What do you do with your Monday mornings?
So many people I know sit down at their desks and mess around for an hour or two - reading news or catching up on email. Others grab a cup of joe and jump right into the project they left on Friday.
If you’re in business for yourself, mornings are often crucial to your workday. A well-spent morning can often mean the difference between a productive workday and not.
But what about Mondays?
Over the years I’ve tried lots of ways to get the most out of Mondays. I’ve tried to do first things first or focused on getting done that one thing that’s most important. I’ve taken a relaxed approach to Monday and have jumped right into working. I’ve even used techniques like visualization or meditation to try to set the tone for my week.
Many of the things I tried were helpful. Sometimes I’d jump right into the most important project of the week and try to get as much done as I could. This would be great because it would set up the week for me to make lots of headway on a project.
But nothing I tried was really setting me up for success - either for Mondays or for my week. So I sat down one Monday morning and forgot about getting things done. Instead, I decided to focus on how I wanted my days and my weeks to look. How did I want to manage my client’s needs, their projects, their communications with my needs to continue to develop and grow my business?
I looked in many directions. What I realized was that I’m most effective when I’m clear about what I need to get done. I keep a pretty good log of where I am on each project and where my client’s are in their process so that’s seldom been a problem.
What was a problem was decerning when to do what.
So I decide that every Monday morning I would take the first 60-90 minutes of the day and lay out my week. I started by looking at deadlines and comparing the progress on each client’s work I was doing. Then I started placing what needed to get done for the week into which days I needed or wanted to accomplish the next pieces for my clients. Then I leave those project parts attached to those days - and move on (I organize the day for 15-30 minutes each morning).
After I have a rough roadmap of my week, I then turn to Monday in general. Monday’s I seldom schedule calls with clients. I use Mondays to do various task that are important to my business - like accounting. I also use Mondays to working directly on my own business - where my business is my client. While I do work on my business throughout the week, I often don’t have as much time to work in blocks as I make on Mondays. This way, I make time for my business to grow and develop.
So for me, Monday mornings are all about setting some organization for the week. This has been so effective for me that I’m wasting less time and getting more done each week - which means more client work getting done - which overall means generating more revenue.
So how do you make your Monday mornings most effective?
译文:
最充分地利用每个周一的早晨
周一早上，你都做些什么呢？ 据我观察，很多人都是先坐在办公桌前浏览新闻或查阅未读邮件，于是一两个小时的时间转瞬即逝。还有一部分人, 匆匆弄一杯咖啡，随即投入到周五未完成的工作中去了。
如果你是自己为自己打工，那么每个早上对你即将开展的一周工作都至关重要。充分利用每个早上往往决定着一天的工作效率。
但是，如何充分利用早上的时间呢？
这几年，我尝试了很多方法，来研究这个问题。我曾试过重要的事情先来，或先做最重要的那件事。也曾试过以一种放松的心态迎接每个早上的到来，然后迅速直接地投入到工作中。我甚至试着使用想象、冥想之类的方法，来增强一周的工作效率。
我的很多尝试是有一定帮助的。比如有时，我直接投入到这周最重要的工作中，然后尽力去做好它。这种做法效果很好，因为它让我一周的工作，有了个良好的开始并取得了很大的进展。
但有的却不尽如人意，无论对早上的还是一周的工作，都毫无帮助。以致我在某个周一的早上，只是呆坐着，忘记了该做的事。为了改变这一状况，我决定先想清楚：我希望每一天、每一周如何度过？我怎么做才能满足顾客的需求、达到他们的目标、促进双方的交流，从而使合作蓬勃开展、事业蒸蒸日上呢？
我从多方面思考了这些问题，意识到：只有当我清楚什么是真正需要完成的事时，我才能事半功倍。我把每个工作项目中我需要做什么、顾客又需要做什么，都一一地记录下来，以防止问题的出现。
现在需要关心的一个问题，就是在什么时候应该做什么。
所以我决定在每个周一的早上，首先花60到90分钟的时间来安排一周的工作。一开始，我会参照每项工作要求的最终完成日期，来安排每个客户的工作进度。接着，我会把这一周需要完成的工作依次排在客户下一批需要完成的工作之前。然后，让这些工作在那些天里被完成，如此往复。（每天早上，我只要15到30分钟就能安排好一天的工作。）
在一周的工作有了一个大致的方向之后，我通常又迎来了一个新的周一。我很少会在周一，就和客户确定拜访的时间。我会用周一一天的时间，做各式各样、对我事业而言重要的事情，比如清算帐目。如果一个客户对我的事业而言举足轻重，我也会在周一就直接开始工作。一周的不停忙碌，常常使我不能完成周一定下的种种计划。在这样的生活中，我努力经营着我的事业，让它不断发展着。
因此，对我而言，每个周一的早上都是在制定一周的工作计划中度过。它对我十分有效，让我每周尽可能地不浪费时间，做更多的事，这也意味着能接洽更多的客户。最重要的是，它意味着收入的不断增加。