The decision how you start your morning will have the biggest impact on how much you’re able to accomplish. As much as 80% of your results in a given workday will likely depend on 20% of your actual working effort.
With that in mind, we’ve surveyed productivity experts across the web and distilled the two most prevalent tips for amping up your productivity:
1. Pay yourself first. Your temptation may be to dive into email, but if you do, you’re going to hand over the keys to your day and watch other people drive you crazy. Instead, accomplish those things that improve your mood (exercise, meditation), and tackle projects that matter to you and your business. We’re always at risk of sacrificing the important for the “urgent.”
2. Do the heavy lifting early. Email is easy. Filing documents is brain-dead simple. Instead, take that big, ugly, hardcore project you’ve been meaning to move forward on and set it as your first task of the day. Cranking out the easy, low-energy tasks when you’re at your sharpest simply doesn’t make sense. In fact, it’s one way people practice “productive” procrastination. Busy work isn’t necessarily real work. You’re more likely to have quality results on tougher work when you’re at your best mentally and physically.
