Productivity hacks: the schedule-saving 15-minute daily review

Spending 15 minutes at the beginning of your day going through what you need to do can make a great deal of difference to your work and life. If you find yourself constantly firefighting, this simple tool can be an effective first step to regaining control.

Why bother with a daily review? Well, reminding yourself of what you need to do before you start working reinforces your commitments.

If you need to change your focus or priorities, it’s better to plan for this at the beginning of the day rather than reactively change your plans as the day unfolds. That way, you can make sure that you reschedule anything that you need to drop, so that nothing gets forgotten.

Reviewing your day every morning also makes it easier to manage expectations. If someone needs something from you, you can say “Sorry, I have no space today, but let me see whether I can schedule it in over the next couple of days” instead of apologising at the end of the day because you never got round to it. It will also help you to avoid working longer days than planned because you’ve taken on too much work.

If you carry out this review every day, you will catch up on any unfinished business and stay ahead of the coming days.

Give it a go and tell us what you think! And don’t forget to come back next week when we’ll have our weekly review tool to share.

For more on how to schedule your work, see our ‘Managing your calendar’ post and tool from last week.