Win Your Day Before It Starts: How Ultra-Productive Leaders Map Out Winning Tomorrows
An unexpected truth underpins the routines of some of history’s most prolific inventors, CEOs and creators - those we praise as “prolific”, “prodigies” and “MVPs”.
One of the critical activities we see used over and over again is structuring days not in morning hours, but the night prior - deliberately architecting each subsequent 24 hours for optimized output… while rivals slept.
Let's dissect the tactics, realities and psychological drivers behind this strategy practiced by icons from Benjamin Franklin to Elon Musk creating incredible leverage over colleagues. Prioritize tomorrow tonight.
The Problems with Mornings
Mornings attract less mental intrusions, offering precious productivity potential. So conventional wisdom preaches early rising to win days. But this neglects two crucial factors:
Decision Fatigue Afternoon choices deplete willpower stores for thoughtful prioritization. Night brings mental refresh increasing quality of thought on tradeoff clarity.
Unknown Unknowns Mornings can only organize known tasks and meetings scheduled. But afternoons and nights surface new fires demanding inclusion in tomorrow’s hierarchy that morning plans neglect.
Top performers mitigate these issues through Nighttime Mapping of tomorrow's tactical landscape as complete incoming signals emerge. This allows re-configuring top priorities against full context.
Ushering Optimal Tomorrows Tonight
The core tenets of Nighttime Mapping involve:
🗓️ Tomorrow Tonight Mindset Shift Consciously force daily planning forward by 24 hours rather than just morning. Embrace reality that tomorrow is sculpted tonight, not following dawn.
🤔 Top Priority Identification Consider all known meetings, emails, tasks, admin needs across verticals. Then deliberately choose 1-3 most needle-moving objectives if all else was dropped.
😴 Evening Buffer Creation Ruthlessly cull peripheral activities with marginal gains compared to needle movers to generate time buffers insulating priority tasks.
💪🏽 Distraction Resistance Mindset Viscerally imagine tomorrow executed exactly as mapped without deviation. Create mental memory and accountability to identified priorities amidst distraction attempts.
🌅 Am Win Blocking Physically sequence your calendar to tackle needle movers first before habituated responses kick in diverting days. Frontload wins.
Realities of Unpredictability
The illusion of workplace control seduces us. But realities remain rife with unpredictable emergencies diverting perfect plans. Savvy Nighttime Mappers accept this certainty of disruption and architect accordingly:
🥋 Prioritization Judo Mentally prepare to ruthlessly reschedule lower value tasks displaced by surprise developments while protecting true needle movers.
🔥 Task Batch Pre-Grouping
Bundle similar recurring quick tasks across days into designated time blocks for rapid powering through as units. Limit context switching friction.
🎯 North Star Compass Reference When derailed or overwhelmed, reorient to identified 1-3 nighttime priorities showing direction amid turbulence. Use these true needles as decision filters for all else.
Ultimately, Nighttime Mapping acceptance of suboptimal surprises ironically increases work completed on priorities by preparing contingency responses in advance.
Nighttime Mapping Wins Days
No strategy locks in daily perfection against unpredictable emergencies certain to defy intentions. But Nighttime Mappers operate from position of control over controllable factors within grasp — chiefly, deliberate thinking on priority order when energy and objectivity peaks after workloads subside.
Want to read more? Try these articles:
How Founders Maintain Ruthless Focus in a Distraction-Filled World
Designing an Optimal Home Office for Focus: Tips and Ideas
9th January 2024