I created 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid.' A good day is when I get my to-do list under 200 items — here's my routine.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Jeff Kinney, the 55-year-old author of the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” series, who lives in Plainville, Massachusetts.

It has been edited for length and clarity.

Every year, when a new “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book hits the shelves, I’m surprised that kids keep showing up.

I started writing the first book in 1998, while working as a computer programmer and game designer.

I wanted to be a newspaper cartoonist, but that didn’t work out, so I set out to get my cartoons published somehow.

I was inspired by my own childhood experiences.

The first generation of kids who read my books is now almost 30 years old.

It’s wild to me that there’s a new generation of kids encountering these books and finding them fresh.

Business Insider’s Power Hours series gives readers an inside look at how powerful people structure their workday.

Reach out to editor Lauryn Haas to share your daily routine.

As an author, I work within a few different spheres: books, my bookstore, movies, and development.

I don’t set an alarm, so I wake up at that time naturally every day.

I stay in bed for a while because after an ankle injury, I have some PT to do, like ankle stretches, while I’m in bed.

I meditate for about 10 minutes, set my intentions for the day, and organize my digital to-do list before I get out of bed.

Right after I get up, I do about two hours of PT yoga, then weightlifting.

I do that before I eat breakfast, which is often eggs and sausages.

I’m really committed to my morning physical routine of PT, PT yoga, and exercise.

I also do some journaling because it orients me toward the day, and it’s a calming mechanism.

I’ve just had my most productive year, during which I wrote two books and two screenplays, so I attribute that to my morning routine.

I’ve tried a million different to-do list apps that didn’t work, including the pomodoro method and all sorts of others.

Then I found a digital habit tracker.

I’m pretty diligent about checking off my daily habits.

These include eating enough fiber, drinking enough water, waking up by a certain time, meditating, and doing stretches and yoga.

I have about five or six workspaces, and I like to balance between them.

One is a really colorful studio with my whole staff on the top floor of my bookstore, which is about three miles away from my home.

When I’m not touring or working on a script, I go into the bookstore.

The bookstore is always top of mind for me, though the day-to-day operations are handled by the staff.

Every so often, I’ll get involved because we’ll have a big author that comes to the store, and I’ll interview them.

Another is my guest house, where I sit in the quiet living room.

I also have a dark room in the basement where I’ll go if I need to shut out everything.

The other one is sitting in my car at the cemetery, where it’s also very quiet.

I can’t listen to music because it occupies the same part of my brain needed for creating.

I feel most creative in the early morning hours, but sometimes I might write for eight to 12 hours a day.

If I’m illustrating, which I basically do all summer, I’ll draw from maybe 9 a.m. until about 9 or 10 p.m. every day for months.

When I’m working on a book, I’ll write the jokes first, then the manuscript, and finally I’ll illustrate.

I don’t usually combine those activities together.

When I get stuck, I use something called systematic creative thinking, which helps me to produce material even if I’m not feeling creative.

If I’m writing about an airplane, I’ll list the parts of the plane inside and out: the wings, the pilots, the lavatory, everything.

Then I’ll go through each component with a few different tools like subtraction and multiplication, and that’s what gives me my raw material.

I’ll use my iPad or my computer, or I have this device called a Freewrite, which is a super simple word processor that’s not connected to the internet.

I only eat two meals a day, so I don’t really step away for lunch — this is how I roll.

I do have an energy drink, but it’s more of a habit than a need.

I also don’t typically take breaks.

A good day is when I can get my to-do list to under 200 items, which is really hard to do.

When I’m not illustrating, my wife might say, “Hey, let’s have dinner,” and that’s my backstop for when I stop working.

Work is always on my mind, and I really don’t have any boundaries.

I don’t tell people when I’m going on vacation because they’ll reach me anyway, and I don’t want to stop them from making progress.

I usually make myself available, even if I’m away.

Texting is how my team communicates with me.

Email has become less useful for me because I get so many emails in a day that I feel like I’m a hockey goalie, and pucks keep whizzing past me.

I can really only answer emails right when I get them.

Once they get too far down my list, I’ll forget about them.

I have a lot of challenges with executive functioning.

I really struggle with having a lot of choices.

I’ve always answered my own emails, and I don’t use AI to write.

I sometimes go to Celtics games, or I’ll go out to dinner with my wife, my friends, or my kids.

In fact, I feel very understimulated.

I often feel like I’m not getting enough information, or there’s not enough that’s happening.

For example, if I were to drive through the McDonald’s drive-thru and get my food, I’d turn on the radio, tune in to some news program, and eat while reading the news on my phone.

Chicken McNuggets with sweet and sour sauce are probably my guilty pleasure.

As far as watching TV goes, Survivor is always a staple in our house.

These days I go to bed pretty early.

I get in bed around 9:45 p.m., put in an earbud, and fall asleep with the news in my ear.