90% of people make this mistake. And I used to be one of them.
The moment you check your phone, you’re in reaction mode. You’re no longer deciding how your day starts. Someone else is. Whether it’s a notification, an email, or just the algorithm deciding what mood you wake up in.
And you can’t expect to fry your brain on social media for the first hour of your morning and then sit down to do focused, meaningful work right after. That’s not how it works.
That’s why I now give myself at least 60 to 90 minutes before I touch my phone. I stretch, go for a run, sometimes journal. Just enough to show up as myself before the rest of the world gets involved.
It’s a small shift. But it changes the entire tone of my morning.
What to do:
Keep your phone away for the first 60 to 90 minutes after waking
Use that time to workout, read, prepare your breakfast, or do anything that doesn’t involve a screen
A day without a plan is a day you’ll look back on wondering where the time went.
You might get a lot of things done but nothing that actually moved the needle. And that’s the most frustrating kind of busy there is.
The method I use to fix this is Oliver Burkeman’s 3-3-3 method:
3 hours on your most important thing (for me, that’s writing)
3 shorter tasks you’ve been avoiding or that need to get done (gym, client calls, replying to messages and emails)
3 maintenance activities to keep life in order (family time, playing tennis, reading books)
It’s simple but it forces you to be intentional about what actually matters today versus what’s just filling your time.
Try it tomorrow morning. Write down your 3-3-3 before you open your laptop. You’ll be surprised how much clearer your day feels when you know exactly what you’re working toward.
What gets scheduled gets done. What doesn’t, gets pushed to tomorrow. And then the day after. You already know how that story ends.
Once you have your priorities sorted, the next step is locking them in. Not just writing them on a to-do list and hoping you get to them, actually blocking time on your calendar for them.
I block my most important work in the morning when my focus is sharpest. Everything else, calls, admin, emails, gets pushed to later in the day when my energy naturally dips.
What to do:
Block uninterrupted time for your most important task first thing
Set reminders for key tasks so nothing slips through
Treat your time blocks like meetings you can’t cancel
Caffeine is not a meal. I know, I know. But it’s not.
Your brain is running one of the most energy demanding operations in your body. And most people are trying to power it on an empty stomach and three espressos.
I too made this mistake for years. Skipping breakfast, surviving on coffee, and then wondering why my focus crashes by mid morning and I can’t string a decent thought together.
Now I eat a proper, energy focused breakfast after my morning run and before I sit down to work. And it doesn’t need to be complicated or time consuming. Mine is oats for carbs, a handful of nuts for healthy fats, and whey protein on top. Takes 10 minutes to make and keeps me fuelled and focused for the first half of the day.
Good input equals good output. Always remember that.
Do your hardest and most impactful task first.
The idea is simple. Whatever you’ve been dreading the most, whatever keeps getting pushed to the bottom of your list, do that first. Before your emails, before your easier tasks, before anything else.
I used to save the hard stuff for later in the day when I felt “more ready.” What actually happened was I’d spend the whole morning with it sitting in the back of my head, draining my focus, and by the time I got to it I had no energy left to do it properly.
Now I go straight for it. And there is genuinely no better feeling than knowing the hardest part of your day is already behind you by 10am. Everything after that feels easy in comparison.
Either be fully in your work or fully on a break. There is no productive version of the in-between.
You know that state where you’re half working, half scrolling, not really doing either properly? That’s the worst place to be. Your work suffers because you’re distracted and your rest doesn’t recharge you because you’re still half in work mode. You get the downsides of both without the benefits of either.
As Charles Miller puts it, “Avoid the anxious middle.”
When I take a break, I actually take a break. I step away from my desk, go outside for a few minutes, play with my kid, or just sit without a screen in front of me. And when I come back, I come back properly.
If exercise were a pill, everyone would be taking it.
It improves your focus, increases your energy, reduces stress, boosts your mood, and helps you sleep better at night. There is almost no other single thing you can do for yourself that delivers that many benefits at once.
In the past, I used to treat working out as optional. Something I’d get to if the day allowed it. And on the days I skipped it, I always felt it. Slower thinking, lower energy, worse mood by evening.
Now it’s non-negotiable. Even on my busiest days I find at least 30 to 60 minutes to move. A walk around the neighborhood, a quick workout at home, anything. It doesn’t have to be a full gym session to make a difference.
The days I move are always more productive than the days I don’t. No exception.
As I’ve said many times before, productivity isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing what actually matters, with enough energy left to enjoy your life after.
The rules above won’t transform your day overnight. But stack them consistently and within a few weeks you’ll start noticing the difference. Not just in how much you get done, but in how you feel at the end of the day.
Less drained. More in control. And actually proud of how you spent your time.
Pick a few rules from this list that you feel you can realistically stick with and start tomorrow.
See you in the next issue. Until then, take care and keep moving forward.
How to get your sh*t together.
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Apr 17
I remember sitting at my desk one evening, staring at my screen, with about 15 tabs open, a notes app full of half-finished ideas, three unanswered emails I’d been avoiding for days, and a to-do list so long it made me anxious just looking at it.
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