Create a Startup Sequence for Your Workday

Think about how a pilot starts a plane — there's a checklist, a fixed sequence, no improvisation. Your workday can benefit from the same approach. When you sit down to work, always do the same three to five things in the same order: make coffee, open your task list, review your calendar, start your first task.

This routine eliminates the "what do I do first?" paralysis that wastes the first 20 minutes of many people's mornings. Your brain stops deciding and starts doing, because the path is already laid out.