Starting and Ending Your Day

What you do in the mornings, before starting work, matters. We can talk endlessly about the exact details of a morning routine (or ritual, if you like), but regardless of what you do, my suggestion is that it’s best not to launch straight into work. Sometimes you may have to, or that may suit you just fine, in which case no problem. It’s more likely, however, that you’ll want to find a good way of easing yourself into the working day. In particular, for the days you are working from home, you need something to replace the commute, which used to be the clear separator between home life and work life.

Getting into the mindset

You could have breakfast and then have a change of clothes, before closing the door behind you and turning on your PC. That’s your ‘cue’ for the transition to work time. If you have a separate home office, that obviously makes things much easier as all you need to do is go to the office. If you don’t have one, see if you can set aside a small area to function as your workspace. If even that isn’t possible then make a ritual of putting up your laptop on the kitchen/living room table, setting it up on its stand, and turning it on.

For a while during the first UK lockdown, I stopped taking my daily shower, given that I wasn’t really getting out and about all that much…bad idea anyway, but I started putting it back in as it was something I did before, felt refreshing, and a clear signal that I’m about to ‘head out to work’ even if it is just a trip to the living room or study.

Replacing the commute

If I’m going to start work at 7am, then I get up at 6am. I like to know that I have a good stretch of time ahead of me where I can exercise, have a leisurely breakfast, read my magazine/listen to the radio, and gently ease into the day. Others may not want that at all. Again, it’s a personal preference, so find out what works for you. If you usually get up at 8am, have a quick breakfast and are out the house by 8:30am, commute for 30 minutes and are at work by 9am, then think about how you want to replace what you would do in that hour. Sure, you could replace it with starting work earlier and finishing earlier, and that’s fine. But think about it.

Be on time

Back at home, when your start time arrives, make sure you don’t allow yourself to slip or linger. About 10 minutes before, start tidying away your breakfast, so when 8am (or whatever your start time is) hits, you are at your desk turning on your laptop. Almost pretend that you are about to go to the office. You can even put "Morning routine" into your calendar, just before your first work appointment of the day. So, if you start at 8am and want to wake up at 7am, then stick in a recurring weekday appointment for 7-8am.

Have some kind of ‘ready for work’ time even if minimal

Now think about it, you’re having your breakfast and reading the news, and before you know it the clock says 8:55 and you haven’t even opened up the laptop yet. Here’s where a reminder on your phone can help. This could simply be the reminder for the first appointment of the day, or an actual recurring ‘Get ready for work’ appointment that might be 10-15 minutes long, say 8:45-9pm. So you’re reminded that you need to tidy away breakfast, empty the dishwasher (someone has to do it, right?), get refreshed and sit down for work—these things do take time.

But if you are commuting…

Make the most of the time in a productive way! You have a smartphone in your pocket that allows you to do all kinds of things. If you don’t want to work, then a great tip is to listen to podcasts (I’ll share my recommendations another time!) that are relevant to your work in some way—it’s a good way of getting your brain in gear. This is also a good time to check your calendar, get rid of emails you don’t want and reply to those that need one line replies (I really can’t do long emails on the phone…). So when you get to the office, your inbox contains only those emails that need actual attention.

Do the highest priority task first thing

We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth repeating that it’s a good idea to put the highest priority task as your first item of the day. This gets you off on the right foot and means you are working on the most important task when your energy levels are at their highest.

Warming down

At the other end of the day, don’t let work time slip into the evening. When you’ve finished your last booked appointment, shut the laptop. We often talk about morning routines, but rarely about evening ones. You could unplug the laptop and put it back into its sleeve, you could go for a five-minute walk outside, whatever you feel like. Think about it as a ‘warm down’, while your morning routine is your ‘warming up’. You’re not a robot, so don’t behave like one!

Prepare in advance for a busy day

OK, do this sparingly, but if you know that the next day will be particualrly busy or stressful, and it’s constantly on your mind, it may be worth logging in briefly later in the evening just to check your calendar, reread that report or presentation, or go over your notes one more time. There’s no point worrying if spending a few minutes before bedtime will help calm you down and reassure you that you’re all set and can handle whatever the day will throw at you.