Journalled on Monday, 9 May 2025 | Flamengo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: 29 degrees, hot, sunny and with a blue sky.

Last night I had a great time with friends, we visited Praça Maua, Pedro do Sol and the old parts of Rio’s city centre.

I had drunk more than usual, I think, because I was having such a good night. The adrenaline running and pumping meant I didn’t feel the full effect of the alcohol at that time.

Now, this morning I woke up very slowly and sluggish, not quite a hangover, but on the better side of one. My usual animation to get up, make coffee and get things done was not there this morning. It took me a good 20 minutes to half an hour to contemplate getting out of bed, and another 10 minutes to organise my thoughts, prep the coffee percolator to get it on and running.

I was very slow, even half dead, but I’m not dead yet.

After a full pot of coffee and a quick look at the news on YouTube, which I do, though I’m not sure why, I think it’s just a question of keeping up to date with the facts, but it’s always the same depressing and disappointing things, especially in Brazil, I was ready to work.

I opened my computer after making my bed. One of the first and most important things you can do in the morning, before anything else, is to make your bed. With it, you have already accomplished something right first thing in the morning.

No matter how the day turns out, at least you have accomplished something since the start.

I prepped and edited a video for YouTube. It took longer than normal because it was longer and required fixes and improvements.

When a video is finished, I normally download it to my computer and then upload it to YouTube. There is a shortcut that lets you upload it directly to YouTube from Descript, but I prefer to download it to my computer first and then upload it. I do this because I then have a hard copy on disc.

It takes about 50 minutes to an hour to download a video, depending on its size and complexity.

Because of this, I use this idle time to go downstairs, skip for half an hour, and then go to the pool for another half an hour of swimming, approximately 1000 metres.

I am not an executive, nor am I particularly intelligent or intellectual in management, but for me, it is all about good time management with my work and myself.

When I came back from the pool, my video had already been downloaded and was ready to upload to YouTube. I had also done an hour of exercise, so two of my daily tasks could be ticked off immediately.

Now, after the swim, the pool’s cold water and the swimming have warmed my blood, and the slowness, the sluggishness of this early morning, is just a memory from the distant past.

Now I’m full of enthusiasm, energy, and determination to see out the rest of the day and get everything done. In addition to exercise and uploading a video to YouTube, I was able to:

I had a video published on YouTube: It had already been pre-scheduled for that day.

Journalled: I made 2 entries.

Classes: I taught five classes; I don’t have many on Monday, which is now my weakest day of the week.

Reading: I read 20 pages of the biography about Elon Musk.

Blog prep and post: I made a blog post and posted it on ’The long gringo.’

That is a total of 7 principal and important activities in one day. All are part of my work, productivity, well-being and self-improvement.

If I can do 5 in one day, that is good; 4 is bad; less than 4 is unthinkable; and 7 or more is excellent.

Although I woke up sluggish from the night before, I was still able to get a lot done naturally, without stress or feeling like I was forcing myself, which, for me, is important and shows that what I’m doing is good for me.

Later in the evening, I tried to watch something on the streaming channels, but I was too tired to continue.