Someone asked me the other day about my day. When does it start, end, etc.
I’ve never given a lot of thought to it. As a creature of habit, my day is what it is.
But to be fair, I’ll give the reader what he wants. Here goes:
I
go to bed early. It used to drive my ex-wife crazy. She was a moonbat
and liked to stay up to ungodly hours. Me – I’m in bed somewhere
between 10:15 and 10:30. Anything later than that and the next day is
shot.
I get up each day around 5:45 am. It’s like clockwork – no alarm or anything like that.
I get up and get dressed and take Coach for his morning constitutional.
After that, I commute down the hall to my office crank on the computers and flip on the tube (Bloomberg TV).
After
I get a pretty good handle on what’s going on, I hop in the car and
head out to breakfast. The bagel place is just down the street and I
can eat in solitude and think. While there, I read the AJC (Atlanta rag), NY Times and the Wall Street Journal.
I
get home around 7:30 or so and head to the internet for the final news
round-up. I check 3 sites religiously each and every morning. They are
(1) http://www.boortz.com (2) http://www.drudgereport.com (3) My Yahoo (My Yahoo Home page is set up for business and financial news.
These
3 sites combined give me a veritable tidal wave of information. Most of
radio’s talking heads get their talking points from Boortz. Love him or
hate him, his daily comment and recommended reading links are an
absolute must. As for Drudge – if it’s news, it’s on his site. Same
goes for Yahoo. I hate wasting time and having it condensed is crucial.
After that I check out – Dorsey Wright (research), Rydex funds, The Kirk Report and thestreet.com Insight.
The pump is primed and I’m ready to go.
From 9:30 to 10:00 – I watch – I just sit there and watch.
From 10:00 – 11:00 – I make any trades that I need to and tend to client issues. This is one of my most productive hours.
From:
11:00-11:30 – I take the dog out again and I take a shower. Yep – right
then and there. It’s incredible. Hey – Former Fed Chairman Greenspan
took bubble baths in the morning. Don’t laugh.
From:
11:30-12:30 – I eat lunch and catch up on any reading that I need to
do. I eat at a couple of different places, and I’m obsessively
punctual. I eat at the same time and my butt hits the chair at 12:30.
Very few exceptions. While at lunch, I’ll pick up the mail and run an
errand or 2 if it’s not out of the way. If I’m meeting a client for
lunch – the same rules apply – If you’re not there – I’m ordering at
11:35 and I’m walking out the door at 12:20.
From:
12:30 – 1:30 – I peruse the trade sheets and check the wires to see if
there is anything that I need to be aware of. During this hour, I’ll
pull down the email and look at the phone and fax log. I’ll take care
of the urgent stuff then and there, but most can wait until after the
close.
From 1:30 – 3:30 –
I’ll handle everything in this order: client presentations, marketing,
writing – blogs, articles and work on the web sites.
From:
3:30 – 4:00 – I stop what I’m doing and just soak in what is going on.
The final half hour is for the pros and more specifically those on the
exchange floor. The footprint that they leave during this timeframe
sets the tone for both after hours trading and the next day.
From: 4:00 – 4:30 – I’ll grab a quick snack and run the dog around outside.
From:
4:30 – 6:00 – This time block is set aside for client appointments,
returning calls, reading mail and email etc. The last thing that I do
before turning off the machines for the night is to download the trade
sheets for the day and post the trades to my spreadsheet.
From
6:00 – 9:00 – this is time for dinner and the kids. Period. One of the
mistakes that I made in an earlier life was to let my business life
interrupt time with my family. I let it happen and it was really really
stupid.
That’s a pretty broad brush of what each one of my days looks like.
One
of things that I’ve incorporated that ticked off a lot of people at
first was how I approach my time management. I can’t stress this
enough. Time is the only thing that I have that I can actually control.
I want to be a productive as possible and I can’t be if I’m constantly
interrupted.
So I instituted these rules:
- I do not take phones at all. There are only 4-5 people that can get me on the phone.
- I
have set blocks of time for returning phone calls, answering faxes and
emails. I do as much as I can during those time frames. What doesn’t
get done gets moved into the next available block for that activity.
- The
best way to get in touch with me is to send me a fax. State your
purpose, agenda, what you need, etc and let me know the best method to
get back in touch with you. Note that I didn’t say send me an email.
People who send faxes think more precisely and put more than one agenda
item on a page. To me, email is like a scrolling notepad. I’ve gotten
most everyone trained but there is still work to do.
- If
you are compelled to send me an email – use the subject line to state
your purpose. If the person who reads my email first can’t figure out
what you want, she hits the delete key. And if the subject line is
blank – it’s automatic.
That’s about it.
My days are pretty hectic, but at least they are controlled.
R.A. "Casey" Christy
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