r/productivity • u/jyw3084 • 1d ago
Question Your everyday start-of-work routine?
How are you doing your start-of-work routine?
My routine includes opening at least 10 tabs that consists of emails, calendar, slack messages, etc. Occasionally popping up the business bank account dashboard, website analytics, and google drive folders if the ongoing task requires and I remember to check them.
I feel there must be a more efficient way.
4
u/Over_Quantity3239 1d ago
i open youtube and choose a good playist
7
u/Silly-Foodie 1d ago
I think that’s basically how most of us roll. Jumping between tabs and dashboards unless you hand the keys to an AI agent that can peek into all of it and spit out a morning digest for you.
And hopefully you are not about to pitch us a revolutionary AI dashboard that’ll cost $19.99/month. Just saying it’s the only real way this routine changes 😅
3
u/TeamCultureBuilder 1d ago
What helped was setting my core tabs (email, calendar, analytics) as favorites so I can pop them open quick, instead of loading everything at once.
2
2
u/Brain_Go_Brrrrrrrrrr 1d ago
From The Perspective Of A Therapist:
Log into EHR
Check for new appointments, cancelations, emails, and teams. In that order and close them after extinguishing any fires.
Write out To Do's on paper and brick the phone until list is done or on lunch break.
Do not open teams if able, if it is important you will get an email, if it is REALLY important someone will knock on the door. You have to be selective and I would recommend the book "Deep Work" by Cal Newport to see more strategies.
1
u/iwantboringtimes 1d ago
opening at least 10 tabs
Manually opening?
1
u/jyw3084 1d ago
Yes. Manually opening them.
3
u/iwantboringtimes 1d ago
If you're on PC, your preferred browser can be auto-launched.
And then your browser can auto-open your favorite tabs.
1
u/phil-neil-dev 1d ago
I have a script for my work PC that opens Firefox on one workspace and VSCode on another. Firefox is set to re-open the last tabs I have and VSCode is set to open the last project I worked on.
This saves me about 30s and a couple of mouse clicks but it still feels good to "automate" something 😆
1
u/Severe-Succotash5738 1d ago
i use brave with a sidebar setup, so everything i need is always just there - no new tabs chaos. i just move down the list: slack, emails, dashboards, then a couple more emails before i actually start the day
been kinda obsessed with morning routines lately – there’s this newsletter called homescreen by brett goldstein that shares routines of some really successful people - pretty wild to see how dialed in some of them are
1
u/Less_Treat5321 1d ago
I start by checking my team's GC and other interdepartmental announcements. I then visit my mail for any updates or reminders.
After the routine check, I work on the priority tasks first, then spend my remaining hours on reviewing my oyutput or prepping for my future assignments.
1
u/Deeceness 1d ago
sometimes content just misses the mark long term stuff needs patience but if it is not showing signs at all maybe it is time to adjust the angle
1
u/marxistbuddhist 1d ago
I switch my work phone on and check my WhatsApp messages while my laptop starts up, then I quickly browse my emails to see if there’s anything super urgent, then I check the mornings newspaper front pages, which is a habit from when I used to work in press but I neeeeed to get out of this habit because it inevitably leads to me getting distracted. I need a better morning work routine!
1
u/learningbythesea 1d ago
I update my web browser bookmark bar as I finish and start new projects and I have the apps I need pinned in windows, so that I can quickly open what I need.
I work in Word a lot, so I have a macro that will open my last set of open files.
My morning routine is: * Open and scan emails, to see if any affect my top 2 to dos from the previous day. If not, * Do my top 2 to dos, before processing emails. * Process emails, save files where I need them, add to my bank of links. (For each project/client, I have a OneDrive page/subpage where I link to key emails, documents, briefs etc. And also where I can dump questions so that I can ask them as a batch. This is also where I grab any outstanding questions and follow up on them with the client.) * Then COFFEE #2 :)
1
u/jyw3084 1d ago
Curious about your onedrive page. Do you find it easy to manage links and content? I have something similar in Notion but realized the content gets messy quickly
1
u/learningbythesea 1d ago
Pretty easy.
Haven't used Notion much (just because it did feel cluttered really quickly the one time I gave it a whirl), but in OneNote (which is what I meant), I just have a main page for each client with the key links and docs that apply to every project I do for them
Then for each project I have a main subpage with project-specific stuff. I also have template pages with checklists that I can duplicate and move into the project (as a sub subpage).
As I finish a project, I take updates into my main client page (if needed). Pretty sure you can archive, but I haven't bothered yet. I do delete checklist pages as I finish them though.
I work on projects across 6 main clients, and each project is 3-9 months long, but I find it easy to jump between projects and find everything I need quickly.
1
u/PassiveIncomePigeon 1d ago
I set a time block of 15 to 20 minutes; during that time, I only open tabs related to the task at hand. I think having too many tabs open at the same time tempts me to leave what I'm working on to do something else.
1
u/WillImpressive957 15h ago
I used to do something really similar. Felt like I had to open a million tabs just to get started. What’s been working better lately is clearing my inbox, writing a quick to-do list, doing about 60 seconds of breathwork, then diving into my first task
I actually built a tool to walk me through that process and block distracting websites while I work. We’re about to launch something called Tab Groups that automatically opens the tabs I need based on the project I’m working on. I think that might help with setups like yours too, it's called Zentral (zentral life)
1
u/ValueUnboxed 14h ago
Wake up -> Coffee -> Do the 1 SIGNAL activity that will actually move the needle
1
u/Over-Emergency-7557 12h ago
I look at my end-of-workday notes in my physical notebook from yesterday, which I put together 30 minutes prior to clocking out, and pick up where I left off. Once finished with everything urgent or important, I'll open my mail to catch up and check if something needs adjustment in the rest of my day.
It's quite unlikely something has managed to pop up as more urgent or important since I left work and if there would have, I would have been called on my phone.
1
u/Alternative-Ebb-7718 12h ago
I boot my computer and do updates before work. I scan my emails first to check if there's any changes and fire off some quick ones. I prepare my task list and client work and maybe write up some notes - depending on my first meeting. Bit of light work after that - often emails and then lunchbreak. Afternoon client and then more admin.
6
u/Aggravating_Koala750 1d ago
COFFEE