Comments on: Improve Productivity by Avoiding Going Online Before Breakfast

By: Stay Offline Early and Late | Lawyerist

Stay Offline Early and Late | Lawyerist — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:01:35 +0000

[...] this article points out, checking your work email in the morning is never a two minute task. Something will require your [...]

By: 5 Most Popular Posts on WebWorkerDaily This Week - OCSEA

5 Most Popular Posts on WebWorkerDaily This Week - OCSEA — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 08:06:57 +0000

[...] Improve Productivity by Avoiding Going Online Before Breakfast [...]

By: 5 Most Popular Posts on WebWorkerDaily This Week – WebWorkerDaily

5 Most Popular Posts on WebWorkerDaily This Week – WebWorkerDaily — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:01:35 +0000

[...] Improve Productivity by Avoiding Going Online Before Breakfast [...]

By: Chris Edwards

Chris Edwards — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:50:06 +0000

I advise clients to never look at email before 11am and then turn it off again until 4pm.
Part of the reasoning is that you are most creative in the morning, so this is the time to do your creative work – don’t waste it with email and admin tasks.
Give yourself these two time slots and you can deal with pretty much everything without getting side-tracked.

By: Karen Glover

Karen Glover — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:10:29 +0000

I too am weaning myself from the aimless surf disease. When I started copy writing from home and day trading, I find myself looking up at 1:30pm and I am just grabbing coffee! Not a good move according to my personal trainer who says to lose weight I must eat 5 small meals a day with breakfast being the most important. @Rob, thanks, I like the idea of checking email from my phone. That will surely reduce the surf time.

By: Jackie Dishner

Jackie Dishner — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:31:58 +0000

I see your point, but I am definitely a morning person; however, my optimal work time doesn't occur before 9 a.m. So checking my e-mail, posting on the Social Media Networks, and getting the otherwise routine work done before then works best for me; however, it never hurts to experiment. I might try this out and see what happens. I do get my coffee and exercise in before 7:30 a.m., though. So that helps.

By: @marun2 on Twitter

@marun2 on Twitter — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:18:41 +0000

I can agree with that. A quick scan of your email inbox even before breakfast can put your mind at rest whether there are or arent any pressing/urgent tasks waiting for your attention so you can mull about it while having breakfast. Just one needs to be careful not to cross the circumference falling into the circle of endless infotainment and browsing when doing this quick scan early-morn.

By: Ange

Ange — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:45:11 +0000

I just make it hard for me to access my laptop in the morning. I alwyas unplug the laptop at 6:30pm, put it in a bag, roll cables, clean the desk, and keep a notebook close to me to write things down until the next morning.

Plugging it in the morning is a pain when I'm not well awaken. It's better to do it after breakfast.
I put my laptop's bag behind my sports machine. I can't turn it on without feeling guilty.

So, I finally turn the pc on after sport&breakfast&shower. Just what I need to feel and work better.

By: Randy

Randy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:27:30 +0000

I am also trying to organize my mornings NOT to immediately check e-mail. What I try is do some quick readings to get myself on the right track, e.g. a byte of Zig Ziglar short short inspiring stories and quotes. I call it anchoring. But honestly its hard to break the e-mail habit.

By: Wellington Grey

Wellington Grey — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 05:28:34 +0000

That is really great advice. I know for myself that if I check email in the morning it's a bad sign for the rest of the day.

By: Thursday Bram

Thursday Bram — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 13:23:09 +0000

I'm one of those folks who has to check email first thing in morning, because it's easy for an email to entirely change what I need to do over the course of the day.

But I've also found that putting some sort of divider between email and everything else is necessary. I run a timer for the time allotted to my email and when I'm out of time, I get up and leave the computer for long enough to eat breakfast and do a few other things.

By: amibelle

amibelle — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 12:40:39 +0000

Great tips! Thanks. I will definitely implement some of these tips. You are so right that it's easy to get lost in inbound activity before outbound work gets done.

By: Pierre Khawand

Pierre Khawand — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:15:46 +0000

Charles, that is very refreshing. The routine you described "checking the email, responding to email, reading online news, and catching up on Facebook and Twitter…” and the next thing I know, it’s already 9:30, and I haven’t yet eaten or gotten dressed" is becoming so common. Let me know if you want to chat about the Results Curve, and the research I have been doing in this area. Thanks for your insights!

By: Conrad Walton

Conrad Walton — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:45:55 +0000

I sleep in. I do my best work late at night.

But then, you are probably more successful than I am. :-)

By: Harry - GoalsOnTrack

Harry - GoalsOnTrack — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:19:16 +0000

For me, I only check emails, without visiting any other websites. If there is something I need to check or deal with having to visit some web page, I just added a task to my todo list(my goal tracker as well), and deal with them later when the real work time starts after morning.

By: John Hamer

John Hamer — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:17:50 +0000

Fun piece, Charlie. I need you to come in and coach me on this stuff. But in the meantime, I'm doing a "boot camp" from 6-7 am, and don't even open my computer until I get to the office. That works pretty well....