There’s a difference between knowing you have a lot to do and knowing exactly what you have to do. One leaves you overwhelmed, the other has you tearing a strip through your to-do list.
Planning your day the afternoon before will have a positive ripple effect on your life. First, it means you’ll have an über productive day. Your to-do list will be quivering by the end of it. Boom. No overtime for you.
Second, now that overtime is off the table, there’s no need to check email after hours. You’re free to shut your laptop and turn off your phone. A horrifying thought, I know. Stick with me though, my reasoning is sound.
PLAN YOUR DAY THE AFTERNOON BEFORE
Planning your day the night before drastically increases your productivity. You’ll get no argument from me there. But what if you could achieve more than just a productive day? Rather than waiting until bedtime, plan your day before you leave work.
Start by listing everything you need to get done. Knowing what you have to achieve will have you streets ahead of your old reactive self. Next, it’s time to schedule it all into your calendar.
Employing a system like time blocking will help. Identify your ‘have tos’ (meetings, calls, etc.) and put those in. The remaining blocks are for the items on your task list.
This is your deep work time, as Cal Newport calls it, so be ruthless about it. Close the door, shut your email, put your phone on silent and knuckle down. You’ll have a super productive day if you do.
TIME FOR A DIGITAL SUNSET
It’s hard to overstate the importance of a good night’s rest. Unfortunately our modern lifestyle is interfering with our natural sleep patterns. We’re sleeping less than we did in the past and the quality of our sleep has diminished as well.
The main reason we’re not sleeping well is because of our exposure to blue light at night. Emitted by our electronic devices, it reduces the body’s production of melatonin. Two hours of screen time before bed causes a 22 percent drop in this vital sleep hormone.
If you want a better night’s sleep, you need to set a digital sunset. Shut your laptop and put your phone away. Connect in real life with your family and spend some time planning the offline areas of your day.
MAKE YOUR DECISIONS THE NIGHT BEFORE
Run through your mornings in your head. Think about everything you usually do before leaving for work. What can you do the night before that will save you time and energy in the morning?
Make lunch, prepare breakfast, choose an outfit for work and so on. If you’ve got kids get them to do the same thing. Guaranteed, there’ll be no more last minute yelling due to misplaced sports bags or lost books.
The more decisions you drop from your morning routine, the better your day will be. Decision fatigue is real, don’t squander that valuable muscle on mundane tasks. Rather save it for the stuff that counts, like problem-solving and being creative.
Copyright © 2015 Care2.com Inc. All rights reserved. http://www.Care2.com
https://test.yourwellness.com/full-text-rss/makefulltextfeed.php?url=feeds.feedburner.com%2Fgreenliving%2Flife&max=10&links=preserve&exc=1&submit=Create+Feed