Structure your workday for success

The quality of preparation that you put into your day is an excellent barometer to how productive you will be. The more prep leads to a better day where you can handle any obstacles that come. But that doesn’t mean you need to dedicate a lot of time; you need to have a consistent system to help maximize the information you have available.

Preparation starts the night before – I know you have heard this before, but it does make a big difference.  Preparing for your next day should be the conclusion of your previous day so you can put your day up for review, think about how you can improve, and start placing a road map together for the next day.

·      Put day up for review – when your day is complete, take a few minutes and review what was good about our day, what you accomplished and how to make tomorrow even better. By asking yourself these questions, you allow your self to celebrate the wins and set course for an even better day tomorrow. The process clears your head and will enable you to put any remaining thoughts about your workday to rest so you can focus on time away from work.

·      Build your list for tomorrow - start with reviewing your list from the work day that just ended. Go through each item, and only add those items that are still relevant. After reviewing a task on your list, if it isn’t worthwhile anymore cross it out. Look through your day tomorrow, and mark down any meetings that you have and any prep that you need to do for those meetings. In my daily notebook, I continually add a new task that comes up during the day; this provides a good deposit of future work to add to your list. I also go through a brainstorming session to further think through any other task or items that I need to get done.

·      Put in the work– Once you have your list together, it is essential that you take this time to research or knock off the easy task to build a strong foundation for tomorrow. For example, each night I go through the meetings that I have and write a quick summary for each session, detailing the objectives, agenda, and outcomes that I want. If I haven’t sent a pre-read for the attendees, I will post at this time. Pre-meeting prep allows the meetings to go much smoother further alleviating our day. I will also use this time, to research any upcoming meeting topics that I am not familiar with the subjects or issues. 

·      Use the compounding effect of teamwork – a task that requires collaboration should be given special attention and should be sent off the night before as much as possible. Sending detailed instructions at night ensures that your teammates have the proper material they have to complete the task, but also doesn’t restrict there day from moving forward. The more confidence your teammates have that you will not waste there time the more effort they will put towards helping you. Secondly, once you have provided the necessary information for your teammates, they can complete the task without any involvement from you compounding your ability to get more done throughout the day. Compounding efforts is one of the best secrets to being productive and getting all your work done within 8 hours.

In the morning review your plan – once you have gone through your morning routine,  and you are ready to work it is time to review your plan and put some more structure in place. I study the notes that I have made, consider the meetings that I have and list out any obstacles that I might have (for example, no breaks to eat). I list out each obstacle and work through a solution if needed (for example, move a meeting so I can eat). There is always a solution, but sometimes you need to sacrifice a little (for example, lunch at 2 PM and not noon). Once I have my day locked in, I break up my day further into three distinct phases: Start, re-set and review.

Anchor your day to ensure you are fresh – Early in my career, I would either work so hard in the morning that I was burned out by 1 or would do the reverse where I wasn’t productive in the morning. I finally concluded that the only way I would be productive for a whole 8 hours was building anchors in my day to keep me grounded and put a hard day refresh around noon. I anchor my day by putting in my day giving myself specific permission to go for a series of task away from my desk. For example, after I complete an agreed upon a number of items, I go out for a walk without my phone to get air and get myself moving. Walking has had a tremendous impact, allowing me to come up with exceptional solutions to complex problems but also allowing me to get past issues that arise. The trick is to specify on work plan how much work deserves the reward of leaving your desk to ensure you stay productive. Physiology improves your mood, confidence, and productivity.

 In addition to anchor, I have a full day scheduled refresh around noon. This refresh consists of shutting my computer down, meditating for 5 minutes, and writing down your most significant accomplishments for the day. Refreshing your day gives your body the chance to shut down and have the benefit of starting your day again. It doesn’t matter what happened in the first part of your day; this is another chance to be even better. I found this technique recharges your batteries but also allows you to rebound from a bad day, or conversely not get too high in your head if you have had a great day. Refreshing your day is a healthy way to stay balanced and avoid burnout during the day.

Make time to have fun – You are working at your company because you want to be there, so enjoy your time and have fun. People judge you on your talent and overall productivity, everyone wants to be around someone that can be positive and make people laugh. To ensure you are helping everyone out, put goals in your day about making people laugh and meeting new people. A well placed bad joke never goes out of style or something silly can brighten your teammate's mood. Be part of building a fun culture for your office.

Workday is hard, but start planning the night before reviewing past day success and building time to anchor your day will have a significant impact. Once you get in the practice of breaking up your day, use teammates to compound productivity and to have fun, you will notice a significant change in your mood and your ability to get more done.

About me: Derek Matisz is dedicated to consistently challenging himself with learning new things so that he can inspire and guide others to build a better life. Derek is an experienced executive with over 15 years of business experience. This series of the blog has been created to share the knowledge that Derek has accumulated, but also Derek’s way of improving his communication ability while sharing his success and failures with anyone who wants to read.