Lifestyle Arbitrage: A Playbook for Junior Finance Professionals
Five high-leverage habits that will maximize your limited free time
Happy 4th of July to The Shukla Script community — I hope everyone is having an amazing start to Q3 and getting some well deserved time away from Excel this weekend.
In the spirit of Independence Day, I figured it’s the perfect time to drop some gems on one of my favorite topics: lifestyle arbitrage for junior finance roles.
Let’s get right into it.
In finance, there’s a certain aura around the analyst and associate years that I find strangely magnetic. These roles, shaped by decades of tradition, have given rise to a mythology of spreadsheet-fueled war stories and suspiciously embellished triumphs, passed down like folklore and etched into the industry’s DNA.
There’s nothing like the MDs who sporadically swing by to regale you with tales of the “good ol’ days,” when they (supposedly) handwrote CIMs and rode out on horseback under moonlight to deliver them to faraway sponsors — Ye Olde Blackstone & Co., the Knights of KKR, Sir Apollo of Midtown…the list goes on — only to return to the desk by dawn, ready to hand-spread comps. Riveting stuff.
While this phenomenon is both hilarious and fascinating, it can also be dangerous. If we’re not careful, we start forming negative preconceived notions about what our lives must look like in these roles. We begin to expect that, no matter what we do, we’ll be crushed for the full two years and never see the light of day again.
Eventually, it becomes a masochistic form of pride that we learn to indulge in. At some firms, there’s legitimate social capital to be won by earning these stripes (which perhaps explains the story I recently heard about interns waiting at the office until sunrise just so they could flex their all-nighters on their Instagram stories...). Once again, riveting stuff.
Here’s what no one tells you — it doesn’t have to be this way. Yes, the job is intense. But with a few high-leverage choices around lifestyle and environment, you can start to tilt the game in your favor. You can still crush it, still build your career, and still feel like a human being while you do it.
Here’s the thought process. You knew what you signed up for, so don’t expect much control over your time. That means your life needs to be strategically designed to optimize whatever time you do have.
Not all inputs are created equal, so we’ll focus on the ones with multiplier effects — the decisions that ripple into other key areas of life. Take sleep, for example. Improving sleep boosts energy, focus, memory, mood, and pretty much everything else that makes life worth living. Other decisions, like which socks you wear, don’t exactly move the needle...unless you have magic socks. In which case, send me the link.
Without a doubt, one of the hardest parts of my transition from Haverford (where I was a collegiate athlete) to Morgan Stanley investment banking was the complete loss of control over my time. In college, I was busy, sure. But I got to design my life. My one constant was sports practice every day from 4 - 7 pm. Outside of that, I chose my classes, decided when to study, when to socialize, and when to rest. I had a routine, but it was mine. There were few true constraints, and even fewer superiors whose schedules I had to bend to.
Then I hit banking. And suddenly, nothing was mine.
Every minute was reactive. My days belonged to emails, fire drills, “quick” calls, late nights, and worse — the looming unpredictability of it all. I couldn’t plan a workout, let alone a weekend. My physical health took a hit (see The Story Behind the Script if you’re new here). So did my mental clarity. For a while, I assumed this was just the cost of breaking into high finance.
But over time, I started to see it differently. No, I couldn’t fully control my calendar anymore — but I could influence the margins. I could get smarter about my environment, my habits, and my recovery. I could steal back control in bite-sized batches. Trust me that winning back even just a few five-minute windows can make a surprisingly profound impact on your day.
This process is possible. It just requires a different kind of playbook, built around intentional design within your existing constraints.
It wasn’t easy, but I’m living proof that it’s possible.
I’m going to share five paradigms that really helped me over the years. This list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, but it should be plenty to get you started. And if you discover any novel techniques of your own, drop them in the comments — I want to steal them.
1. Pick Your Home Base Carefully
One of the best decisions I made as an analyst was spending a little extra to live in a high-quality, amenity-rich building. For those in NYC, it was MiMa on West 42nd — a place that, for a 22-year-old, felt borderline ridiculous. It had a 24-hour Equinox, a basketball court, a sauna, a pool, and was walking distance from my office.
Normally, a setup like this would have been way out of my price range. But I knew how critical access to fitness was for my sanity, and I wanted to eliminate the dead time of a long commute. So I teamed up with two friends who were on a similar mission. We flexed a 2-bed-2-bath into a 3-bed-2-bath, which made the rent manageable and unlocked an otherwise cost-prohibitive option.
Suddenly, I had 24/7 access to world-class training amenities and an eight-minute walk to work. That alone eliminated two of my biggest daily stressors.
I get that everyone’s financial situation and lifestyle priorities are different — this isn’t one-size-fits-all advice. But speaking personally: having a training ground built into my home and a frictionless commute gave me a level of peace and that was worth far more than the incremental rent expense. Easily one of the best quality-of-life trades I ever made.
2. Microdose Your Movement
Staying sedentary all day is nearly impossible for me. But until Microsoft releases an Excel plug-in for gym equipment, I’ve accepted that this will be an ongoing battle. I never quite figured it out in banking, but in my PE days, I became big on incorporating tiny doses of movement into my routine wherever I could. If any of my former coworkers are reading this, I hope they’re smiling — they know how seriously I took this part of the day.
The big unlock was shifting my mindset. In college, I used to think a workout only “counted” if it meant a hard training session — lifting heavy, running sprints, chasing PRs. But in high-pressure jobs, your calendar doesn’t care about your progressive overload periodization. So I started experimenting with what I now call microdosed movement: small, intentional bursts of activity throughout the day that kept my body engaged and my stress levels down.
Post-meal walks became a ritual. They help with digestion, stabilize blood sugar, and provide a mental reset. I’d aim for two or more of them daily — especially during natural lulls like waiting on comments or during the evening handover when senior folks were commuting home. These short bursts of fresh air gave me energy, perspective, and sanity.
As I built more trust with my teams, I leaned even further in. I used a standing desk and brought in an Airex pad to embed balance and proprioception training into my daily workflow (yes, I’ve balanced models while balancing on one leg…). I also kept grip tools and a lacrosse ball nearby. Without realizing it, I was firing up my nervous system, keeping my fascia connected, and reducing the warm-up time needed when I did get to train later.
Eventually, I let go of the “perfect workout” mindset altogether. On my busiest days, I’d still stack a 30-minute circuit in the morning, a 10-minute walk at lunch, and a 5-minute roll-out before bed — and that was enough. Not perfect, but momentum. That’s the key. It kept the ball moving, kept my body from breaking down, and gave me peace of mind even when the day slipped away. It also made me more grateful during the periods where I could train hard — and made it safer to do so, since I wasn’t going from zero to 100.
You don’t need to use the same tools I did. But if you want to stay sharp, pain-free, and less anxious about when you’ll train next, build movement into your day in whatever form you can. It doesn’t have to be flashy. It just has to happen.
3. Design Your Downtime
Not all of my strategies revolve around fitness — plenty are rooted in human psychology. In junior IB and PE roles, you won’t always have downtime. But when you do, whether between deals, on weekends, or during slower weeks, it is a precious resource. And yet, I saw (and experienced) how easy it is to waste it.
When you're drained from the week, it's easy to fall into default mode — mindless scrolling, zoning out, or ordering the same takeout for the third time in a row. But ironically, the thing that helped me feel like I had more free time was planning it.
I started keeping a running list of bucket-list restaurants, places I wanted to explore, and small local experiences I didn’t want to miss. If I knew a lull might be coming, I would book a reservation in advance or block time for something I had been meaning to do. Even just having a short list of top weekend options made a big difference.
This simple habit removed the guesswork. When you’re mentally fried, decision fatigue is real. Without a plan, free time can slip away before you even realize it. With a little forethought, you not only reclaim the time, but actually enjoy it more.
Downtime doesn’t need to be elaborate. But it does need some intention. A little structure goes a long way in making your recovery time feel like it truly belongs to you.
4. Work More to Work Less
This one is a little counterintuitive. On weekends, especially after hard weeks, it’s easy to not want to think about work at all. I totally get that. But Monday always comes around. And when it does, you’re suddenly hit with a dozen emails, a few fire drills, and a foggy brain still trying to get up to speed.
What changed everything for me was carving out just 1–2 hours on Sunday to audit the battlefield and get ahead. It can be in a super chill way too — hoodie on, coffee in hand, relaxed vibes. Here’s what I’d do:
Summarize key updates and learnings from all current projects. Know exactly where everything stands before Monday hits.
Review next week’s calendar and set priorities. Identify what needs to get done first and map out your game plan.
Anticipate issues or questions. Start thinking through what your VP or MD might ask. You don’t need all the answers yet — just getting the ball rolling lowers stress and builds confidence.
Once I actually committed to doing this exercise consistently, I regained time and reduced stress every single week. I wasn’t walking into Monday reactive and disoriented — I already had momentum and a plan. That alone made my weeks smoother, more focused, and way more manageable.
5. Clear the Mental Cache
This is another concept I didn’t fully appreciate until later in my journey. I often think of the brain like a computer — and just like a computer, it can fill up with unnecessary files that slow your processing power and eat up valuable RAM.
There are a lot of ways to clear that cache and free up mental bandwidth, but the one that worked best for me was journaling. There’s something about writing that taps into deeper layers of consciousness and helps you articulate thoughts and emotions that would otherwise stay buried. It’s not about producing polished insights — it’s about getting the noise out of your head so your system can run clean.
And no, you don’t need any fancy prompts or frameworks. Just start writing. You’ll be shocked how quickly the ideas, emotions, and unspoken thoughts start pouring out.
In finance, you need as much mental RAM as possible to perform your best. If you’re carrying around personal baggage, unresolved tension, or mental residue from the week, it’s going to weigh you down — and whether you realize it or not, it’s going to impact your performance.
When I lived in Texas, I made it a ritual to write for two to three hours every Saturday morning. That may sound excessive (and maybe it was), but it did wonders for me. Saturday morning became the perfect window — close enough to the workweek that everything was still fresh, but early enough in the weekend that I could actually enjoy the clarity it gave me.
You don’t need to write for hours. Even 20 minutes can be powerful. I just happen to love writing (hopefully that’s becoming obvious). But this habit is a no-brainer. Journaling often gets made fun of in certain toxic finance circles — which, if you ask me, is exactly how you know it’s worth doing.
There’s so much clarity that comes from unloading your brain in a space where there’s no performance, no formatting, no audience. We spend all week pretending we have it together. Giving yourself a private place to simply be is a form of emotional maintenance — the kind that keeps the system from imploding.
Think of it like a juicer. It produces great juice, but also spits out a bunch of pulp. And if you never clear the pulp, the juicer eventually breaks.
There are dozens of other tactics I picked up over the years to make life on the desk more livable — but these five should give you a strong base to work from, especially if you’re just getting started.
There’s a lot more to come — from nutrition strategies and mindset shifts to the unspoken rules of team dynamics and office politics that nobody teaches you (but everyone expects you to know).
And to the person reading this thinking, “Please. This is impossible. I’ve worked 24/7 for the past two years…”
One…no you haven’t. Two…if you have, you probably need a little coaching to get faster.
Lucky for you, I just might know a guy ;)
Happy 4th — let’s keep building.