I have had several conversations about routines lately.
I guess at this time of the year it can be challenging to get back into the swing of things after taking some time off for the holidays.
Do you have a morning routine?
The conversation I started was about your business routine, but certainly a lot of people talked about getting up early to work out, or walk pets, or read before getting started on work.
I don’t have a real morning routine per se, but I do make a point of doing one thing: I do a whole hour of business work before I ever check email and voicemail. Every single morning.
I learned a long time ago that getting up and going into the office and opening email is one of the most counter-productive things you can do.
(I’ll give you a moment in case this is your regular routine …. )
Why?
Because you are starting your day in a reactive brain space.
If you aren’t sure what you are going to tackle first, and you check your email first, you are waiting for someone else to tell you what is most important.
And while email is important – and maybe there is something pressing there from a client – it shouldn’t be THE thing that starts your day. More precisely, THEY should not decide what is most important for you. YOU should.
Ron Friedman, author at the Harvard Business Review, cautions against checking email or listening to voicemail first thing. He says:
“For many of us, checking email or listening to voicemail is practically automatic. In many ways, these are among the worst ways to start a day. Both activities hijack our focus and put us in a reactive mode, where other people’s priorities take center stage. They are the equivalent of entering a kitchen and looking for a spill to clean or a pot to scrub.”
Kind of sounds weird when you look at it that way, doesn’t it?
I changed this in my business many years ago … now, I work for one hour before I ever check what others need.
That way I can be sure what I am doing first is what I intended.
Being proactive instead of reactive will help you to be the best business owner you can be.
Routines are an essential piece of your success.
My routine is to get up, get ready for work, drink my coffee hot (not at my desk), and then go into my office and get myself organized to start my day. Then I do the first thing I know I need to do, before getting distracted by anyone else.
It can be a different task every day (it’s not like Groundhog Day!), but the routine is the key piece. I change up my first task of the day all the time to avoid repetition and boredom.
The next part of this is weekly routines … what do you do at the end of each week, or the beginning of the next?
Are you analyzing your revenue? your expenses? your marketing initiatives? planning networking events and sales conversations?
These are very important routines too, so that you can make sure that every hour you put into running your business is moving you forward.
I’ve got a great way for you to get into a regular weekly routine – my Inspired Action Mastermind Group for VAs.
It’s a low-cost, high-value coaching program for Virtual Assistants.
With weekly accountability for your goals, we help you actually achieve what you say you want to get done.
You can learn more about it here: www.yourvamentor.com/inspired.
If you are looking to build routine and goal setting and accountability into your business, it could be just the thing for you!
I hope you join us!