Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
Speaker 1: This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
Speaker 1: tip is to decide in advance what task you will
Speaker 1: finish before your first cup of coffee. You will start
Speaker 1: your morning with a sense of accomplishment that will energize
Speaker 1: you for the rest of the day. We have probably
Speaker 1: all heard the advice that we should never check email
Speaker 1: in the morning, as Julie Morgan Stern would say, and
Speaker 1: to put first things first, as Stephen Covey recommends. And
Speaker 1: this is wise advice, but still plenty of people grab
Speaker 1: a cup of coffee, sit down at their desks and
Speaker 1: immediately start processing email and reacting to what comes in.
Speaker 1: It is understand I mean, maybe you work with people
Speaker 1: in different time zones and you want to catch up
Speaker 1: on what has happened. But by the time you check
Speaker 1: what has come in, more will come in. Then it
Speaker 1: will probably be time for your morning meetings. It's easy
Speaker 1: to get to lunchtime or even the end of the
Speaker 1: workday having kept all the balls in the air, but
Speaker 1: not having moved anything forward. You feel busy, but you
Speaker 1: don't feel like you're getting much done. Sound familiar One
Speaker 1: way to stop that habit is to decide at the
Speaker 1: end of the workday what you will do before you
Speaker 1: finish your first cup of coffee the next morning. It
Speaker 1: could be helpful to choose a project that will take
Speaker 1: half an hour or so and that you know you
Speaker 1: will have the energy and resources to get done right away.
Speaker 1: The satisfaction you get from completing that first coffee project
Speaker 1: will give you momentum to proceed productively through the day. Now,
Speaker 1: everyone's coffee projects will be different, of course. I often
Speaker 1: like to draft a blog post. Someone else might plan
Speaker 1: the agenda for an important meeting. Someone else might review
Speaker 1: a report or look at all the sales data from
Speaker 1: the last month so you can bring some new insights
Speaker 1: to your next meeting on that. But whatever it is,
Speaker 1: you are going for a small to medium sized task
Speaker 1: that you can knock out first thing. Ideally, it's something
Speaker 1: you can do without needing information or guidance from a colleague,
Speaker 1: because I don't want you hunting through your inbox and
Speaker 1: without having to wait for a stroke of inspiration. Now,
Speaker 1: if you are like me, your first cup of coffee
Speaker 1: at work is not actually your first cup of the day.
Speaker 1: I tend to drink one while getting the kids off
Speaker 1: to buses as well. That said, I think it might
Speaker 1: be wise to aim to complete a low stakes, fairly
Speaker 1: quick coffee project at home too, before you head to
Speaker 1: work or start the morning drop offs. At home, your
Speaker 1: coffee project might be writing morning pages or engaging in
Speaker 1: a spiritual practice. It might be reviewing your calendar or
Speaker 1: planning your day. If you accomplish something before you finish
Speaker 1: your first cup of coffee at home, and something else
Speaker 1: before you finished your first cup of coffee at work,
Speaker 1: you are checking at least two tasks off your list.
Speaker 1: Whatever else happens in your day, you know those tasks
Speaker 1: will be done. You are being proactive instead of reactive,
Speaker 1: and that is a good mindset to take through the
Speaker 1: next few hours. So if you are sipping that first
Speaker 1: cup of coffee right now, consider what project you could
Speaker 1: finish before your first cup is empty, and at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, decide on a coffee project for tomorrow.
Speaker 1: When you start with a sense of accomplishment, you set
Speaker 1: yourself up for success in the meantime. This is Laura,
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
Speaker 1: got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Speaker 1: Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
Speaker 1: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.