Make before you manage

It's all too easy to go through your day, running from meeting to meeting, call to call, request to request, small task to small task, only to reach the end and realize you haven't accomplished anything meaningful.

Next day, same story. Day after, rinse and repeat. This is, sadly, the reality for many modern information workers.

One strategy that has worked well for me is scheduling creative tasks—anything requiring original thought and creation—at the beginning of my workday. Sample tasks might be making an instructional video, writing a blog post, a memo or maybe taking a first shot at a presentation outline.

While I'm not certain this is when I'm at my creative peak, I've found that the deeper I get into the day, the less likely I am to find either the time or energy for meaningful creative work.

So I follow one simple rule:

Make before you manage.

If you want to dig into this a bit more, Paul's essay Maker's Schedule, Manager's Schedule is an awesome read.