The Power of Mornings – Part 2

Personally, I’ve never been a morning person. In my college days, anything that started before 9:00am would have to come standard with a latte and a Red Bull. When I started my professional career and an 8:00am start to the workday became the norm, I adapted. But even so, I’ve never been known to start the day by bouncing out of bed (at least not without the latte!). But two weeks ago I committed to an experiment (to read part one of my blog The Power of Mornings: An experiment on Productivity, click here). For one week I would begin my work day at 7:00am, approximately one hour before my office opens. I set out to test whether the articles I had read profiling people that began their work day earlier, really did have the satisfaction of a more productive day. As an Account Executive at The BLU Group – Advertising & Marketing I’m always looking for ways to increase my productivity and work more efficiently, so I was excited to see if this simple change to my schedule would make a difference. After one week of being the first one at the office bright and early, here’s what I discovered:

1. You Get a Jump Start on Your Day – By getting started earlier, I was able to ensure that my e-mails were one of the first to arrive in the recipient’s inbox, providing the opportunity to get items wrapped up early in the day.
2. There are Less Distractions – With no team members in the office and the phone not ringing, I was able to concentrate 100% on the task at hand, with no outside distractions.
3. You Do Some of Your Best Work in the Morning – I found this time to be ideal for tackling some of the items on my to-do list that required more focus and a larger time block dedicated to doing just that. I had quiet work time and crossing them off my list early gave me an instant sense of accomplishment for the day.
4. You Plan Better for the Day – The first hour of my day is typically filled with updating schedules, examining project progress, and planning for the day. Coming in an hour earlier gave me the ability to get all of these items completed before my team arrived at the office, so that everyone could hit the ground running faster.
5. You Check More Off Your To-Do List – Adding another full hour of productivity to my day helped me to check more things off my to-do list, allowing me to get more done in a week.

After one week of experimenting, I can conclude that starting my workday early has and will continue to be, a useful tactic in helping me increase my productivity. Who knows, maybe a 6:00am start to my workday is in my near future. I might need a bigger latte!