The way in which you start your day and the accumulation of all your actions make the difference between a day that is focused and enjoyable or stressful and disorganized, which is a huge difference!
Have you ever had a morning where everything seemed to go wrong, small things, but enough to affect your mood when you arrive at work? The toothpaste runs out and you don´t have more, you spill your coffee on your blouse and you have to change it, you can´t find your car keys and you´re already late and then you hit the traffic, which is heavier than normal days, does this sound familiar?
If you want to actively design your day, you must control your thoughts and focus on what you want, not on what you don´t want. In the example above, it is easy to let one of those incidents put you in a bad mood, and then in a further bad mood.
You can´t help thinking, ¨I hope I´m not late, I hope the traffic is less today¨ – your focus is on what you don´t want to happen. What is actually happening is that your energy is attracting more of that energy, incidents that will keep you in a bad mood. So you would then re-focus your thoughts, laugh the incident off and don´t give it any further energy – thought.
Let´s look at how to actively create your day, not only respond to incidents.
The first step is say in a loud voice or in your mind, exactly how you want the day to go.
Answer these questions:
- What do you want to have achieved by the end of the day?
- What do you need to focus on in order to make that happen?
- What might get in your own way, your beliefs perhaps?
- Or in what kind of mood do you want to leave work?
Just by asking yourself these type of questions, by stating what you want, and feeling it with emotion, you create focus and your day will be centered around this, it will most often turn out very much like you stated.
The extent of your success will determine on how much focus and emotion you put into doing this. For example, when you are thinking about how you will feel when you leave work; fulfilled, in high spirits and stress-free, actually feel how that would feel, imagine it. The more emotion you connect, the more you attract the experience.
When you answer the questions above, think about your goals, objectives, be serious, challenge yourself, but be realistic about what you can achieve. Be aware of the difference between being realistic and having beliefs that don´t serve you, so always challenge the statement by asking if it is a fact or not.
Once you have stated how your day will go, you are focused and clear on what you need to achieve and what energy you will go about your day, you now need to plan your day if you haven’t already. To get the most out of your day you need to do both, the internal work and the external. Working from your to do list, pick the top items that you need to get done today.
Be careful to distinguish between what you really need to do or what you should do, or what you´re avoiding to do, etc. Prioritize the items on your list, in what order are you going to do the activities. Differentiate between tasks that are important and urgent, important not urgent, not important and not urgent, etc.
Start with the most difficult tasks first. Also, realistically estimate how long it will take you to achieve each task, be clear on what exactly you will achieve and ensure you have all the resources you need. Plan in your day times to check your email, to have breaks, to deal with unforeseen events, etc .
Effective planning will only work if you include everything that you know will happen in the day, be honest with yourself, but at the same time, cut out the activities that you know steal your time. Push yourself to use your time better. Remember, keep focused, always have your goals, your vision in mind and energy in check. Plan, prioritize and perform your tasks efficiently, your productivity will triple!
To your success!
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