How do you manage the beginning of a day? Stare at the screen, and check the e-mail to avoid missing important message? You should always keep in mind that focusing on the first hour of the workday can be the hour you see everything clearly and get one real thing done.
1. Don’t Check Your Email for the first hour.
Never checking the email in the morning or at home is a good strategy for getting one real thing done. Remember that you won’t feel good if you check the e-mail at home.
Not all of us can roll into the office whenever our motorcycles happen to get us there. For the majority of us that have jobs that don’t require constant (A)on-callawareness, we can trade e-mail for organization and focused work.
2. Do the Big, Shoulder-Sagging Stuff First.
One benefit to tackling that terrible, (B)weighty thing you don’t want to do first thing in the morning is that you get some space from the other people involved in that thing—the people who often make the task more complicated and frustrating.
Make sure you get one thing done before you wade into email, and you’ve got a day-to-day system (C)in place.
3. Ask yourself if you’re doing what you want to do.
Feeling unfulfilled at work shouldn’t be something you realize months too late, or even years. Consider making an earnest attempt every morning.
4. Do the human side of work.
You can keep in touch with contacts from year-ago projects, check in with coworkers you don’t regularly interact with, ask questions of mentors, and just generally handle the human side of work that quickly gets lost between task list items. Do your own equivalent on the regular, and you’ll have a more reliable roster of helpers when the time comes.
