How best to start your day

I'm on holiday this week and can more easily reflect on the activities I do in a normal working week without the pressures of actually having to do them.

I'm a GTD'er and use products such as Omnifocus and techniques such as Pomodoro.  I also work in a global company so inputs come through to me 24hours a day even though I don't work 24 hours a day.  So how does it actually work for me.

My work email inbox is my primary inbox.  I also have a physical inbox on my desk but nowadays less and less come 'in' to me through this.

So what do I actually do when I first get into the office in the morning.  If you've read Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy, Rule 1 is to do the most difficult thing on your list first (before even reading your email).  In a similar vein, Tim Ferris states in his blog; One piece of advice for improving self-discipline: Spend the first two hours of every workday working on outstanding projects, before you check your e-mail.

I have to disagree with both.  Although I agree with the intent, I disagree with the fact that ignoring email is the right thing to do.  Based on the GTD methodology, you process all your inputs to ensure you are focussing on the right thing right now with no distraction.  With emails coming into me overnight, I can't be truly focussed until I have processed those overnight emails.

I have two rules for this method though:
1. You must only process, not jump into tasks based on those overnight emails.
2. Spend no more than 30 minutes on this activity.

This 30 minute rule is actually quite manageable if (and only if) you have processed your email at the end of the previous email to zero (See Merlin Mann's Google Talk on the subject here, essential viewing in my opinion).

I have a daily checklist that I try and adhere to as much as possible.  It goes:

8am: Turn on PC laptop and wait 15 minutes for it to load up and run all security checks, (all the time wishing I had an apple computer at work)
8:05am: Make myself a coffee.  Might as well do myself a favour to help my brain get into gear
8:10am: Process overnight email
8:40am: Write up a paper based todo today list (I use the downloadable Pomodoro one here) based on my Omnifocus lists and anything last minute or from the overnight email that is urgent
8:50am: Turn off email and do the work

I do turn the email back on periodically throughout the day (every hour or so) but having it off helps me to focus on the tasks to be done.  Having the paper based todo today list helps by avoiding the need to reference the computer unless it is required.

I don't look at Twitter or Facebook at all during the day but I do check my personal emails on my iPhone at lunchtime to give me a distraction and mental rest.

I try and stick as best as possible to the todo today list and get the activities completed.  I find that this is only achievable if I have completed the steps above at the start of the day.

Do I do this every day?, No.  Sometimes things just don't go right even at 8:01am but these are the exception rather than the rule and I reap the rewards because of it.  See if this commitment to starting the day the best way you can will help you.

Please see my website at www.managingforthefirsttime.com for more techniques, tips and advice on this topic and others.