Before you finish that first cup

Choose a 'coffee project' to start the day right

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to decide in advance what task you will
finish before your first cup of coffee. You will start

(00:25):
your morning with a sense of accomplishment that will energize
you for the rest of the day. We have probably
all heard the advice that we should never check email
in the morning, as Julie Morgan Stern would say, and
to put first things first, as Stephen Covey recommends. And
this is wise advice, but still plenty of people grab

(00:50):
a cup of coffee, sit down at their desks and
immediately start processing email and reacting to what comes in.
It is understand I mean, maybe you work with people
in different time zones and you want to catch up
on what has happened. But by the time you check
what has come in, more will come in. Then it

(01:12):
will probably be time for your morning meetings. It's easy
to get to lunchtime or even the end of the
workday having kept all the balls in the air, but
not having moved anything forward. You feel busy, but you
don't feel like you're getting much done. Sound familiar One
way to stop that habit is to decide at the

(01:33):
end of the workday what you will do before you
finish your first cup of coffee the next morning. It
could be helpful to choose a project that will take
half an hour or so and that you know you
will have the energy and resources to get done right away.
The satisfaction you get from completing that first coffee project

(01:54):
will give you momentum to proceed productively through the day. Now,
everyone's coffee projects will be different, of course. I often
like to draft a blog post. Someone else might plan
the agenda for an important meeting. Someone else might review
a report or look at all the sales data from
the last month so you can bring some new insights

(02:17):
to your next meeting on that. But whatever it is,
you are going for a small to medium sized task
that you can knock out first thing. Ideally, it's something
you can do without needing information or guidance from a colleague,
because I don't want you hunting through your inbox and
without having to wait for a stroke of inspiration. Now,

(02:41):
if you are like me, your first cup of coffee
at work is not actually your first cup of the day.
I tend to drink one while getting the kids off
to buses as well. That said, I think it might
be wise to aim to complete a low stakes, fairly
quick coffee project at home too, before you head to
work or start the morning drop offs. At home, your

(03:02):
coffee project might be writing morning pages or engaging in
a spiritual practice. It might be reviewing your calendar or
planning your day. If you accomplish something before you finish
your first cup of coffee at home, and something else
before you finished your first cup of coffee at work,
you are checking at least two tasks off your list.

(03:24):
Whatever else happens in your day, you know those tasks
will be done. You are being proactive instead of reactive,
and that is a good mindset to take through the
next few hours. So if you are sipping that first
cup of coffee right now, consider what project you could

(03:47):
finish before your first cup is empty, and at the
end of the day, decide on a coffee project for tomorrow.
When you start with a sense of accomplishment, you set
yourself up for success in the meantime. This is Laura,

(04:07):
Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast. If you've
got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach me at
Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast is a

(04:34):
production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia, please visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.