How do you start your day?

Before you get on Email or jump on that conference call, tackle the #1 priority for the day. Get the monkey off your back. Eat the frog for breakfast. Whatever you want to call it, finish or make significant progress on the one task that will make the biggest difference in your day. How do you do that?

Plan, Prioritize, Produce

• Plan: block time for proactive work. Start your day from your task list and calendar. Strictly working from your email inbox is reactive and you can easily get “lost” there, not leaving any time left in the day for important work that you need and want to do in order to move priorities forward.
• Prioritize: have one point of collection for to-dos, one task management system, perform an end of day routine and weekly review to prioritize all that you need to accomplish.
• Produce: minimize distractions so that you can focus on one thing at a time, including clearing clutter from your workspaces (desk, email, etc.). Tackle the first thing on your task list until it is complete. Don’t allow interruptions if at all possible (some of them are under your control; turn off those notifications!)

Do what you can the night before

Try and do the things you can ahead of time to help eliminate stress in the morning. If you tend to hit the snooze button, consider putting your alarm clock/phone across the room so you need to get up to shut it off. It may be difficult, but getting up when you first hear your alarm will lead to more alertness in the morning and accelerate your routine.

Set your clothes out the night before. This way you can wake up, shower and quickly put on what you have laid out and move on to the next part of your morning routine without the stressful and time-consuming decision process of picking out an outfit. If you intend to exercise first thing in the morning, laying out your work-out clothes the night before reduces the friction your brain may feel in the morning. You just slide into those clothes and you’re ready to go.

You can also expedite your morning ritual by preparing and having on-the-go breakfasts ready. Just like picking out clothes, deciding what to eat can be a time-consuming task in the morning. You can avoid this entirely by simply having things ready before you go to bed. You might also consider packing a lunch the night before.

Whether it’s changing the small things you do at the start of your day, asking yourself small and important questions throughout the day, or changing the language you use to think about your work – all of these small shifts can result in big change to your organization and productivity.  Which small change will you try this week?

For more tips and strategies to improve productivity in your life, sign up for our free 5-Day Productivity Challenge, which starts on November 6. More details can be found here.