If you’re like most people, it takes you a little time (and more than a little coffee) to get yourself up to speed and fully productive in the morning. For marketers, that slow start can often lead to you feeling like you’re a step behind all day. “I’m just not a morning person,” you say. True as that may be, there are things you can do at the end of the day today that will help you come out of the gate hot tomorrow and have an incredibly productive day.
- Do a realistic review of today’s To Do list. What items did you complete? What items need to carry over to tomorrow’s list? And why has that one item been on there for SO long? An honest assessment of what you can, and should, accomplish in a day sets you up for success tomorrow rather than another day of boxes left unchecked.
- Have a 10-minute stand-up meeting. A standard in technical departments where team members need to meet quickly to sync up their efforts before returning to their desks, stand-up meetings at the end of the day can help any department tie up today’s loose ends and prioritize tomorrow’s tasks so everyone hits the ground running in the morning.
- Check your calendar. Know when you’re meeting and what you’re meeting about not only so you’re prepared for those sessions, but so you can plan your project work around them. For example, if you’re meeting about current content creation initiatives at 11 a.m. and one of them to be discussed is the white paper you’re spearheading, it might make sense to work on it in the hour prior to the meeting so your questions/concerns/comments are fresh in your mind.
- Go with the (ebb and) flow. Everyone’s brain works differently. You may typically experience creative spikes in the early morning and late afternoon and be more capable of sustained focus just before and just after lunch. Whatever your rhythm is, create your To Do list for tomorrow to sync with it. Trying to do repetitive tasks when your energy is off the charts, or to be creative when it is low is counterproductive.
- Break the seal on new tasks. Of all these tips, I think this one is the most powerful. Sitting down at your desk in the morning faced with a bunch of unstarted assignments can be intimidating. But take just the very initial steps on them before you leave the office today, and they’ll feel a whole lot less daunting tomorrow. For example, if you have to write a blog post, simply going so far as to create and save the document and type a few thoughts into it can make it significantly easier to get rolling in the morning.
So, if you’re looking to be more productive tomorrow, start today. Looking for more productivity from your marketing efforts? Give us a call.
