March 5, 2026
When you want to set your day up for success, you’ve probably come up with a few of your own pre-work rituals to start the day. In addition to your morning shower and commute to work, perhaps you eat breakfast at your desk each morning or with your family before you leave the house. Perhaps you always check your emails on the way to work because you take public transportation or have a driver.
When you get into a daily routine, everything feels out of whack when you don’t do one of your morning rituals and have to start the day on an empty stomach or with an inbox full of unread emails. There are actually some pre-work rituals you could incorporate into your morning that work really well for a successful day.
Besides a healthy breakfast and taking time to declutter your inbox, make time to do these little rituals like making your to do list, preparing materials for the meeting this afternoon and setting your cellphone to vibrate-only.
Start with a great to do list
The best way to start your work day is to come up with a list of tasks for the day. A simple list like this will allow you to check off what has been done and see what’s coming ahead. At the end of the day, you’ll feel accomplished with everything you were able to get done in the day because the list of crossed off items is right in front of you.
This helpful ritual at the beginning of the day will keep you track, remind you how much is left and help you avoid forgetting anything leaving you in an embarrassing situation. You could download an app to your smartphone to check off the things you’ve done for the day if that’s easier than carrying a pen and paper.
Look at your month ahead
Once you’ve settled on what’s going on for today, it’s not a bad idea to review your weeks ahead. Sometimes you have deadlines on time-consuming projects that don’t need to be worked on today, but may need to be started this week.
It’s a good idea to start preparing for the next few weeks and always be on top of what’s going on this month. With this information, you can manage your time and resources appropriately. Stay flexible as changes could happen but always be prepared with a plan in mind.
Your cell phone
Along with using your cell phone for the checklist feature every day and throughout the month, it’s not a bad idea to have it send you reminders as well. Have it remind you about appointments, meetings and tasks. It will help to make sure you aren’t going to be running late which will allow your mind to concentrate on things that are taking place before these items. You don’t want to spend the day worrying about a meeting at the end of the day when you have so many other things to accomplish first.
Be sure to set your cellphone to vibrate-only or silent. Your loud ringtone will throw your concentration, as well as your team’s focus, and it would be embarrassing if it went off during a meeting. You may want to at least choose the vibrate option because someone may need to reach you to reschedule a meeting.
You could even choose to change your ringtones to something neutral and short if you want to leave it on, because that hilarious ringtone that long-winded song you use to make your kids laugh may be distracting and embarrassing when you’re in that corporate meeting. In fact, consider getting a SIM card for your personal life and one for business so that you can swap it out as needed where phone calls coming in during work will definitely be a business call rather than personal.
Other preparations
Make sure you are preparing your materials for the day so that you don’t feel odd without your favorite pen or forgetting to grab your business SIM card. Are all of your tools and equipment working properly? Having all of your tools and supplies will make your to do list a breeze and concentration on point.
Set up a proper work space, whether it be decluttering your office in the morning or cleaning up your cubicle, is the perfect way to start the day. Don’t add too much clutter to express your individuality but rather, stick to items that will help you stay focused on the job.
The last things that will make your day smooth sailing is distributing data and supplies first thing in the morning to your team, eat a healthy breakfast and keep track of last night’s news because it may affect productivity and your staff’s commute this morning. These little rituals will make for the most successful setup for a day at work.
