Dedicate Mornings to High-Value Work
Using the Pilot and Plane to optimise your day
Yesterday in my post on ‘Productivity Waves — How to Optimise Your Day’, I spoke about ‘The Pilot and the Plane’. The idea that your brain is more suited to different tasks at different times of the day and you should leverage that. Take time to ‘be the Pilot’ and plan your days, and other times to ‘fly along the Pilot’s flight path’.
Procrastinators can often take too much time planning and others can not plan at all. Understand which of these you are and balance them.
Anyway, I said that ‘I often use time in the mornings to plan my day whilst my brain is at it’s most powerful’. Today I read 8 Habits of Super-Productive People Who Work From Home by Thomas Oppong.
He suggests the opposite, ‘Dedicate Mornings to High-Value Work’ and cites Kenneth Chenault (CEO of American Express) in saying ‘A plan from yesterday makes it easier to get started right away when you get up’.
Focus on the essential tasks and get the critical-to-quality tasks done early.
For me, evenings are a good time for critical thinking too. Thomas suggests using this time to draw up a plan for the next day, enabling you to just straight in.
I’m going to try this and see how it goes.
“You can only see your current horizon. Every time you move nearer to your desired destination, new horizons will become clear. New, previously hidden, opportunities will come into view.” — Chris Murray
