Start your day off at 5 a.m. As in, try to fall asleep sometime around then. Before you do, set an alarm for 7 a.m. — it’s important to be unrealistically optimistic. Ideally, you’ll actually wake up sometime around noon, at which point you’ll blame it on your phone not working even though you distinctly remember turning it off about four times.
Now you’re actually ready to start your day. While in bed, check the emails you received over the last few hours (skimming the subject line is also acceptable), but don’t respond yet.
Wow, that was so brave! You deserve a break after all that work. I like to schedule my breaks around a customized Pomodoro technique where I work towards a goal for about five minutes and then take an hour or two off.
Congratulations! You have crossed a tangible accomplishment off of your to-do list. And it’s only 3:48 p.m. This calls for another break, but a controlled one. Try watching TikToks for the next 12 minutes to round off the hour. If executed correctly, you should snap out of the algorithm-induced haze around 4:26 p.m. At this point, just stay for the extra four minutes.
Repeat until you would rather peel off your skin than lay in bed for another moment.
Time to start working, for real this time. What better way to focus than by listening to music? Rather than choosing a playlist and leaving your ability to focus in the hands of the shuffle function, make a personalized queue of songs for the next few hours to eliminate any risk of a poorly timed song coming on.