One daily ritual that you clearly want to adopt is setting your priorities for the next day before you go to bed.
If you don’t establish ahead of time what your priorities are, you are likely to get distracted early in the day by things such as email or by other people’s priorities (not yours).
So each night, ask yourself:
- What do I need to get done tomorrow?
- What are my highest priorities?
- How and when will I get these done?
- What obstacles might I encounter and how will I overcome them?
Keep in mind that you are not just creating a to-do list. Rather, it is a process of mentally working through how you will accomplish your priorities and how you will overcome obstacles that are almost certain to occur during the day.
Since we seldom are able to do everything that we add to our to do list, it’s essential that we work on our most important priorities as early as possible during the day. Our most important activities are our highest impact and highest income producing activities. Make sure that you schedule these on your calendar for early in the day. Don’t attempt them mid afternoon when your energy is waning.
Plan tasks that are easy to accomplish and don’t require a lot of mental energy for later in the day.
PLAN YOUR DAY. WORK YOUR PLAN.