You discovered your productivity trigger. You are more productive in that all-important first hour of your day. You set boundaries around technology intrusion on your productivity.
You are well on your way to doing more in one hour than most business professionals do in a month. But there is one more question to answer for greater productivity as you start the final quarter of 2012:
How do you finish your day strong?
The concluding actions of yesterday ring loudly as you greet tomorrow-becoming-today.
Here are three strategies for you to finish your day strong:
Complete a Task
Yes, you’re far more productive now than you were a month ago. Yet you still face interruptions. You put out fires.
These chronic productivity hiccups prompt you to experience incompleteness. You rarely complete a task and that’s an emotional drain.
Find a task, even a small one, to complete before you leave for home. Arrange your desk. File papers or documents. Make tomorrow’s to-do list. Anything.
Completing one task at the end of your day creates a positive sense of satisfaction that greets you the next morning. It’s refreshing to walk in and re-experience yesterday’s success. It launches your confidence for completion in a new day.
Commit to fun with family and friends
You read a lot about work/life balance which looks great from 30,000 feet. Yet from where your feet hit the ground, it’s a tough act to balance.
Just do this: commit to fun with your family and friends. Define fun with them. Playing “Pretty, Pretty Princess” with your daughter. Tossing football with your son. A romantic meal you cook at home for your honey. Shooting hoops with the guys. A spa trip with the sisterhood. It’s all fun!
Commit to fun. Schedule it. Budget it. Do it.
Increase your productivity with it.
Cut off the TV
If you go to sleep immediately following the evening news or an episode of The Walking Dead, guess what your subconscious works on overnight? Fixing the national deficit. Catching a murderer. Running from zombies.
Instead, cut the TV off at least 10 minutes before you go to sleep. Write in your Work Positive Gratitude Diary. Give your mind something positive to process. Wake up more refreshed.
Finish your day strong. Do more in an hour than most business professionals do in a month so you can leave the office earlier to do what you love with those you love as you Work Positive in a negative world.
Dr. Joey Faucette is the #1 Amazon best-selling author of Work Positive in a Negative World (Entrepreneur Press), coach, and speaker who help professionals discover success in the silver lining of their business and achieve their dreams. Discover more at www.ListentoLife.org/speaking.