You Need an Afternoon Routine

People are always telling youhow to maximize your mornings, but your morning routinewhatever it may beisfine.

What you really need is an afternoon routine.

Dont get me wrong, its good to start your day off on the right foot.

It hasnt changed much for me in the last few years.

But come afternoon, my energy dips.

You probably know the feeling.

The afternoon is when distractions have the most poweryoure fatigued, irritable,and way more impulsive.

Heres what I recommend.

Get Up and Move

First, get up from your desk and move your body.

If you just sit there, your malaise will only get worse.

You dont have to run or lift weights to reap the benefits, though.

Even if you cant go outside,take a walk around the office anyway.

Move your body at the same time every day so your brain knows youre still getting stuff done.

Enter the easy list.

There are some aspects of every job that just arent that difficult.

You know, housekeeping, organizing, repetitive tasks, and general correspondence.

Unless one of those things is urgent that day, I dont bother with it until after lunch.

Youd be surprised how much this change alone will do for your day.

Actually set a timer on your phone or whatever and do whatever you might in that five minutes.

You might get into a good workflow and defeat your afternoon slump in those five minutes.

If you do, be sure to reward yourself and reinforce that behavior.

If you dont stick with it, thats okay, dont punish yourself.

Go back to the easy stuff for a while and take another crack later.

Basically, the things you personally love but havent thought critically about.

Well, at the end of the day youre pretty muchover it, right?

Thats the time to strike.

Use your irritability to your advantage and streamline what youve done.

Everything else can be moved to your afternoon easy list.

I also usually spend this time writing memos to myself as well.