Swift To-Do List 11
Swift Mind Freedom
Meta Productivity
Daily To-Do List
Again and again, it is proving to me that if I begin my day by immediately doing the most important goal for that day, the day will be a tremendous success.
How about your pet project? Do you think that you will ever finish it, if you don’t put in effort consistently?
Just wake up, and start working on the most important goal. Just for 5 minutes. It will be more – but the 5 minute target removes all excuses.
Success creates more success, and achievement creates more achievement. It feels SO GOOD to complete something RIGHT AWAY in the morning, before some lazy late-sleepers are even waking up. Talk about a head start!
There is nothing like early morning success. It truly sets the tone for the day.
Are you thinking that it won’t work for you? Perhaps it won’t. But I urge you to try it for yourself, because I’m sure it will work. Things in motion tend to stay in motion. Once you accomplish something – you will want to accomplish more. In fact, you will be excited! You will wonder “What else can I achieve today? How great I could make this day?” If you begin your day with a perfect track-record, you will go to extreme lengths to keep it that way.
This might seem like such a small thing – but once you experience it, I promise you will understand how huge impact this can have for you.
And remember – it works the other way around too! If you begin your day by goofing around and surfing the web, chances are, you won’t accomplish much that day. Avoid wasting the start of perfectly great days like a plague. Start of your day can literally make or break it. And your life is nothing more than a collection of days!
Humor me and try this. After all, what could you lose? Do you want more excitement, enthusiasm and sense of accomplishment in your life? Since you are reading this post, I bet your answer is resounding YES!
So, here is what I suggest you to do immediately:
Write your most important goal for tomorrow on a piece of paper and post it somewhere where you will see it after you wake up tomorrow. It can be your alarm clock, computer screen, or mirror in the bathroom. And if you want to get the maximum out of this, go to bed a bit sooner than usual – and wake up a bit sooner than usual, too! After you wake up, you will see the reminder. Then just do it!
Arguably, I believe that mornings are better than evenings for working on your most important personal goals. Sure, everyone is asleep at night so there is silence and so and so, but mornings have their advantages too. The main advantage is that in the morning you are fresh, and your mental desktop is completely free. It’s like a freshly rebooted Windows computer ;-) If you live a healthy life and exercise, you should be at your peak state in the morning. So why not fully harness that edge, before 1000 little busy-spams of the regular day attack your brain? And hey, you can always do both – mornings and evenings.
The first hour of your day is the navigator of the day – so make sure you navigate your day right.
(And no, after posting the paper reminder for tomorrow’s goal, there is no special reason to wait until tomorrow. Once you prepare the paper, then do something – anything – towards your goal – right now!)
- By Jiri Novotny+, the obsessed author of task management software for Windows, Swift To-Do List. Jiri’s life quest is to become a productivity and achievement world-class expert to empower others, and his current main goal is to create the best task and notes management software for Windows.
PS: Have trouble with focusing? Then read Are You a Zen Coder or Distraction-Junkie?, also by yours truly.
I always follow what you are saying. I get up at 5:00 am and code/learn for 2-3 hours everyday and on weekends also. believe me it works really well.
This is great advice. Everyone should try it (I have albeit unsuccessfully – read on). It is my belief based on my own personal experiences that this will only really work for morning people. I have NEVER been a morning person. I have always been at my best after 9pm in the evening. Maybe if I was a stimulant drinker (coffee) I would have had a bit more success, but I prefer to let my body regulate when it is at it’s best, not try to force my way on it with stimulants.
Anyway, I did terrible work in the morning. I would often get stuck on simple stuff and made a lot of mistakes (If I could even stay awake).
Still, I do not regret trying this. I was able to reinforce what I always had thought about myself and prove that my most efficient and productive time was just what came naturally.
I usually wake up at 3 AM – 4 AM every morning and I immediately start working. The earlier I wake up, the more successful the day is (for some reason).
I second the advice and I think it’s really great for productivity.
Wow, that’s inspiring! Thanks for sharing.
When do you go to sleep?
It really makes sense. One I start my day with a bit of web browsing and watching some online video’s my day is totally unproductive. But if I put myself in a productive mood I can get that going for the rest of the day.
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