Have your days at work merged into one? Has your morning enthusiasm disappeared?
It is 9am, you walk into your office, see your desk piled high with that project that just will not finish. Immediately your enthusiasm drops. “Here we go again!”.
Part of keeping your enthusiasm going is making every day different and every day count. While it is obvious that how you start your day sets the mood for the day, what is less obvious is that how you start a day depends on how you finished the previous one. Making sure you close down the previous day means that you can start the next day afresh. Here are two simple tips to help you do this — they both happen at the end of each day.
1. Review Your To-Do List.
Towards the end of the day, take some time to stop and review your To-Do list. Check off everything you accomplished. Are there items on the list that you can quickly finish up before the end of the day? If there are, plan out how you will spend the remaining time until the end of the day to get these done. Doing this will achieve two things:
- Create focus and energy to get some things done.
- Stop small things spilling over to the next day.
2. Tidy up your desk.
Ten minutes before you leave the office, take the time to tidy up your desk. This means cleaning up papers, putting away files (even if you are going to use them again in the morning), packing away pens, turning off your computer, and taking the dirty cups back to the kitchen.
Your desk should be tidy enough that, if you did not show up for work, someone else could sit there and work comfortably.
While it might seem counter-intuitive to put things away if you are going to use them again the next day, coming in and sitting at a tidy, organised desk sets the tone for an organised day. A tidy desk means that you are starting the day anew not just picking up where you left off last night. As you take that file out, you are starting something and you always START something with energy, new ideas and new focus.
I challenge you to give this a try and see if it makes a difference. In addition to how you feel, it will likely also effect how others in the office perceive you. After all, don’t you prefer working with people who are organised and in control?
And if you are still struggling with whether this makes sense, let me give you an analogy. After dinner at home, you clear the dirty dishes from the table even though you need to eat again in the morning. Imagine sitting down to eat breakfast with last night dirty dishes still on your placemat.
