Follow These 5 Steps to Start Your Workday Right
The beginning of your workday sets the tone for how productive and happy you’ll be throughout the rest of the day. If you’re checking Facebook as soon as you sit down at your desk, you definitely aren’t starting your workday off on the right foot. Luckily, it’s easy to start your workday right if you follow these 5 steps!
1. Aim for 30 Minutes Early: You can’t control traffic or weather or a number of factors that may delay your morning commute but you can control your goal. If you never strive to be early, you likely never will be. Make it your goal to be 30 minutes early to work every day. Sometimes the weather or traffic will get in the way and you’ll only be 10 minutes early or 5 minutes early but, on other days, you’ll have a whole 30 minutes in the morning to jumpstart your productivity and set the right tone for your day.
2. 3 Big To-Dos: Do you know what your 3 most important tasks are for the day? If not, figure that out. If so, or after you’ve mulled it over, write those 3 tasks down and push all other to-do lists out of sight! Paring down your to-do list is a proven method for helping you focus on the tasks at hand or the tasks that really matter so you’ll be less likely to spend your morning cleaning out your inbox or doing another task that may feel productive but, ultimately, can wait until later.
3. Drink Water: As soon as you sit down at your desk you should have a large glass or bottle of water next to you. And, every morning, your goal should be to drink this water before the first hour of your workday is finished. Why? Studies show that drinking water can make your brain work 14% faster and that 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated. It never hurts to get a little extra hydration in first thing in the morning and it could help you focus throughout the day!
4. Push Through One Task: Some people work best when they tackle their most challenging project first thing in the morning but others work best when they accomplish one task early on in the day because it sets the tone for a more productive day in general. If you fall in the latter category, the first thing you should do each day is choose one task that’s important and push through it to the end. This is why scheduling meetings in the morning can often derail productivity because the accomplishment of finishing a task is more motivating than simply attending a meeting.
5. Check In: Once you’ve completed your first task for the day then you can dive into your ever-important inbox and check in with any clients, collaborators, bosses, or customers, as you need. This will help you get to everyone early in the morning and still treat them as a priority without sacrificing your most productive time of the day. You’ll set a productive tone and still get to maintain those professional relationships!
Your mornings set the tone for your entire workday so it’s important that you don’t spend them sorting through your email, browsing social media, or working on low priority tasks just because they’re easy to complete. If you want to be more productive and fulfilled throughout your workdays, try following this 5-step method for starting your workday off on the right foot!