Productivity Tip: Do your most important work first

As some of you may know, I am an early bird. Part of my morning routine is to plan my day, and I use a mix of David Allen (Getting Things Done), The One Thing (Gary Keller) and Cal Newport (Deep Work) techniques.

Get those most important things completed.

Here is a small snippet of how I prioritize my workload.

David Allen technique – I literally brain dump everything that I need to do today in a list using… brace yourself…. pen and paper! I have tried a whole range of apps and software, but I find that good old fashioned pen and paper works best for me.

Gary Keller technique – highlight the one thing that must be done today no matter what! I then put an “A” next to the next four important things on my list. I will not allow myself to go home, or stop work for the day until my “A’s” are crossed off my list.

Cal Newport – If you have not read “Deep Work” then I would highly recommend it. Especially if you tend to procrastinate and find that you often still have a lot to do at the end of your day. Cal talks about the difference between shallow work (emails, calls, quick wins or low hanging fruit), compared to deep work which will really take your business forward. I defined my deep work as projects, writing or creating new processes.

If you have “deep work” to complete within your “A” list then you need to allocate this work in your diary as a calendar event (otherwise other things get in the way). All alerts are turned off, emails are closed completely, FocusAtWill is switched on and its time to get in the zone.

How do you prioritize your day? I am always keen to hear how other people organise their workload. Please let me know in the comments below.