I like straightforward, easy to integrate advice. So this tip really lands for me.
I’ve heard a lot of people say it, but when James Clear, author of the mega-bestseller “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones,” mentioned it, it landed in a new way.
Clear offers tons of incredibly helpful insights and strategies for building habits, systems and environments to facilitate higher levels of growth and success. So when he calls something the “only productivity tip you’ll ever need,” it’s worth dropping everything and listening.
That tip: Do the most important thing first.
Boom. So simple. So annoyingly hard.
Every week, the main item on my Monday agenda is to write a rough draft for this column. My editing schedule follows with different phases through the rest of the week.
But writing isn’t easy. My thoughts need to be clear. I have to put distractions away. It’s not something I can knock off my to-do list in 20 minutes, it takes time, patience, discipline, focus.
So, I often break my own schedule. I start the week with a bunch of random little tasks that I can blow through without fully turning on my brain. This feels good — productivity is like a drug, and I get a little high from ticking things off my list. But then, I inevitably fall behind schedule. I don’t make enough progress on Monday. I enter Tuesday feeling some heat. Maybe I get going then, maybe a kid gets sick, or the AC breaks. The stress always seems to compound, and I end up carrying extra tension in my brain and body all week because the big thing — the important thing — is still sitting there.
I’m sure you know this feeling.
If it plagues you, too, let me share what I believe is the best way to implement course correction. Yes, do the most important thing first. But do one other thing before that.
I know, it sounds like I’m already breaking the rule, but putting this all into play, I’ve realized it’s pretty tough to jump into your “most important thing” cold. It helps to have a warmup.
For that, exercise. Go for a run, or a walk, do a few pushups, take a yoga class … it doesn’t matter. Just get your blood flowing.
In my experience, exercise is never a waste of time. It feels like a jump-start to the rest of my process. It gives energy, clarity and a base level of self-esteem. It’s a great primer to turning off all distractions, hunkering down and doing the thing, even if it’s hard.
I repeat: Turn off all distractions, and do the thing.
In the end, everyone’s precise productivity formula is different, but I think this is worth taking in and trying on. Let’s save ourselves from extra stress wherever we can.