The blog

For you who pre­fer lis­ten­ing to read­ing, this post is also avail­able as an episode of the ​“Done!” pod­cast:

When we have things to do that we are not used to doing or that we, for some rea­son, eas­i­ly for­get to do, we need to help our­selves get them done if it does not hap­pen spon­ta­neous­ly. I can def­i­nite­ly relate to get­ting to work and instant­ly being pulled in all direc­tions at once, and when this is the case we need to ensure that we stop and start mak­ing con­scious deci­sions — before the entire day has sud­den­ly gone by.

If there is just one thing you need to remem­ber to do, you can set a reminder of some kind, but if there are sev­er­al things you wish to recall — cre­ate a rou­tine — in this case a morn­ing rou­tine, so that you take con­trol of how your day plays out, instead of falling vic­tim to cir­cum­stances and oth­ers’ will, wants and needs.

Do this

If you want to set the tone for the day first thing in the morn­ing, then do the following:

1. Take a moment to think about what you want to do more or less auto­mat­i­cal­ly every morn­ing when you get to work, which you at the moment nev­er seem to remember.
2. Write down what you want to do in sequen­tial order on a note, in a doc­u­ment or some­where else where it is eas­i­ly avail­able or vis­i­ble. There you go! You now have a morn­ing routine.
3. Now think of a way to remind your­self to con­sult the morn­ing rou­tine as you start your day:
   • paste a note that reminds you some­where where it will catch your eye (and let it abide by Roger’s and Milkman’s two cri­te­ria for phys­i­cal reminders which I have writ­ten about in a pre­vi­ous edi­tion of my newslet­ter Done!),
   • let the IFTTT-app remind you when you arrive at the office (regard­less of when you get to work),
   • or think of some oth­er way that suits you better.

More to your liking

If you set a morn­ing rou­tine and prac­tice actu­al­ly fol­low­ing it every day, your days will turn out more to your lik­ing and your pri­or­i­ties will be deter­mined con­scious­ly to a greater extent. New rou­tines that main­tain and rein­force your struc­ture will become eas­i­er, and you will feel in con­trol of your time since you take the reins at the very onset of your day.

What does your morn­ing look like?

Have you defined a morn­ing rou­tine? If you want to, write to me and share what it contains.

(Estab­lish­ing a rou­tine is a good start, but what if you break it after a cou­ple of weeks?)