5 Ways to Kickoff Your Week Right
The power lunch is a good daily routine but, the key to a really great week is how you kick it off. Here are the 5 steps I use to start my week off right:
1. Start with a Clean Slate. My routine really starts Sunday night when I login via VPN and process any remnants of email converstations or tasks left in my work inbox, I do this for my personal email as well. This ensures that any loose ends or weekend work is closed out and nothing gets left undone. It is equivalent to the mental refresh I have described for a daily routine in 2 days in : Get more done.
2. Get Good Sleep. If I start the week without enough sleep I feel it affect my work all week. Towards the end of the week I usually spend more time socializing, volunteering or working on side projects at night so I find that a good Sunday night slumber is crucial to making it through a productive week.
3. Eat Breakfast, Drink Coffee. Monday morning is often one of my most productive planning times at work but, it is considerably less so if my stomach is screaming and my eye lids are drifting downwards. I try to grab a solid breakfast every day (and even some healthy cube snacks), especially Monday. Even with good sleep, coffee is great for that little extra kick to jolt you out of the Monday morning blues.
4. Catch up on the Outside World. We do a pretty decent job of keeping up on what’s going on outside our companies during the week through lunch and water cooler converstations but, we can often get out of sync over the week. I find my RSS reader builds up over the weekend as I spend time on much needed relaxation and social interaction. Kick it back into high gear and catch up on your feeds Monday morning and you’ll reap the benefits all week.
5. Review and Remake your Todo List. The final step to kicking off a great work is reviewing your last todo list and remaking/updating it for the coming week. Enjoy the tactile fufillment of checking anything off you missed last week and build out your plan for the coming week. For more on todo lists, check out A Millenial’s 6 Step Guide to Getting Things Done.
How do you kickoff your week?
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April 14th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Hey Brandon, great post here, and very relevant for anyone trying to slog through their first day back after the weekend.
I thought you were especially on point with suggestion 2 — I periodically find that I am up late on Sunday nights wrapping up homework, which usually makes for a long Monday and Tuesday, or at least until I can catch up on my sleep deficit.
Another thing I do on Mondays which usually help is in the vein of your fifth suggestion — usually in the shower or in my first class of the day, I make myself think about all the positive events taking place later in the week. Whether I am going to a performance during the weekend or will simply see some friends on Thursday night, that bit of optimism can go a long ways.
April 14th, 2008 at 11:47 am
Sunday night is a must go to sleep before the sun comes up night! If I can’t get enough sleep Sunday I too feel the whole week will be in shambles. However Sunday night work can catch up to you if you left the MacBook closed Friday at 5 till Sunday p.m.
Breakfast on Mondays is also a great kicker. You need the energy after the relaxing (hopefully) weekend to get back on track!
Good tips Brandon
April 15th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
I hate the fact that we have to spend our Sunday nights doing work. How long will it be before we start considering Sunday night another work day and start doing “catch up” on Saturday night? We gotta find a way to get off this slippery slope. I think if we stepped up our game on Friday afternoon, we could save Sunday night. Don’t duck out early on Friday; get your junk cleaned up and start the weekend with no monkeys on your back. Also, we should embrace the Inbox Zero approach to email http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=973149761529535925.
Finally, I would like to point out that one of the best ways to get a good night’s rest is to NOT look at any screen or monitor for two hours before you go to bed. As a former insomniac, I know all the tricks for falling asleep and for those of us in the computer generation … this is probably the most potent tip I can give.
August 14th, 2008 at 10:21 am
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