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Get your week off to a great start with the Day-Timer blog. Each Monday we feature a new tip to help you gain a more productive week at work and at home. |
| Today’s tip: Have a morning routine | |
It’s important to have a good start to your workday. Here’s a great way to make mornings a more valuable time of productivity.
Try this:
Create a regular morning routine and make it your #1 repeating task each day, at the top of your to-do list. (I simply write “Do AMR,” short for a.m. routine.)
Do the following steps:
- Make your daily to-do list, organized by what’s most important
- Set your daily schedule
- Review yesterday’s notes
- Check your physical inbox
- Scan work-related blogs and news headlines
- If you must check email first thing in the morning: set a specific time limit, scan subject lines first, and create follow-up tasks for any message that takes longer than 2 minutes for you to reply
Here’s why:
There are many benefits to a morning routine:
- It creates structure and gives you motivation when you most need it
- Keeps you from getting sidetracked from the most important task of the day
- Fights procrastination by giving you direction
- Allows you to choose your top 3 or 4 priorities of the day
- Sets your mind to “eat the frog,” or start work on today’s most challenging task
- Starts your morning with a victory, an easy first task to cross off your list
[photo by abbyreed]
| Day-Timer Spokesperson Jeff Doubek can be reached at jeff.doubek@daytimer.com |
