Today, and especially toward the end of today, you will make decisions that will affect how you will feel and act tomorrow.
A few examples:
- If you lay your gym clothes out tonight, you’ll be far more likely to pick them up first thing in the morning.
- If you set your goals/intentions for tomorrow today, your mind will incubate them until you get to work in the morning. You’ll automatically consider smarter approaches to your work.
- If you tidy up your desk (and not to mention digital desktop) once you finish work for the day, you’re a lot more likely to want to work tomorrow morning.
- If you head to bed by a reasonable time, you’ll have much more energy to be productive tomorrow. (As author Laura Vanderkam put it in her great book Tranquility by Tuesday: “going to bed early is how grown-ups sleep in”.)
A lot of good productivity advice, like the nuggets above, involves keeping one foot in the present and another in the future. In the now, we remain focused and productive—and move things forward. Considering the future, we choose how we will become more productive in the first place.
The more you create the conditions for a good tomorrow today, the more productive you will become. In my own day, I think of this as “tomorrowing”. (The phrase does sound somewhat corny to me, but I can’t think of anything better.)
One of the best strategies for investing in good productivity habits is to prepare for tomorrow, today.
