“The first hour is the rudder of your day"

In other words, how you start your day sets the course for the rest of the day.

Create the kind of day you want to have by simply focusing your best efforts on that first hour. Don’t worry about what comes afterwards. If you nail that first hour, the rest of the day will normally fall in line. “Leverage the power of the rudder to steer the whole ship."

Sometimes it is not possible (or desirable) to adhere to a rigid structure every working day, but planning the way it starts will improve your productivity for that day. 

Often the most important things on your to-do list are also the things that are going to make the biggest difference to your life or business, and also often the things that you procrastinate about doing. Committing to starting on those tasks first thing in the morning, and keeping going until they are completed, is really energising and builds momentum for the rest of the day.  

This can fairly quickly become a good time management habit and prioritising the to-do list the night before really helps to make that first hour really productive.

I’m not suggesting that you have to start getting up at 5 o’clock, but the message is really that whatever time you start your day make sure you tackle the most important things first and keep going until they are complete. 

Eat those frogs!