink what you're going to wear: Make sure you dress nicely, but don't waste time putting in too much thought on your outfit for the day. Keep it simple.
- Plan out the day: The morning is a great time to plan out your day and analyze how it's going to be. Take this time to make sure you know what you have planned for that day, and prepare accordingly. I like to use the Eisenhower matrix when planning my day to see what is really important to do and aim to get that done first.
- Check email: I like doing this in the morning. Doing this early in the day prevents you from mindlessly checking and responding to emails during your actual work hours, during which you should be doing things.
- Eat a solid breakfast: If you don't do IF, eat a nice and healthy breakfast. Kicking off the day with a really wholesome breakfast will leave you energized and ready to get shit done.

 
Whatever you do with your time before your commute/class is up to you. I like to open up Duolingo and work on learning French, but you can do whatever you want. After getting the general routine down, it should be second-nature to you, and you should ideally notice that you're always starting the day on the right foot. This was created as a structure for people who work 9-5. If that's you, then you should be ready to hustle by 9 AM by following this. Once the day is over, around 5 PM for those with office jobs, then the following routine will get you ready to end your day on a more relaxed note.
 

Nighttime (7 PM-9 PM):
- Wind down by doing chores: Doing chores and not staring at electronics is a good way to begin the winding-down process before you sleep. You make sure you keep your shit together, with the added benefit of not looking at technology too much before bed.
- Charge your stuff outside of your bedroom: For me, a college student, this isn't really possible, so I charge my phone on the other side of my dorm room to get it as far away from me as possible. You want to do this to not be tempted to snooze your alarm and stay in bed. It's worked well for me, as it forces me out of bed to turn off my alarm.
- Dim the lights and cut off electronics an hour before bed: This is mostly done to improve your quality of sleep. Keep some candles lit around your apartment/room and cut off the lights. Leaving just candles as light gets you into a much more relaxed state and allows you to drift off to sleep easily.
- Designate a set of clothes to sleep in: By doing this, you begin to associate this outfit with sleep. Making this association with sleep is beneficial and will already start to make you tired.
- Go to sleep at the same time every night: Get to bed by 9 PM. This is the reason I choose, personally, to wake up at 4:30 AM. By sleeping at 9 and waking up at 4:30, I wake up as soon as I'm coming out of a sleep cycle, which I previously said leaves you well rested.
- List the top 3 things you want to get done the next day: Since I use a task-planning app in conjunction with the Eisenhower matrix, I always have a list of things to get done the next day, which is already sorted by order or importance and urgency. I don't necessarily need this step, but it is a helpful step for those who do.
- Read fiction before bed: When you're ready to get in bed, get a fiction book out and begin reading it. Reading about topics that are easy on the mind is good to help wind down even more. It doesn't take much to process the content and provides for a pleasant reading experience. I don't suggest to read self-help books or anything similar to that genre as its better to read them in the morning. You will get your mind working more to digest the information, therefore making it better to leave for reading in the morning.
 

Conclusion:
Having a good daily routine helps for providing a structure for you to follow. A good morning routine is just as important as a good nightly routine. I've been following this protocol for 3 months already, and I am able to manage all of my schoolwork while also participating heavily in extracurricular activities on my college campus. It has significantly boosted my productivity, to a point where my friends even think that it's something "superhuman." If you are looking for a way to operate at peak productivity levels, I would suggest this structure for you. If it has helped me, I'm sure that it may help others as well.