Designing your work day

I’m big on optimising my time, so I’ve tried a lot of different things to try to make the most of my work day. When scrolling through my old notes trying to find inspiration today, I found one I wrote in 2021 called, “How to build a daily routine.” I haven’t thought about these tips for a while, but I do practice them often and have found them really helpful – so I hope you do too! 💖

🚨 Do reactive work second.

Start your day off by working on your biggest priorities. Don’t jump into immediately doing what other people want from you, that’ll just start your day off stressful.

If you find yourself in a role where you’re constantly being bombarded with other people’s requests, you might need to get a bit creative with how you protect the start of your day – some ideas:

• Can you be flexible with your start/finish times? Starting before everyone else gets in at 9am should give you some quiet time.

• If you’re in an office, try starting your day in a meeting room or in a less accessible area so that people can’t wander over to your desk.

• Mute your Slack/email notifications until 9:30 so you have a chance to catch up.

⚡️ Design around your energy.

Do you know how your energy levels change throughout the day? Designing your day around them can be such a cheat code, so I recommend working through this exercise if you haven’t already.

If you’re aware of your energy levels, you can plan for activities like:

• Brainstorming sessions when you’re low energy and need a bit of a pick-me-up

• Big decision meetings when you have your highest energy

• Admin or boring tasks when you’re low energy

I tend to save my non-urgent admin for when I’m tired. That way, when I’m struggling with the big stuff, I can work through some simpler tasks to perk up a little.

🌳 Leverage your environment.

Your environment can have a massive impact on your ability to do work. It can help you set up better habits, or shake up your mood.

If you want to use your environment to get better focus, try things like:

• Doing specific work in the same spots (eg. if you work from home, use your desk and not the couch)

• If you listen to music when you work, try using a specific playlist or style of music for concentration. I’m a big fan of Music to Refine to.

• Try having work-specific environmental cues, like work stationery or a scent.

Sometimes, though, you’ll need to switch it up because you need to smash out a project or be a bit creative. In these instances, you can try moving spots or switching up your environment to make it feel new and energising!

✅ Limit your to-do list.

Whether you have a daily to-do list or an infinite one, take some time to think about what you actually want to accomplish on this day. Don’t commit to too many things though – you want to keep it focused and achievable!

(A rule I’ve tried before: if you can’t fit it all on a post-it note, you can’t do it all today.)

📝 Capture your commitments.

Make sure you have a standard place where everything you’ve committed to lives. This could be a notebook, your calendar, or something else – but make sure you have a reliable to record things. That way, you don’t have to worry that you might forget.

📚 Bookend your day.

Finally, have a simple, smaller routine to start and end your day. If you want a refresher on morning routine, check out this post.

To end your day, it can be a lot simpler. I usually:

• Review my calendar for tomorrow to make sure I know what’s coming up and what’s expected of me

• Jot down an expected to-do list for the next day

• Make any notes/annotations for myself in partially finished projects

  • Personally, I find that if I have ideas and I don’t write them down, I tend to marinate on them for ages afterwards – but if I write them down, my brain tends to calm down!

That’s it for this week! Is there anything you’re going to adjust based on any of these tips? Let me know 👀