Good morning, Sunshine.

How are you starting your day?

I used to be a full on maniac. I know that seems exaggerated but it’s true. I would check my emails before I left home, start the calls to work on whatever come in my emails in the car, and then walk into the office in a crazy rush to keep going with all the VIS - Very Important Stuff that I had going on. And if anyone caught me on the way in with a problem, well watch out world – I was on the path of problem solving 101.

As a result, the rest of the day was pretty much the same. Chaotic, not very well planned and full on, on the go.

Did I get my work done? Of course. Did I have some sort of planning happening? Perhaps, but not very good. Was there inefficiency with the way I used my time? Yes! I pretty much resented anything that was going to ‘steal’ my time from doing all the things I needed to do (cue, meetings).

Someone told me that they ‘set up their day’. I had heard of similar things before, but always thought it was another way of taking up my time – how could I add in ANOTHER thing to do when I was already crazy busy?!

But then I changed jobs. I wanted to bring fresh thinking and habits to the new role, so one of the things I done was to change my start.

I started to create a new routine every morning of taking the time to plan out my day, and decide on my intention. I also list what I’m grateful for.

The day plan lets me block out time periods to work on the important stuff. If anything small comes up, I can include it, or just push it out till the next day. Working in blocks is a great time planning skill, seems easy but the key is to focus on one thing at a time only – takes practice.

Then I decide how I want to be. Having really great positive energy is an important part of our business culture – so framing it up and then working on the things that will help me have great energy is important. Things like going to the gym, having a quiet moment to plan before there are a lot of people around, having a good breakfast. Meditating is good for me too – clears the head and helps me with focus.

The last thing I do is to think about everything I’m grateful for today. It’s so easy to go into victim or blame mode, but so much harder when you recognise the great stuff you’ve got going on, and how good life is.

No more reading emails before I get the office and entering fight mode, no more anxiety about what is going on that day. It’s going to happen anyway, so why not relax, and then be in the best headspace you can be to work through it.

Sometimes it’s at the office, sometimes I stop and grab a coffee and just sit somewhere nice.

Being calmer, more relaxed and happy is so important – good for my colleagues, great for our clients, and critical for me.

The upside? Taking the 5 -10 minutes to plan not only my work but my attitude, results in better work and a better success rate of completion. Do you have to maintain the focus? Of course – but the payoff is worth it.

So why not take a couple of minutes today, grab a coffee and go somewhere quiet and just plan out your day. You’ll feel a lot better for it.

Interested in my list of questions? I’m passing them on to you from a great source.

What is my intention?

Did I meditate?

What are my goals?

Have I journaled?

Did I exercise?

How am I feeling?

What do I want?

What is my next move?

What do I need to do today?

What am I working on for training & development?

What am I grateful for?

What is for lunch? (just added this in for you – trying to be prepared and have a plan for food!)