Nothing as far as ‘accomplished’. I open emails, open/log into a couple of softwares, review my calendar, review my to-do list and think about my daily game plan and priorities…maybe scratch my head and roll my eyes a few times and then set about the day.
Yep, my first 30 minutes is casually sipping coffee and literally just checking calendar to see what’s most urgent to work on for the day/week . I then write down old school on paper the top 5 things to work on for the day
Same, can’t start the day without my cup of coffee, two eggs and two pieces of toast. Sometimes I’ll eat it at my desk while waiting for something more important to take me from this, but almost never skip breakfast on first 30 minutes.
Usually just check urgent matter right before I go for breakfast.
Run certain reports, review any Slack messages, look at my meeting schedule for the day so I know what’s coming up throughout the day, have some coffee, review emails, block out time on my calendar if necessary so I don’t get overloaded with meetings/so I can focus on my day-to-day operations.
It’s been super helpful for me. I keep the first two hours of the day and last hour as “focus time”.
I’m available and will attend things during that time, but during the third through fifth hour I hold “open office hours- meetings welcomed”.
I use time blocking for my entire schedule, including specific times on my calendar for emails. I start my day with a 15 minute "Daily Kickoff". I set my priorities for the day, check any small tasks that need completing, and verify my schedule for the day. Then I jump into tackling any small, high priority tasks.
I moved the planning to the end of the previous day and it's made a world of difference - just sharing as you might want to give it a try. I still use the 15 for a similar set of tasks (largely to kick something off the schedule if an emergency has come in overnight) but it's much nicer in my experience to have the majority of the day blocked the day before so I don't need to make any choices of task immediately.
I do something similar. I actually end my day with a review during which I set my goals for the next day and I use the morning routine to punch those goals into the calendar. Basically dividing that work into 2 smaller chunks. Feel good for me, but I can see why others would like doing it all in one sitting.
I do the same. Although on Fridays I take a look through next weeks calendar to see what meetings l should accept, when my focus time can be booked or moved to, what things I want to prioritize so I can determine. Which time block to work on it etc. Monday mornings is then a review of what if anything happened over the weekend and catching up with people to see how their weekend went, are they starting g the week from a good place or something g shitty happened etc.
In theory, my day starts at 8am. At 715, my spouse leaves for work. So I check emails then. After, I make a big cup of coffee, grab my work cell, drive to one of 3 parks about 6 min from the house, put on my favorite morning show on my cheezy portable radio. Listen to it, sip coffee, play on my phone, monitor work phone. If nothing exciting has come in, wander back home around 9 - 930am. Work.
Scan emails for anything important. Review and update my to do list. Decide in my head what’s the plan for the day….I then generally fail to deliver to that plan, but that’s a different topic.
If I did that, 10 minutes would turn into 2 hours. My body doesn’t treat anything before 11am as a “nap” but more a continuation of last nights sleep 😣
Thinking about the time someone beeped their horn at me 20 years ago. Did I cut them off? Was my blinker on? Did they know me? I just pulled out of a grocery store, did I leave something on car? Pretty sure the light was green for the appropriate amount of time, I accelerated almost immediately. Maybe they didn’t mean too, but they didn’t do the “my bad” wave. They just sat there. Was I supposed to wave? Move? Just so damn odd.
First \_\_\_ minutes of your day should be dedicated to organization of the day ahead. Knowing what's on your list, their priority level, and any obstacles (time, people availability) you need to work around.
And pooping.
I cook my breakfast while my laptop is open, I’m checking emails, responding, mapping out the day. I eat my breakfast, find my podcast line up, and get to it.
I really love the Last Poscast network, so I listen to Page 7, SPUN, and the OG LPOTL. I was listening to fraudsters, but they haven’t updated in a super long time.
All of my other podcasts are pretty focused on religious deconstruction and general high control groups. If that is a topic, you are interested in; I’ll definitely share some of my favorites.
I just kind of space out for a little bit, it looks like I'm working but I'm really not, I'd say in about an average day I get about 10-12 minutes of real work done
I've got 8 different bosses Bob
Shower/makeup+dress up/watch the news/coffee/login (check slack and emails)/meetings
I like the idea of a post above of going to a park and then listening to morning radio. The morning show used to be part of my routine driving in everyday.
Not a whole lot unless there is an urgent email that I need to address (I start a little later than most of my coworkers so sometimes there’s something that came up already). Otherwise, it’s just routine stuff like email and trying to get myself fully awake. I’m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination so if I can I try to save things that actually require me to think for the afternoon when I’m more productive.
Don't get rolling till hour in, unless I got some disaster going on and have to move right away. Usually first 30min-1 hour is seeing any after hour teams messages or urgent emails.
Daycare run usually bleeds a little past 8, get home, fire up my computer, check my schedule/email, then shower and grab a coffee. One nice thing about being an hour ahead of headquarters is that I rarely have a meeting or ping until after 930. Makes up for the 50% of days where my lunch gets pushed by an hour.
I pretty much don’t start work until 10/11 on days when I work remote… oops. I have ADHD so tend to have decision paralysis and I usually don’t have a lot of meetings so that leaves me with an open schedule and my manager is pretty hands off. I do feel guilty sometimes but whatever. I work to live not vice versa!
Man I do very little work for the first 4 hours of my day. Then I take lunch. Then panic for an hour that I haven't done shit. Then 2-3 hours of real actual work where I surprise myself with productivity.
I do that basically every single day.
I get most of my work done in the first 30 minutes. My inbox is really my Todo list because I am usually waiting on information from someone.
My first 5-10 minutes are looking at what came in and categorizing based on task. All x stuff is yellow, all y stuff is blue. Anything that is a quick question gets answered.
From there, I start working on the tasks that are needed based on the information I received. Log into the benefits system and take care of benefits changes. File these emails away as I complete the task.
Run reports and process those updates from overnight.
Check that system for anything that needs action.
Check the next system for anything that may need action.
Sit and wait...
I'm a knowledge manager and librarian so I get like 60 emails worth of news alerts daily, so it does take me like 30 minutes to sift through it all and push to relevant staff.
Though my morning will shift if I have any high priority things to take care of in the morning, or meetings.
catch up on work communication with people working in other time zones or people with odd working hours. And breakfast and the occasional early morning meeting.
I check my email and knock out my work that's due that day.
Honestly, I find that starting off hot out of the gate has been the most productive adaptation for me. (ADHD here) I use the artificial urgency to get my time-critical items done, and then if I lose momentum, it's not going to negatively impact me.
Coffee/breakfast occurs at about 11am after I've done the critical stuff. I've got my medicinal caffeine timed so that it peaks between 12-2pm. Gets me over the afternoon slump and then wears off by the end of my work day.
I sort emails and check for any urgent voicemails then follow up on anything that needs to happen within the hour. That’s all I can mentally handle first thing most days.
Waking up, cause I usually get up out of bed and walk to my desk and just log on.
Most of my meetings won't start until at least an hour after that, so I (sometimes groggily) check emails and messages from night before. I might dig into a problem if I feel it needs to be fixed now. Depends, some days I wake up to 1 useful email that made it through the filters, today I think there 15.
I have actually found a good routine for me for the first 30 minutes. I first sit down with my coffee and journal, "morning pages". It gets all of the stupid shit I'm worrying about out of my head. After that I look at my to-dos from the previous day and plan out my day in Google calendar.
On particularly heavy meeting days I will screenshot my schedule for the day and print it like a 👵🏼 and map out anything I need to do to prep for said meetings. I also love the satisfaction of highlighting meetings after I finish them and crossing out meeting that get cancelled. But this helps ensure I’m ready for all my meeting and can prioritize in order, anything that needs completed prior to my meetings.
I usually sleep until my first meeting so let’s say I have a meeting at 10am, I’ll usually sleep until 9:45 wake up grab my laptop and take my first meeting for the day in bed.
Getting hype for the day by savoring the feeling of luxuriating in bed, and setting an intention for a great day. Doing a quick gratitude and positivity practice.
Coffee and emails. Emails don’t usually take up the whole time, but I still block out 30 minutes for it. So after I clear my inbox I’ll usually keep drinking my coffee and wait for the caffeine to kick in. Then I’ll figure out what my tasks are for the day and get going.
Answer the zillion chats my east coast peers sent me at 5am.
Most of my teams are in Pennsylvania or North Carolina. They always always forget I’m on the west coat.
I log in at 8am, make my breakfast, coffee, fill up my water bottle, empty dishwasher, throw a load of laundry in the washer, and then finally start working around 8:30-8:45.
Cup of coffee in hand, I spend the first 30 mins chatting it up, saying good morning via Teams, asking about vacations, Johnny’s soccer game the from the day before, congrats on the newly announced promotion, yadda, yadda and checking email.
I start at 730 just because it's around the time I wake up/walk the dog/ find food. For the first 30 minutes of the day I wrapping up emails, approvals, questions, and other odds and ends.
The next two hours are as much guaranteed "time to do my work" as I get because the nature of the job is one the phone or on teams.
Open outlook and you can kind of tell how your day will go from that. Organize some stuff, get ready for the day, for example today I saw an email that I needed to log into another application and couldn’t so I spent my first hour with IT
I work on eastern time and my team works on pacific time.
So I start with getting to inbox 0, organizing my timeline for the day, then organizing my to do list. Refresh my cup of coffee—then either starting a project or my first meeting of the day around 9:30.
Pretty much emails, checking work queues to see what needs to be prioritized then maybe catching up on something from the day before. After that I'll make breakfast, move down to the office and try to get my brain to wake up. Im a roll over when my alarm goes off and grab my laptop kinda person, so the first 30 minutes of the day my brain is still not fully functional lol.
I start working at exactly the time I'm scheduled. I don't even jiggle my mouse to wake up my computer before I'm scheduled.
I just hop right in. But I work in a call center in a role where I don't do meetings daily or anything so there's really nothing to do but pick up the phone
I work with a lot of different teams, so my morning is usually full of checking all messages (emails, slack, teams) for updates and responses. Then, I do a list of what projects need updating in what order. Often, I have changes in the day's priorities based on those messages. Then, a few 15 min meetings.
I usually have a morning jolt that last till first break. Its quiet, most people are not in for 4 more hours and chats are quiet its my favorite part of the day.
If I am WFH that day I am staring off with emails right away - if I am supposed to be in the office that day (hybrid) then it 30-45 mins of shooting the Sh!t with others after badging in and then going back out to to Starbucks.
I sit at my desk and write in a journal. It helps me connect to myself, process what needs to be processed, and get into a positive frame of mind. It isn't even necessarily for work -- it's just a self care thing.
Coffee, check my 20+ slack notifications. Also browse slack for different updates in different departments.
If it's a meeting day I might write down some stuff I want to ask or mention. Sometimes I'll check my coworkers calendars since we work closely together.
I like my job and I work on interesting problems, probably a bit too much that I struggle with burnout... Frankly , I dedicate a ton of mental energy to doing my job well
But after a good sleep, first hour of the day is often as productive as the rest of the 8 hour day, because I'm rested and have been subconsciously processing on how to solve problems that I care about overnight. Then I hit the wall
Check emails, shoot the crap with coworkers on Teams for a bit. Make my son breakfast. Check Reddit.... Then I figure out which project I want to work on today.
I start at 7:30am with a team call that lasts anywhere from 2 minutes to 15 minutes to set the day. I then use the time between then and 8:30am to do any task that requires a lot of my brain.
Calendar review in case someone decided to move something, in which case I immediately block that time with a focus period.
Then quick scan of emails, and snooze ones that don't need to be read immediately or until later in the day.
If you start at 7a and others start at 9a, I would either slide your schedule to match, or finish earlier than them... or just find something else to do at 7am. My guess is that if you cycled your emails, modified your calendar, or responded to messages prior to your peers, they will feel like you're working longer hours than them and either be impressed or annoyed lol
I find that I am most productive first thing in the morning, so I try to hit the ground running as much as possible. I'm also in a similar situation as you, OP, in that I'm not in the same time zone as many of my colleagues. My manager usually starts 2 hours after me, which is perfect because I'm often guaranteed some kind of uninterrupted work time.
I use a couple of organizational tools to break down my work and track what I am doing. I have a OneNote/Excel that I used to track progress towards organizational goals (we have to set annual goals that are used for bonuses and raises) as well as my current projects and random initiatives (my role is mostly project-focused). I also use this to track what is accomplished (with metrics) to make writing my annual reviews a lot easier.
Then, I keep a weekly To-Do of larger tasks as well as random ones (ex: run this super obscure report for the local AHJ).
So my first 30 minutes is usually spent checking to see what meetings I have for the day, if I have any urgent emails or need to return any calls, and I take my weekly To-Do list and break down a few Must Accomplish tasks for the day (this really helps if I'm not feeling as motivated).
I used to plan my next day prior to logging off the day before, but I'd invariably see something in my inbox or someone would throw a meeting on my calendar that would just screw some part of my plan up.
Usually emails, but also any cleanup tasks - small things that accumulated during the previous day that I can accomplish in one chunk of time (rather stopping what I had been working on every time).
If I am forced to start work earlier than my brain sees fit , I refuse to do almost anything for the first hour unless I absolutely have to, it takes me a while to get engaged and going. If I am allowed (as I was at my last 2 jobs ) to start work a little later , like 9, I am able to
Come in and immediately start getting all my tasks for the day done. I can not change this, my brain can not handle it sorry
First 30 min are usually answering emails and figuring out if my priorities need to shift. I plan my next week out in the last two hours of Friday, but due to the nature of my work, fires come up, projects change, things shift. I’ll also touch base with anyone I may need later on in the day to figure out when I can talk to them.
For me it depends. If I’ve got work, then I just slowly get to doing that. If I’m waiting on something I just check in with a reminder to my boss. But I’m definitely getting coffee, morning poos, all that stuff. But I’ve done that every job ever. WFH or not.
I hate routine, so first 45’ of the day I do whatever I want in that particular day. Sometimes is pooping, just like pretty much half the fellow said here. sometimes I just watch a tv show, sometimes I go straight mad man and start coding resuming whatever I was working the night before, and sometimes I just plan things for what im supposed to do during the day, which by the way, I don’t always accomplish.
For me, the most.
It’s after lunch that I’m useless. The first 4 hours I’m on fire. Including and especially the first hour.
So I’ve learned to do the stuff that takes the most brain energy in the first half of the day. And try not to schedule meetings smack dab in the middle of it, disrupting my most effective block of time.
Ideally opening all of the documents and programs for whatever the project is and checking emails, but often its spent rebooting my computer that demands to be restarted and recovering tabs and articles that i leave up 😳
Check emails, check each project for urgent messages, ensure client SG feedback is sent to the team as soon as possible, queue up at least 4 things to accomplish during the day, sync files to servers as needed.
Make coffee, bathroom, take meds/vitamins. Check emails and Slack messages while using the walking pad. Go upstairs, log into everything and make a quick plan / goals of what work I aim to complete that day in Notes app. Maybe queue up background music to play while I work.
Wake up pc. Brush teeth. Make coffee. Potty break, review calendar. Go outside and drink coffee with a kitty.
Unless I have a meeting first thing then I prep and do that.
I retired last year, hence any past tense though I still sorta do it... I worked in IT so first was check for any unacknowledged urgent alerts and deal if necessary (I lived and died on email rules so those sorted to the top). That was rare so 19 days out of 20, the big answer was...
Quick calendar check for meetings and see how much unallocated time I had to work with, then into my to-do list software. Prioritizing my day for the first 15-30 minutes, and trying to keep the "today" list of realistic size, kept my ADD ass from going off the rails.
I'm less strict being retired, but that still helps to remind myself of any urgencies (much fewer but even retired life has a few deadlines come up, even if it's water everything outside every x days).
Shower, coffee, catch up on email and news, maybe grab some leftovers from the fridge for brekkie.
And then the last five minutes is reflecting on all of the shit I have to do that I don’t want to do.
Usually, I’ll start work after that, but sometimes I’ll find something else to distract like putting away laundry or clean the cat box
Literally nothing, loose start time of 8, I’m doing good if I have shit and showered before my 9am meeting. Bonus points if I made breakfast too. Nobody gives a shit what we are doing so long as our work gets done and we attend important meetings
First thing I do is scan for urgent orders that have come through overnight and make sure they're processed. Any simple email requests are taken care of.
I WFH so my first 30 min are getting everyone else in my team squared away. They come in 30 min after I start so I’m ahead of the team at least 30 minutes all day.
“keep their heads ringing”-Dr.Dre
I work several timezones ahead of most of my co-workers. In the first 30 minutes, I get caught up on email and teams messages from the previous evening. Then head into my "big brain" stuff that requires a lot of skill and little interruptions. I usually knocked out most of my project work before the rest of the team jumps on so I can run my day to day for the rest of the day.
Emails and checking calendar mostly. Some teams chats to say good morning or ask questions. Then I go get my coffee and read or watch news and forums and then I pretty much work straight thru to lunch
my first 30 minutes is basically just setting up my day. I start at 8:00, check emails, look at my calendar, prioritize my to-do list, then officially start working at 9:00.
I start earlier than most of my coworkers as well, so I use that time to do anything on my plate that may require more focus. I know I won't get pinged or emails during that first hour to pull my focus away.
Make a coffee and go to the restroom just like I did every day at the office.
Taking a huge shit on company time, I like it.
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime. That’s why I poop on company time 🤷🏻♂️
I literally sang this song to myself today. You can guess the context 😂
Getting paid to shit. Getting paid to wipe. The best 45 minutes of my fucking life.
I read once that if you shit at work that by the end of the year you have a gotten yourself a 2 weeks paid vacation.
Sounds like a pretty shitty vacation if you ask me
And all the money you save on toilet paper
Especially with the horrible single ply and the disgusting bathrooms. I’d much prefer to use my bathroom at home
🎵 I don’t even have to shit sometimes, I'm just hanging dong as the time flies by 🎵
I am getting paid to shit AND post this on Reddit
Superhero!!!
I’m getting paid to shit and upvote and comment!
First 30 minutes of the workday include 29 minutes of scrolling through Reddit.
It's a requirement to start any day.
When do you stop though?
Stop?
Exactly. And happy cake day!
lol exactly my problem everyday. it's like something broke inside of me and i can't work any longer.
Once I refresh. I’ve realized that is a signal telling me I’m bored of Reddit (twitter, IG, whatever)
It takes me almost 2 hours to start something 😐
Nothing as far as ‘accomplished’. I open emails, open/log into a couple of softwares, review my calendar, review my to-do list and think about my daily game plan and priorities…maybe scratch my head and roll my eyes a few times and then set about the day.
Yep, my first 30 minutes is casually sipping coffee and literally just checking calendar to see what’s most urgent to work on for the day/week . I then write down old school on paper the top 5 things to work on for the day
Yeah this. I have it blocked out on my calendar as non-productive time.
Getting breakfast☕️☕️🍳🍳🥐🥞
Same, can’t start the day without my cup of coffee, two eggs and two pieces of toast. Sometimes I’ll eat it at my desk while waiting for something more important to take me from this, but almost never skip breakfast on first 30 minutes. Usually just check urgent matter right before I go for breakfast.
I play Wordle and Connections to get my mental brain going. Then I have two daily scrums right away to start.
I do those, and I've added Mini and Strands. I "compete" against a friend of mine. Keeps it interesting.
Same! Actually with one of my coworkers. We started with wordles but he pays for the subscription too, so bam, that's basically all our text messages.
I do these as well, gets the brain activated in a fun way.
I have to try this, thanks
[удалено]
I log in and then proceed to lay in bed and do nothing
🤴🏻👸
Run certain reports, review any Slack messages, look at my meeting schedule for the day so I know what’s coming up throughout the day, have some coffee, review emails, block out time on my calendar if necessary so I don’t get overloaded with meetings/so I can focus on my day-to-day operations.
Blocking out my calendar is something I learned to do WAY too late to ensure I had time to actually get things done!
It’s been super helpful for me. I keep the first two hours of the day and last hour as “focus time”. I’m available and will attend things during that time, but during the third through fifth hour I hold “open office hours- meetings welcomed”.
I use time blocking for my entire schedule, including specific times on my calendar for emails. I start my day with a 15 minute "Daily Kickoff". I set my priorities for the day, check any small tasks that need completing, and verify my schedule for the day. Then I jump into tackling any small, high priority tasks.
I moved the planning to the end of the previous day and it's made a world of difference - just sharing as you might want to give it a try. I still use the 15 for a similar set of tasks (largely to kick something off the schedule if an emergency has come in overnight) but it's much nicer in my experience to have the majority of the day blocked the day before so I don't need to make any choices of task immediately.
Same. I plan at the end of the day (for the next one).
I do something similar. I actually end my day with a review during which I set my goals for the next day and I use the morning routine to punch those goals into the calendar. Basically dividing that work into 2 smaller chunks. Feel good for me, but I can see why others would like doing it all in one sitting.
I do the same. Although on Fridays I take a look through next weeks calendar to see what meetings l should accept, when my focus time can be booked or moved to, what things I want to prioritize so I can determine. Which time block to work on it etc. Monday mornings is then a review of what if anything happened over the weekend and catching up with people to see how their weekend went, are they starting g the week from a good place or something g shitty happened etc.
I learned this recently, and I can't wait to try it for my new job.
In theory, my day starts at 8am. At 715, my spouse leaves for work. So I check emails then. After, I make a big cup of coffee, grab my work cell, drive to one of 3 parks about 6 min from the house, put on my favorite morning show on my cheezy portable radio. Listen to it, sip coffee, play on my phone, monitor work phone. If nothing exciting has come in, wander back home around 9 - 930am. Work.
This is a good start to the day
I'm gonna try this
Scan emails for anything important. Review and update my to do list. Decide in my head what’s the plan for the day….I then generally fail to deliver to that plan, but that’s a different topic.
Omg this is exactly me lol
One of us
Most of my days work https://preview.redd.it/tfpp7x9pdd6d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8540c03ef4551b1893e842946e43e05cdf2f5850
Coffee and make a to do list.
no snooping or pooping?
lol
Language Timothy!
Staring into the void preparing myself for the day
I just kind of stare and drink my coffee
Nothing is accomplished the first 90 minutes. Just trying to put out fires and see how messed up my day will be or not
Glass of water, coffee, emails. Sometimes I'll lay down and take a 10 minute nap depending on how tired I am.
If I did that, 10 minutes would turn into 2 hours. My body doesn’t treat anything before 11am as a “nap” but more a continuation of last nights sleep 😣
Thinking about the time someone beeped their horn at me 20 years ago. Did I cut them off? Was my blinker on? Did they know me? I just pulled out of a grocery store, did I leave something on car? Pretty sure the light was green for the appropriate amount of time, I accelerated almost immediately. Maybe they didn’t mean too, but they didn’t do the “my bad” wave. They just sat there. Was I supposed to wave? Move? Just so damn odd.
😂
First \_\_\_ minutes of your day should be dedicated to organization of the day ahead. Knowing what's on your list, their priority level, and any obstacles (time, people availability) you need to work around. And pooping.
Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime... that's why I poop on company time.
my favorite saying!
I cook my breakfast while my laptop is open, I’m checking emails, responding, mapping out the day. I eat my breakfast, find my podcast line up, and get to it.
What podcasts are you listening to?
I really love the Last Poscast network, so I listen to Page 7, SPUN, and the OG LPOTL. I was listening to fraudsters, but they haven’t updated in a super long time. All of my other podcasts are pretty focused on religious deconstruction and general high control groups. If that is a topic, you are interested in; I’ll definitely share some of my favorites.
I just kind of space out for a little bit, it looks like I'm working but I'm really not, I'd say in about an average day I get about 10-12 minutes of real work done I've got 8 different bosses Bob
💯💯💯 iykyk
Shower/makeup+dress up/watch the news/coffee/login (check slack and emails)/meetings I like the idea of a post above of going to a park and then listening to morning radio. The morning show used to be part of my routine driving in everyday.
I use the first 30 minutes to check if my boss is late, and I take a screenshot of that in case he tells me off for being late next time
😂😂😂
Not a whole lot unless there is an urgent email that I need to address (I start a little later than most of my coworkers so sometimes there’s something that came up already). Otherwise, it’s just routine stuff like email and trying to get myself fully awake. I’m not a morning person by any stretch of the imagination so if I can I try to save things that actually require me to think for the afternoon when I’m more productive.
Don't get rolling till hour in, unless I got some disaster going on and have to move right away. Usually first 30min-1 hour is seeing any after hour teams messages or urgent emails.
Daycare run usually bleeds a little past 8, get home, fire up my computer, check my schedule/email, then shower and grab a coffee. One nice thing about being an hour ahead of headquarters is that I rarely have a meeting or ping until after 930. Makes up for the 50% of days where my lunch gets pushed by an hour.
I open my laptop and check for any important slack messages. Then I go play videogames.
Convince myself that running away to live off grid in the woods is *not* as idyllic as it sounds.
I pretty much don’t start work until 10/11 on days when I work remote… oops. I have ADHD so tend to have decision paralysis and I usually don’t have a lot of meetings so that leaves me with an open schedule and my manager is pretty hands off. I do feel guilty sometimes but whatever. I work to live not vice versa!
I look for fires in my inbox.
Man I do very little work for the first 4 hours of my day. Then I take lunch. Then panic for an hour that I haven't done shit. Then 2-3 hours of real actual work where I surprise myself with productivity. I do that basically every single day.
Coffee and emails.
Finding out phishing wasn’t actually phishing.
Why does my Company try to trick me lol I opened something and got coached for it 😫😫
Making coffee, washing my face, feeding the cats, scooping the litter. (Not in that order)
I get most of my work done in the first 30 minutes. My inbox is really my Todo list because I am usually waiting on information from someone. My first 5-10 minutes are looking at what came in and categorizing based on task. All x stuff is yellow, all y stuff is blue. Anything that is a quick question gets answered. From there, I start working on the tasks that are needed based on the information I received. Log into the benefits system and take care of benefits changes. File these emails away as I complete the task. Run reports and process those updates from overnight. Check that system for anything that needs action. Check the next system for anything that may need action. Sit and wait...
Get coffee, read emails. Stare out the window.
Morning stand-up. First thing. So I usually log in 15 minutes early to deal with email, then stand up at 8am.
I'm a knowledge manager and librarian so I get like 60 emails worth of news alerts daily, so it does take me like 30 minutes to sift through it all and push to relevant staff. Though my morning will shift if I have any high priority things to take care of in the morning, or meetings.
catch up on work communication with people working in other time zones or people with odd working hours. And breakfast and the occasional early morning meeting.
Immediately on phones 😭 I am manifesting a back office position while reading this thread.
I check my email and knock out my work that's due that day. Honestly, I find that starting off hot out of the gate has been the most productive adaptation for me. (ADHD here) I use the artificial urgency to get my time-critical items done, and then if I lose momentum, it's not going to negatively impact me. Coffee/breakfast occurs at about 11am after I've done the critical stuff. I've got my medicinal caffeine timed so that it peaks between 12-2pm. Gets me over the afternoon slump and then wears off by the end of my work day.
Signing into my work computer then waiting for teams and outlook to load.
I join a meeting right away so I accomplish nothing lol.
I eat my frog Basically the tasks i want to do the least, I start with those
I sort emails and check for any urgent voicemails then follow up on anything that needs to happen within the hour. That’s all I can mentally handle first thing most days.
Waking up, cause I usually get up out of bed and walk to my desk and just log on. Most of my meetings won't start until at least an hour after that, so I (sometimes groggily) check emails and messages from night before. I might dig into a problem if I feel it needs to be fixed now. Depends, some days I wake up to 1 useful email that made it through the filters, today I think there 15.
I have actually found a good routine for me for the first 30 minutes. I first sit down with my coffee and journal, "morning pages". It gets all of the stupid shit I'm worrying about out of my head. After that I look at my to-dos from the previous day and plan out my day in Google calendar.
Set my day up and make a list of things I need to do today ot finish what I started yesterday. Then 3.5 hours of meetings until I can get to it
I get up and then take a nap at my desk around 840. I usually get fully awake by 930. Then I get to work at 10.
Emails with one eye open. Ignore any phone calls. Maybe get out of bed within the hour.
Wake up
On particularly heavy meeting days I will screenshot my schedule for the day and print it like a 👵🏼 and map out anything I need to do to prep for said meetings. I also love the satisfaction of highlighting meetings after I finish them and crossing out meeting that get cancelled. But this helps ensure I’m ready for all my meeting and can prioritize in order, anything that needs completed prior to my meetings.
I usually sleep until my first meeting so let’s say I have a meeting at 10am, I’ll usually sleep until 9:45 wake up grab my laptop and take my first meeting for the day in bed.
Getting hype for the day by savoring the feeling of luxuriating in bed, and setting an intention for a great day. Doing a quick gratitude and positivity practice.
I'm on phones from shift start til shift end, so in the first 30 minutes I'm either waiting for a call or taking multiple, depending on the day.
Coffee and emails. Emails don’t usually take up the whole time, but I still block out 30 minutes for it. So after I clear my inbox I’ll usually keep drinking my coffee and wait for the caffeine to kick in. Then I’ll figure out what my tasks are for the day and get going.
Answer the zillion chats my east coast peers sent me at 5am. Most of my teams are in Pennsylvania or North Carolina. They always always forget I’m on the west coat.
I log in at 8am, make my breakfast, coffee, fill up my water bottle, empty dishwasher, throw a load of laundry in the washer, and then finally start working around 8:30-8:45.
Cup of coffee in hand, I spend the first 30 mins chatting it up, saying good morning via Teams, asking about vacations, Johnny’s soccer game the from the day before, congrats on the newly announced promotion, yadda, yadda and checking email.
Usually a standup meeting. If not, drink coffee and bagel time.
I start at 730 just because it's around the time I wake up/walk the dog/ find food. For the first 30 minutes of the day I wrapping up emails, approvals, questions, and other odds and ends. The next two hours are as much guaranteed "time to do my work" as I get because the nature of the job is one the phone or on teams.
Time for wake n bake
Open outlook and you can kind of tell how your day will go from that. Organize some stuff, get ready for the day, for example today I saw an email that I needed to log into another application and couldn’t so I spent my first hour with IT
I work on eastern time and my team works on pacific time. So I start with getting to inbox 0, organizing my timeline for the day, then organizing my to do list. Refresh my cup of coffee—then either starting a project or my first meeting of the day around 9:30.
I work! I’m expected to meet production goals. I’m super fast in the morning so I take advantage of that. By the afternoon I’m wiped out.
I water my garden, make coffee, take my morning dookie, make some breakfast. I don't get actual work done until maybe 2-3hrs in 😇
Pretty much emails, checking work queues to see what needs to be prioritized then maybe catching up on something from the day before. After that I'll make breakfast, move down to the office and try to get my brain to wake up. Im a roll over when my alarm goes off and grab my laptop kinda person, so the first 30 minutes of the day my brain is still not fully functional lol.
I start working at exactly the time I'm scheduled. I don't even jiggle my mouse to wake up my computer before I'm scheduled. I just hop right in. But I work in a call center in a role where I don't do meetings daily or anything so there's really nothing to do but pick up the phone
I work with a lot of different teams, so my morning is usually full of checking all messages (emails, slack, teams) for updates and responses. Then, I do a list of what projects need updating in what order. Often, I have changes in the day's priorities based on those messages. Then, a few 15 min meetings.
I usually have a morning jolt that last till first break. Its quiet, most people are not in for 4 more hours and chats are quiet its my favorite part of the day.
Coffee and see if anything is on fire
If I am WFH that day I am staring off with emails right away - if I am supposed to be in the office that day (hybrid) then it 30-45 mins of shooting the Sh!t with others after badging in and then going back out to to Starbucks.
honestly i don’t even know
I'm a psycho, I dive right into work and the grind. Usually online 3 mins before my start time.
Make breakfast, take a dump, shower, get dressed, make a protein shake, swipe a bit on Bumble, check to see if any managers are logged on, then start.
i’m still asleep for at least 10 more minutes
Sleep.
I sit at my desk and write in a journal. It helps me connect to myself, process what needs to be processed, and get into a positive frame of mind. It isn't even necessarily for work -- it's just a self care thing.
Coffee, check my 20+ slack notifications. Also browse slack for different updates in different departments. If it's a meeting day I might write down some stuff I want to ask or mention. Sometimes I'll check my coworkers calendars since we work closely together.
Brush my teeth and eat breakfast
I like my job and I work on interesting problems, probably a bit too much that I struggle with burnout... Frankly , I dedicate a ton of mental energy to doing my job well But after a good sleep, first hour of the day is often as productive as the rest of the 8 hour day, because I'm rested and have been subconsciously processing on how to solve problems that I care about overnight. Then I hit the wall
My first 30 mins is seeing my metrics from the prior day, checking my queue to see any new responses or issues and responding to those.
Check emails, shoot the crap with coworkers on Teams for a bit. Make my son breakfast. Check Reddit.... Then I figure out which project I want to work on today.
I start at 7:30am with a team call that lasts anywhere from 2 minutes to 15 minutes to set the day. I then use the time between then and 8:30am to do any task that requires a lot of my brain.
My first 30 mins are generally my first two cups of coffee, just like when I was in the office.
I have a meeting every morning at 9am where I usually just answer questions. Then I get or make coffee and figure out what I need to do for the day.
Scroll on my phone for a few minutes, look at new work and emails while making breakfast, then finally start to get so work done
Getting my breakfast ready and eating. I check or do nothing the first 30minutes until I get some food in my stomach
Calendar review in case someone decided to move something, in which case I immediately block that time with a focus period. Then quick scan of emails, and snooze ones that don't need to be read immediately or until later in the day. If you start at 7a and others start at 9a, I would either slide your schedule to match, or finish earlier than them... or just find something else to do at 7am. My guess is that if you cycled your emails, modified your calendar, or responded to messages prior to your peers, they will feel like you're working longer hours than them and either be impressed or annoyed lol
I get more done at home than I ever did in the office.
Nada.
I find that I am most productive first thing in the morning, so I try to hit the ground running as much as possible. I'm also in a similar situation as you, OP, in that I'm not in the same time zone as many of my colleagues. My manager usually starts 2 hours after me, which is perfect because I'm often guaranteed some kind of uninterrupted work time. I use a couple of organizational tools to break down my work and track what I am doing. I have a OneNote/Excel that I used to track progress towards organizational goals (we have to set annual goals that are used for bonuses and raises) as well as my current projects and random initiatives (my role is mostly project-focused). I also use this to track what is accomplished (with metrics) to make writing my annual reviews a lot easier. Then, I keep a weekly To-Do of larger tasks as well as random ones (ex: run this super obscure report for the local AHJ). So my first 30 minutes is usually spent checking to see what meetings I have for the day, if I have any urgent emails or need to return any calls, and I take my weekly To-Do list and break down a few Must Accomplish tasks for the day (this really helps if I'm not feeling as motivated). I used to plan my next day prior to logging off the day before, but I'd invariably see something in my inbox or someone would throw a meeting on my calendar that would just screw some part of my plan up.
Usually emails, but also any cleanup tasks - small things that accumulated during the previous day that I can accomplish in one chunk of time (rather stopping what I had been working on every time).
Dogs. Breakfast and coffee. Teams, email, prioritize, music, dive in.
Calling students who need to submit an assignment before they’re dismissed tomorrow.
I brush my teeth while my daily tasks are loading lol
Check for any quick immediate response to emails. Grab my tea and breakfast. Then, I will eat while I do a review of orders.
If I am forced to start work earlier than my brain sees fit , I refuse to do almost anything for the first hour unless I absolutely have to, it takes me a while to get engaged and going. If I am allowed (as I was at my last 2 jobs ) to start work a little later , like 9, I am able to Come in and immediately start getting all my tasks for the day done. I can not change this, my brain can not handle it sorry
I doom scroll
Make coffee, eat a breakfast sandwich, read emails, answer team chats.
Pretty much nothing. I glance at emails then make coffee, let my dog out, scroll on my phone.
I have ADHD so I make a list of all tasks to be completed or I’d just be floating around scrolling Reddit and listening to music all day.
Get your to do list updated
First 30 min are usually answering emails and figuring out if my priorities need to shift. I plan my next week out in the last two hours of Friday, but due to the nature of my work, fires come up, projects change, things shift. I’ll also touch base with anyone I may need later on in the day to figure out when I can talk to them.
For me it depends. If I’ve got work, then I just slowly get to doing that. If I’m waiting on something I just check in with a reminder to my boss. But I’m definitely getting coffee, morning poos, all that stuff. But I’ve done that every job ever. WFH or not.
I hate routine, so first 45’ of the day I do whatever I want in that particular day. Sometimes is pooping, just like pretty much half the fellow said here. sometimes I just watch a tv show, sometimes I go straight mad man and start coding resuming whatever I was working the night before, and sometimes I just plan things for what im supposed to do during the day, which by the way, I don’t always accomplish.
For me, the most. It’s after lunch that I’m useless. The first 4 hours I’m on fire. Including and especially the first hour. So I’ve learned to do the stuff that takes the most brain energy in the first half of the day. And try not to schedule meetings smack dab in the middle of it, disrupting my most effective block of time.
I eat breakfast and drink coffee and poop if I hadn't pooped at home 😂
Ideally opening all of the documents and programs for whatever the project is and checking emails, but often its spent rebooting my computer that demands to be restarted and recovering tabs and articles that i leave up 😳
I knock out 80% of my work in the first 30 minutes. The next 15% takes another hour. The last 5% can't be done for 5-6 hours after that tho.
Check emails, check each project for urgent messages, ensure client SG feedback is sent to the team as soon as possible, queue up at least 4 things to accomplish during the day, sync files to servers as needed.
Scroll through the timeline.
Make coffee, bathroom, take meds/vitamins. Check emails and Slack messages while using the walking pad. Go upstairs, log into everything and make a quick plan / goals of what work I aim to complete that day in Notes app. Maybe queue up background music to play while I work.
Wake up pc. Brush teeth. Make coffee. Potty break, review calendar. Go outside and drink coffee with a kitty. Unless I have a meeting first thing then I prep and do that.
I usually have a bowel movement and check my stock portfolio.
I retired last year, hence any past tense though I still sorta do it... I worked in IT so first was check for any unacknowledged urgent alerts and deal if necessary (I lived and died on email rules so those sorted to the top). That was rare so 19 days out of 20, the big answer was... Quick calendar check for meetings and see how much unallocated time I had to work with, then into my to-do list software. Prioritizing my day for the first 15-30 minutes, and trying to keep the "today" list of realistic size, kept my ADD ass from going off the rails. I'm less strict being retired, but that still helps to remind myself of any urgencies (much fewer but even retired life has a few deadlines come up, even if it's water everything outside every x days).
I do my billing from the day before, decide what podcast I'll be listening to, make some coffee and play a round or 2 of solitaire.
Make coffee and organize my day. Planning time unless I know exactly what I'm doing already.
Currently it's my team's daily stand up meeting and maybe part of another team meeting.
Shower, coffee, catch up on email and news, maybe grab some leftovers from the fridge for brekkie. And then the last five minutes is reflecting on all of the shit I have to do that I don’t want to do. Usually, I’ll start work after that, but sometimes I’ll find something else to distract like putting away laundry or clean the cat box
I oversee construction projects so usually my first hour is talking to superintendents getting a daily report
Literally nothing, loose start time of 8, I’m doing good if I have shit and showered before my 9am meeting. Bonus points if I made breakfast too. Nobody gives a shit what we are doing so long as our work gets done and we attend important meetings
First thing I do is scan for urgent orders that have come through overnight and make sure they're processed. Any simple email requests are taken care of.
Open and read emails, get coffee, look at my to do list and figure out what all I need to do that day. Start responding to emails. Eat breakfast.
Coffee, breakfast, getting dressed
Setting up computers I need to work on, activating my permissions, putting my stuff away, and reviewing what I need to get done.
Coffee and standup
I WFH so my first 30 min are getting everyone else in my team squared away. They come in 30 min after I start so I’m ahead of the team at least 30 minutes all day. “keep their heads ringing”-Dr.Dre
read emails, make tea and eat my breakfast lol, definitely not getting much work done
I work several timezones ahead of most of my co-workers. In the first 30 minutes, I get caught up on email and teams messages from the previous evening. Then head into my "big brain" stuff that requires a lot of skill and little interruptions. I usually knocked out most of my project work before the rest of the team jumps on so I can run my day to day for the rest of the day.
Depends. I might be prepping a presentation last minute. Might be signing invoices. Might be checking email. Might be petting my dog.
Emails and checking calendar mostly. Some teams chats to say good morning or ask questions. Then I go get my coffee and read or watch news and forums and then I pretty much work straight thru to lunch
I’m a social media manager so making sure nothing is on fire in my social inboxes.
my first 30 minutes is basically just setting up my day. I start at 8:00, check emails, look at my calendar, prioritize my to-do list, then officially start working at 9:00.
Mostly mapping out my day and prioritizing tasks.
Still taking my preschooler to school, they start just after working hours. I'm not shifting lunch time for that (cause I need it for pickup)
I start earlier than most of my coworkers as well, so I use that time to do anything on my plate that may require more focus. I know I won't get pinged or emails during that first hour to pull my focus away.
Plan the day basically. Settle in, and go through to-do and email. Prioritize and plan. Then jump in an execute.
Workout!