I previously wrote about my complete daily habits, from the moment I get out of bed to the moment I return. I’ve also laid out my morning habits in some detail. Now, here are my workday habits.
And having spent 16+ years now trying different approaches I’ve finally found a work day routine that I’m happy to say has me performing to my peak for the best part of most days.
Now, I appreciate that working culture, expectations and environment can vary enormously from job to job. Whilst I have nearly always had office jobs, a good friend is a landscape garden designer. Most days he is already shifting heavy garden furniture or planting trees at 7am, and continues non-stop until 3 or 4pm. His clients are spread all over London so he spends a lot of time on the road. But some days he spends back in the office, designing upcoming projects, placing orders, managing staff etc.
Needless to say, not only is the structure of his workday, physical exertion levels, and exposure to the elements vastly different to mine, they also differ wildly from day-to-day depending on what is required.
That said, I do think my work structure is pretty consistent with the average office-based information worker.
My working hours are 9am-6pm. I spend most of that time in the same geographic location, either in meetings or at a desk, processing information (reading emails, reports), and thinking, in order to create new information (writing emails, presentations).
Whilst the words in brackets might differ for some people, that general picture of a 21st century knowledge worker describes the working lives of many, so I hope that my habits listed below can be helpful to many as well.
Even if there are some things that you might initially think “I couldn’t do that – nobody does that where I work,” I’d urge you to try it, you might be surprised. There are definitely things I’ve listed that I also didn’t think would be appreciated by my colleagues, until the day I just started doing it, and nobody said anything.
So here goes.
As soon as I get to my desk each morning I open my notebook and…
1. Write down 3 things that absolutely must get done today
This is such a simple but powerful thing that has resulted in a big increase in the satisfaction I’m able to derive each day.
Before I discovered it I would just enter each work day with no clear plan other than a long to-do list and the meetings scheduled in my calendar.
Taking just a couple of minutes to write down (and physically putting pen to paper somehow makes it more effective) 1 to 3 things that are the most important today really helps ensure that those are the ones that get my primary attention.
It minimises how likely I am to get distracted by new requests that may well be important priorities for other people, but not for me.
Some days, by 6pm I’m only able to tick off one of those things. Other days I’ll achieve all three by 11am and then be able to get much deeper into my ToDo list. But rarely anymore do I end a day thinking, “What happened today? I was so busy all day, but I don’t feel like I’ve done any of the things I needed to,” which used to happen all too frequently.
If that sounds familiar to you, I wholeheartedly recommend this.
2. My work day begins: I try to minimise time spent in meetings, and prioritise the 3 things listed above
I would love to tell you that I have a strict rule that I only attend meetings between 11am and 2pm, and the rest of my day is sacred for strategic ‘deep work’. But the reality of working in a large organisation as I do, and where collaboration is one of the core values, is that it’s extremely difficult to be that rigid.
If everybody only came to meetings when it suited their schedule it would be impossible to ever get the necessary people together to achieve anything.
As such, I’ve found that the most fruitful approach is to try and build flexibility into my day, so that if last minute demands on my time crop up, which they inevitably will, then I can take them in my stride and adjust accordingly.
Days when every minute is scheduled in advance leave no margin, meaning that when curve balls arrive, anxiety rises and often the things that I had earlier decided are the most important are the first things to fall by the wayside.
3. I stand as much as possible
Not all offices have ‘Standing desks’, but they are growing in regularity.
Sitting hunched over a computer all day is not good for the spine and overall mobility, so I like to crank my desk up to standing instead.
This also has the added benefit of making me more mentally alert.
In a former job a project manager used to arrange 15 minute ’Stand-up meetings’ with her project team every morning, and they were probably the most efficient meetings I’ve ever witnessed. Nobody was slumping into a chair getting comfortable and wasting time on idle small talk. There was something about having everybody standing that ensured every participant was on full alert, with high energy and keeping contributions to the point.
4. Headphones on and 40ghz Gamma Waves
I know wearing headphones isn’t appreciated in every office, but I sometimes find myself with so many things to focus on in such a short space of time that the only way to achieve the required concentration level is to block out all external distractions with noise cancelling headphones.
In addition to that, I recently discovered 40ghz Gamma Wave tracks. These are sound files – sometimes musical compositions, sometimes repetitive noise that oscillate at the same frequency as the brain and can induce the feeling of being ‘in the zone’, at peak performance.
You can find them on Spotify, Youtube or any other streaming service, and honestly, since discovering them I have had some of my most productive days ever.
Here is a playlist I return to time and again whenever I want to ‘get in the zone’.
5. Lunch with colleagues
This was a welcome change when I moved to Germany where there is much more of a culture of closing down the laptop and taking a full lunchbreak.
Working in the UK – at least in my experience – ‘desk lunches’ are the norm, where you don’t really take a proper break at all, other than maybe the time it takes to walk to Pret a Manger and back.
But having experienced three years now of the ‘Continental way’ I can say that taking a proper break, sitting at a lunch table and chatting with colleagues is so much more beneficial in terms of your wellbeing, creating bonds and friendships, and helping find solutions to problems I may be facing in my personal life – such as where to find a reliable mechanic, or where sells the best coffee in the city – all kinds of things.
And I feel so much more refreshed and energised for the afternoon than if I had stayed sat at my desk, not really conscious of what I was eating, not really focusing on my work either.
6. Only read and respond to emails at set times of the day
This is often a suggestion that people resist or struggle with at first.
In many office environments it seems that email is the axes around which everything turns. It’s almost like if there isn’t an email chain about a given project, then it didn’t happen. Email is so embedded into the culture that any suggestion to curb our reliance on it can seem unrealistic.
But over the years I’ve learned that not only is it possible to massively reduce my use of email and still be effective, it’s actually essential if I’m going to be able to give any piece of work the time and focused attention it requires.
In many office-based careers our email account is one of the first things we get given. It means we’re ‘official’ somehow. On day one when nobody knows us, no-one is emailing us. But as we start to make a name for ourselves, we receive more emails. Somehow psychologically we begin to equate the number of emails we’re receiving as a marker of status.
What is more, every new email received gives us a little burst of dopamine. “Is this a word of thanks for a job well done?” “Is this an opportunity to prove myself?” “Is this valuable information that will help me grow and develop, or seem smart in the big meeting on Thursday?”
Email is important, email is essential, email makes us feel good. Until it doesn’t.
There’s a point in every executive’s career when they have to take greater ownership of their own workload and grow and be stronger in protecting their right to focus each day on the things that matter. And that means changing their approach towards email.
There will be a period of adjustment. If your colleagues – and especially your bosses – have become used to you being the guy that responds within 15 minutes to every email, and suddenly you no longer intend to be, then you need to make that clear. Tell your boss that if they need you in a hurry to call, SMS or WhatsApp you – whatever works for you. Set your own boundaries, don’t just assume the habits of others because they are the culture. If the culture doesn’t work for you, change it.
But whatever you do, get out of the habit of reading every email as it arrives in your inbox. And learn to make it fit to YOUR schedule, not vice versa.
7. ‘Bonus activities’
Honestly, most days if I’m able to check off my ‘Big 3’ tasks, then I already feel pretty satisfied. And what I do next is indeed a bonus for me.
Some days there might only be enough time to process and prioritise all the new actions that have come up during the day’s meetings or emails. Some days I’ll have time to start attacking that prioritised list.
Some days I might give myself the luxury of reading a new trend report or interesting article.
But an important mindset shift I have made is to understand that, as crazy it may seem, in reality achieving three important tasks in a day is more than most people manage.
So many of us spend so much of their working day busily responding to other people’s requests that the projects most important to them can stay on the back burner for months. So if I do achieve that, putting myself under pressure to get through another 10 on the bottomless ToDo list is a surefire way to end the day feeling unnecessarily unsatisfied when I should feel proud.
8. Never take work home
I readily admit that I used to take work home most days. When I was structuring each day around my bottomless ToDo list and the ever expanding inbox, when 6pm approached I would be thinking “I’ll just finish these 3 more tasks, and then I’ll be done for the day”.
And guess what? More often than not at least one of those 3 tasks would take longer than expected, and because I had already told myself that my satisfaction for the day would only be felt once those activities were complete, I couldn’t leave them. I’d either stay in the office until however long it took. 7, 7.30pm. Or worse still, stay late but not finish the task, and then take it home too.
But one day I realised that work never ‘finishes’. There are always more tasks to do, and it’s entirely up to me to define where I draw the line.
So now I make a point of doing as much as I possibly can during office hours and then being content that I’m done. That I’ve given everything I reasonably could in the working day, and that is enough. There will always be tomorrow to finish that task.
Yes there are exceptions sometimes. That last minute request from the Board, that potential PR crisis that needs to be managed NOW. But I try to keep as few scenarios as possible in the category of things worth giving up my own free time for, and instead know that when I leave the office for the day I don’t have to give another thought towards work until tomorrow morning.
9. Drive home – listen to podcast
Like my morning commute, I enjoy using the otherwise dead time of a commute to listen to a podcast or audiobook.
For some of my top podcast recommendations, read this article.
So that’s what my average working day looks like. How about yours?
Are there any tricks that you think I’m missing? Anything you’d really recommend I consider too? Or if you have any questions about anything I’ve written, let me know in the comments below.
