how to optimize your morning for maximum productivity (work edition) | #techlife #productivity

Key Takeaways

So today we're going to talk about how I end my workday so that the following day I'm super productive right from the get-go this method has worked for me like pretty much 99% effectively for the past 5 years and it's very easy so I just want to show you so maybe an hour before the end of my workday I'll start to compile a list of tasks that I didn't accomplish that day things that I need to do tomorrow and sometimes this list is you know 5 10 things this brain dump really helps me to turn off my brain at the end of the work day because rather than stressing about every little thing and thinking about it you know after work after dinner I know that it's all listed out in my journal so at least it's documented somewhere and I don't have to store it in my brain I label it with the next day's date so even though it seems intimidating that I have 10 different things that I need to do the following day I close my journal and I end my workday now the following day the very first thing I do when I get into the office I look at my list I determine priority Iz top three things and I just number them 1 2 and three now there's a reason I don't pick my top three things the night before and I'll tell you why I found that I feel really accomplished when I the first task that I have in the morning is to actually Rank and prioritize the top three things that I need to work on I have a fresh brain I can think a little bit more clearly and I can probably realize that some of the things I thought were super urgent the previous day might not be as urgent or as much of a priority as you know other things are everything else on that list is optional I just know that the top three things are super critical and I have a few rules about what I pick as my top three so my top three have to kind of fit into a certain criteria one of them at least has to help me reach one of my personal like quarterly goals so say I have a a goal to build like six courses or something or like publish a learning path then at least one of my top three things that I pick for that day have to help me push my way towards that goal and the reason is because a lot of times we prioritize other people's work because they come and they're super urgent and they're like oh my God this has to get done but it's because it's their goal and they need to get their goal done but you also have to get your goal done so make sure in your top three priorities for the day you're prioritizing yourself at least for one of those top three things you're going to be doing that day another thing that I like to think of when I'm prioritizing the top three things is something that's going to you know I want to make sure that I'm also including something that has a big impact on the team or at least my immediate team or pushes the needle for the business in some way just because you know you want to make sure you're moving the needle so make sure that you're getting something done that is useful and the third top three thing is like totally up to your judgment you know maybe there's something you've been really wanting to work on or you've promised to someone else like you R you need to review someone's content or whatever then that can obviously be number three because you want to be a good teammate and you want to help others so that's kind of how I think about my three top three now anything remaining is like bonus points I guess in my head and if I can accomplish those then you know if I can accomplish the rest of the seven things and that's great but if not I can just move them over to the next day and you know do the same process over and over again now if I find that I've moved something five times and I see it on my list five days in a row where I've moved it along because I'm either don't have time it's not a priority blah blah blah that's when I will either see if I can deprioritize it for the quarter meaning like I'm not working on it at all this quarter or I can see if you know there's someone else that has the capacity to work on it or I try to force myself to have it be in the top three for for one of those days I think this idea has also really worked for me because I like having a tangible tasks that I need to do for the day so I'm not spending a lot of time ramping up the day just trying to figure out what I need to do for the day I can you know accomplish my first task of actually ranking my prioritizing what I need to work on and then I can just get to work I do this while I'm drinking my coffee and it's just kind of nice and peaceful but I'm also like feeling very accomplished this honestly has helped me get my day started and I feel more productive and I can know what to focus on and I've made like a thoughtful really intentional choice of what I need to work on and why so yeah that's how I end my workday and then start my fall following workday so that I am kind of hitting the ground running and very productive for the workday if you do something similar let me know down in the comments or let me know how you end your workday slash or start your workday do you have routines what do you like to do to kind of get your brain going and if you're still curious about my life as an instructional designer working in Tech you can check out these videos right here I'll see you in the next one bye [Music] oh