The one thing that makes or kills your day.

If you have been in business for a while, you have already learned to play it safe with your boss, your monthly review, your board.

Usually, it comes to this adage” under commit and over-deliver.” It’s inevitably linked to the fact that nobody likes bad surprises.

You included!

Your ability to define what you do or don’t do, can make or kill your day.

He who every morning plans the transaction of the day, and follows out that plan, carries on a thread which will guide him through the labyrinth of the most busy life.

– HUGH BLAIR SCOTTISH MINISTER,

It is not what you do/don’t do. It’s what you plan and the results that impact your mood at the end of the day.

If you plan ten things to do and realize only six, you will feel bad most of the time. If you plan three crucial things to do and you do five in the end, you feel great. Your feelings are not objective. 

Your mood varies with your interpretation and not the reality of your day.

Over my 20 plus years of a corporate career in sales, marketing, corporate functions, and C-level, I’ve seen too many colleagues who had a bad day.
When you dig in, it’s usually linked to all they have to do compared to what they can accomplish. They then start to feel overwhelmed, stressed.

Let’s be honest, we all have bad days. Even with the best tools in the world, with the best organisation, we will still have miserable days. And it’s OK, you learn a lot from them.

The problem is when a bad day become a bad week, then a bad period. Sometimes it leads to burn out, losing your job, family issues…

The solution that works for me is simple on paper. It starts at the beginning of the year with my yearly plan (big picture), goes to what I want to achieve in the quarter, then the month, and finally the day. I follow these points on a daily basis :

1. I take 15 minutes every morning at the beginning of my day.
2. I review my calendar for the day, what is already planned. It helps me not to be too greedy when I start to commit to the tasks I’ll do.
3. I reprioritize what to do. That’s the crucial part, it’s your daily prioritization. Everything is important. In the end, I know that even if I work day and night, I can’t do everything. It’s a never-ending game.
   I need to think again about where I can bring more value and ensure that I execute it.
   And to ensure that my mood and feeling will be right at the end of the day, I limit my essential things to 3, max 5, depending on the day. My first two hours are usually blocked in my agenda to execute what I commit on for the day.

When you succeed in doing that. When you make the right decision on the third point. You usually have a great day, whatever happens around you, a feeling of achievement.

I believe that this method can be followed with any tool from paper to software. I like technology, but when I found something that works for me, I usually keep it for a while.

There might be other useful tools, I use Nozbe (for 5 years) a task management software for my personal duties. I don’t use the team version.
The tool is inspired by the GTD, Getting Things Done methodology of Allen David. ( a book to read if you haven’t).

All my tasks arrive from Evernote, my bullet journal, or my direct entries in Nozbe’s inbox. During the day, or at a maximum at my weekly review, I organize them by projects, dates, labels.

When I start my day, I quickly check the overdue and gather everything that I’m supposed to do for this workday. Nozbe allows me to put a star on my crucial tasks. I use it to select my 3 priorities to execute. All the rest will be done only if I can. I don’t commit to it. It ensures my mood perception at the end of the day.

During these 15 minutes, where I decide what to prioritize, I can make or kill my day. Since I understand the impact of this small but vital routine, I ensure that I won’t be distracted by anything.

Despite having gained a lot of experience in this exercise, I still sometimes make the “greedy” mistake and plan too much.

What is your trick to succeeding with your day?

Mr. OTG