Monday is not many people’s favorite day of the week, understandably. It’s easy to start off with a drag from the weekend being over and the new work week beginning for most of us. In light of that, a great way to start is a great way to start any day, really – with an early win.
I did just that on this Monday, and it’s been going well ever since. The timing is great, especially considering what lies ahead.
My morning started off with follow-up e-mails to people I met at any of several networking events I attended last week. There were quite a few to be sent, and I got a head start on them last night, such that with most of them, I just had to get to the draft and hit the “Send” button. It was easy work and accomplished a lot, because following up from networking events is a big deal.
And just like that, I started my day with an early – and in this case, easy – win. Following from it have been some LinkedIn connections, and I have been engaging content on there as well, while getting other necessary work done.
In sports, a team often benefits from a win, even a blowout win, from a confidence standpoint. This is especially the case if the team is inexperienced or fresh off a losing streak or season. Seeing a win for your efforts does wonders for confidence, the same way a loss can be a blow to that confidence. When that win comes in the season opener, it sets a tone for the season, although it can be mitigated by the competition (in the event that it’s a blowout against a bad team).
Sports are often a metaphor for life, and this applies here. Starting a day off with an easy win sets a tone for the day. You feel good about what you’re doing and as if you can accomplish anything else you set out to do. I know I felt an extra hop in my step after my early morning win today. And even last night, I felt like something good was around the corner when I had laid the groundwork for it.
The last sentence points to another connection with sports – the importance of preparation. If you play a sport, you always prepare for your opponent as best you can rather than going in blind. Here, I prepared for my day by getting e-mails ready to send, to where I had minimal editing necessary. I probably sent over a dozen e-mails in less than ten minutes this morning because I had already done so much of the work.
I am hardly a pro at doing this. Intellectually I know this, but can definitely be better at it – which is the case with many things. Life is an ongoing quest for continuous improvement, and this is one more area for that. Today drives home the importance of getting a quick win to start the day, and should push me to set the stage for more of it.
Even better, it is the start of the entire work week – and should set a tone for more than just one day.