⏱ The Best Minute: Starting your day off well, doing important things first, and living a productive life
💡 1 IDEA FROM ME
Don’t waste the most important time of your workday.
The first 2-3 hours of your workday at the most important. This is where your willpower and mental energy are the highest, yet it is easy to waste that time on things that don’t require high cognitive capacity. You want to avoid spending this time on things like email, catching up on the news, or small tasks on your to-do list. They may feel productive, but they often also ways to procrastinate doing your most important work.
Instead, it is better to focus on things that bring the most value and take the most effort when you have the most effort to give. Then you can do the smaller effort tasks when you don’t need as much focus or diligence. For me, my calendar for the first few hours of each workday typically includes:
Sermon writing/study/review
Content creation (newsletter, articles, other resources)
Planning and/or research
Things like email, my to-do list, and meetings are all scheduled for after 11 AM. This ensures the work that takes the most focus (and is often the most meaningful) happens at the time when I am at my best.
💬 2 QUOTES FROM OTHERS
I. Dan Ariely on doing important things first:
“One of the saddest mistakes in time management is the propensity of people to spend the two most productive hours of their day on things that don’t require high cognitive capacity (like social media). If we could salvage those precious hours, most of us would be much more successful in accomplishing what we truly want.”
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II. Charles Richards on productivity:
“Don’t be fooled by the calendar. There are only as many days in the year as you make use of. One person gets only a week’s value out of a year while another gets a full year’s value out of a week.”
💯 1 Resource I Recommend
My Practical Church Newsletter.
If you enjoy the Best Minute and are in ministry, you’ll love my very similar but designed specifically for those in ministry newsletter as well. The Practical Church Newsletter follows a very similar format to the Best Minute, but is designed for pastors and ministry leaders. Subscribe to Practical Church and you’ll also get some really great (and free) resources as well.
🤯 1 INTERESTING FACT
Squirrels cause approximately 10-20% of US power outages.
Squirrels tend to chew things. Combine this with power lines, and there’s going to be a problem. Squirrel-induced blackouts are much smaller and easier to fix than a blackout caused by a storm, as generally, there’s just one cable to repair.
Source: Facts Site
🤔 1 QUESTION TO LEAVE YOU WITH
What is the biggest non-work related contribution I can make today?
