Taylor Milliken, Owner and President, Milosi

Once Taylor Milliken is home and all calls and texts have been returned, the cell goes away for a while. But that wasn’t always the case. Last year, Milliken changed up his routine when it came to his cellphone activities.

“I put my phone on my docking station to charge in my room,” says the owner and president of Milosi in Nashville, Tennessee. “It stays there for several hours intentionally. I have caught myself many times reading emails, texts, etc., with my children vying for my attention. I started doing this last year and it has helped me so much.”

Here’s Milliken’s average day.

The mornings I am training, I usually return home for breakfast or am having a protein shake on the go. It’s all over the board. My commute is about 15-20 minutes and I listen to Christian music, leadership podcasts on Spotify, or I am listening to a book on Audible. I listen to more podcasts and books than anything else. I work from home more than anything. If it’s a long training day, I may not start until 8 or 9 but if it’s an off day, then I am usually working by 6:30 a.m.

In the morning, when I am on my “A game,” it’s read a devotion or scripture, make coffee, train, eat breakfast and workday startup routine: confirm top 3 goals/tasks for the day (I use the Focus Planner), update (software we use), review calendar and communicate as necessary, spend about 15 minutes making sure all important e-mails have been responded to, and start on my #1 top priority for the day.

I have lunch on my calendar from 12-1 every day, but I don’t follow this like I should. Usually, if I’m at the office or out, I have either a smoothie from Smoothie King, chicken from Chick-fil-A or a salad or sandwich from Panera Bread. If I’m at home, it would be something like a sandwich or a healthy meal that is on my meal plan – the latter is not as often as I’d hope.

After lunch, I am in several meetings per week so I usually will have meetings. I also like to check on my emails and review where I am at on my goals/tasks for the day. It’s like a mid-day check-in with yourself.

If I finish the day at the office, I leave between 3 and 5 p.m. I finish most days in meetings or at home. Phone calls and focus on email stops around 5:30-6 p.m. but always bleeds over to a fault.

Cooking is a huge passion of mine. So, after dinner, if we are having a traditional dinner then I am helping clean and wrangle our three kiddos. Our goal is that nobody sits down until everyone sits down. This helps our kiddos build a sense of teamwork. I do work a little most nights to stay on top of the endless emails and planning it requires to keep things moving in the right direction, but it’s been greatly reduced as I have been able to add great people to our company.

At night, I like to review my notes from the day and mind-dump anything that I need to tackle the next day or plan over the next few days to a week. I feel like this helps me relax while falling asleep. Also, I try not to look at the phone or computer for the last 30-60 minutes before bed. Studies show this affects sleep quality. Since I have trouble falling asleep, I use this to help.