Manage Your Day-To-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind

by Jocelyn K. Glei

Most of us find very little time to casually explore, follow our whims, or think big, but this capacity is a major competitive advantage in the era of constant connectivity.

Maybe we can’t carve out whole days for ourselves like Bezos did, but preserving pockets of time to unplug—perhaps a couple of hours in the morning...

OPEN YOURSELF TO SERENDIPITY

I am consistently humbled and amazed by just how much creation and realization is the product of serendipity. Of course, these chance opportunities must be noticed and pursued for them to have any value. It makes you wonder how much we regularly miss. As we tune in to our devices during every moment of transition, we are letting the incredible potential of serendipity pass us by.

The greatest value of any experience is often found in its seams. The primary benefits of a conference often have nothing to do with what happens onstage. The true reward of a trip to the nail salon may be more than the manicure.

When you value the power of serendipity, you start noticing it...

Notice one source of unexpected value on every such occasion. Develop the discipline ...

PRIORITIZE BEING PRESENT Today’s challenge is to keep your focus and preserve the sanctity of mind required to create, and to ultimately make an impact in what matters most to you.

Be aware of the cost of constant connection.

Recognize when you’re tuning in to the stream for the wrong reasons.

Create windows of non-stimulation in your day.

Listen to your gut as much as you listen to others.

Stay open to the possibilities of serendipity.

You are the steward of your own potential. The resources within you—and around you—are only tapped when you recognize their value and develop ways to use them. Whatever the future of technology may hold, the greatest leaders will be those most capable of tuning in to themselves and harnessing the full power of their own minds.

DEFEND YOUR CREATIVE TIME Book time on your calendar for uninterrupted, focused work—and respect those blocks of time as you would any client meeting.

FOCUS WHEN YOU’RE FRESH Tackle the projects that require “hard focus” early in your day. Self-control—and our ability to resist distractions—declines as the day goes on.

KILL THE BACKGROUND NOISE Turn off your phone, e-mail, and any apps unrelated to your task. Even the presence of background activity ...

MAKE PROGRESS VISIBLE Marking progress is a huge motivator for long-term projects. Make your daily achievements visible by saving iterations, postin...

GIVE YOUR BRAIN A BREAK Alternate challenging creative work with more “mindless” tasks to give your b...

TAP INTO TRANSITIONAL MOMENTS Take a break from checking your smartphone during transitional moments, and open yourself ...

It’s easy to blame the tools, but the real problem is us. Rather than demonizing new technologies unnecessarily or championing them blindly, we must begin to develop a subtler sensibility.

As a result, many of us are on a permanent mission to reduce our e-mail workload, and this has translated into a bit of an e-mail efficiency craze. That desire has been fueled by literally hundreds of tools, techniques, services, plug-ins, and extensions to help you manage your e-mail.

According to productivity thought leaders, to master your e-mail, you need to do most (if not all) of the following: Label your e-mails for faster retrieval Set up rules so that your e-mail can sort itself Archive all of your e-mails so that you can focus Color code your e-mail, for visual cues to priority Use a reminder tool so that important e-mail chains resurface Convert e-mail into tasks, so that nothing slips through the cracks Track e-mail, so you can see when/where it gets read Create e-mail templates so that you can rapidly send common messages Unsubscribe from excess newsletters frequently Limit your e-mails to five sentences or less Use a social plug-in so that you can see the faces and facts behind your e-mails

Because of this, our e-mail represents a sort of digital extension of our brain. Sure, social media and mobile have drawn some of this attention and volume (and for the next generation perhaps they’ll grab it all), but that doesn’t change the fact that each of us will always maintain a digital inbox somewhere, and that’s going to be where the action is.

When I think about my inbox as an extension of my brain, the notion of inbox zero becomes both more meaningful and more elusive. A rush to a clean inbox might leave me empty, if the e-mails themselves don’t trigger the development and progression of my ideas and goals. Put more simply, I don’t want to simply beat back my e-mail every day like some pointless enemy. I want to ensure that the time spent with my e-mail adds up to something—that it helps me achieve more. After all, why am I reading and writing all this e-mail in the first place?!

To make the most of your inbox, I recommend three simple steps:

KNOW YOUR COMPLEX GOALS

These complex goals are elusive, subject to the ebb and flow of our time, energy, and opportunities. Some of us want to write a book. Others want to visit Peru. Still others want to meet a personal idol. Future businesses, charities, and even relationships get lost in this amorphous place simply because these things are difficult to attack in discrete tasks day after day. In order to make your inbox a catalyst to achieve these goals, you’ve got to put them in your line of sight. Every four months or so, I identify my two or three complex goals and tape a list of them to my desk as a constant reminder.

CONNECT THE DOTS

Don’t mindlessly blast through your inbox—give each message that extra moment of careful consideration to see how it might relate to your overall goals.

LET THINGS GO

The most important rule in achieving your goals via your inbox is that distracting opportunities have to die for your most important goals to live. As you move through your inbox, if an idea or opportunity is catching your eye and asking for your focus, think hard about whether pursuing it will help you achieve your complex goals. If not, or if you’re not sure, decline graciously and live to fight another day. If it’s truly the game-changing opportunity that your optimistic inner voice says it is, chances are it will come your way again one day.

Still, while social media helps us engage and expand our world as never before, it also presents a number of new challenges. As with any tool, we must be careful to use it for our benefit and not our detriment.

LOGGING ON WITH INTENTION Purposeful action requires clear intentions. But we’ve all logged on to a social network without them. We may have been procrastinating and looking for a distraction, or feeling angry, annoyed, or frustrated and seeking to escape that feeling.

Research shows that we actually get a small rush of endorphins—the same brain chemicals we enjoy after completing intense exercise—when we receive a new message. Talking about ourselves also triggers the reward center of our brains, making it even more compelling to narrate our daily activities.13

For many of us, mindlessness is the default state. It takes a concerted effort to be mindful with social media—to be proactive instead of reactive. When we’re mindful, we’re aware of why we’re logging on, and we’re able to fully disconnect when we’ve followed through with our intention. We’re able to engage authentically and meaningfully, but we’re not dependent on that connection in a way that limits our effectiveness and our sense of presence.

BECOMING AWARE In order to change our relationship to social media, we need to understand how we’re motivated to use it and why. Without self-awareness, we are at the mercy of our screens and feeds, pulled toward them for instant gratification when other choices might better meet our actual needs.

Those questions might include: Is it necessary to share this? Will it add value to my life and for other people? Can I share this experience later so I can focus on living it now?

Am I looking for validation? Is there something I could do to validate myself? Am I avoiding something I need to do instead of addressing why I don’t want to do it? Am I feeling bored? Is there something else I could do to feel more purposeful and engaged in my day? Am I feeling lonely? Have I created opportunities for meaningful connection in my day?