Snooze button followed by coffee and email. Is this how you’re starting your daily routine? If so, you might never achieve your goals. Many of us have this problem, whether we work in sales or another field. If you want to accomplish everything on tomorrow’s to-​do list, you need to start you day with the right routine. Read Robin Madell’s tips on how to make your mornings matter.

Fix Your Morning Ritual

The start of any day can be rough for those of us who aren’t larks. Madell urges you to avoid the snooze button and cites research which shows that people who get started earlier in the day are more successful. Think about hitting the gym or the exercise machine before breakfast. After exercise, your body’s metabolism stays at an elevated level, giving you the energy to start those projects you’ve been putting off. If you don’t want to exercise early, at least give yourself a few minutes to think about how you want to organize your day.

Delay Email

Most of us are adrenaline junkies when it comes to email. We feed off the energy, negative and positive, that comes from email. The problem is, when we read email, we’re reacting to another person’s agenda for us. If you’re trying to finish a project and an email comes in, it’s tempting to take a break and read that email. It’s equally easy to let the email distraction take up the next 30 minutes of your morning as you gather the information you need for a reply.

Before you know it, way too much time has gone by. Getting back into your original project will take extra time and concentration. It’s likely you feel that your day has blown up in your face.

To avoid these problems, set aside specific periods of time in the day to check email. You might even want to delay checking email until mid-​morning. Devote the first couple of hours of your workday to tasks that require extreme concentration and then turn to email.

Read the rest of Madell’s suggestions and think about how they apply to your personal and professional habits. Changing things up could be just what you need to exceed quota this month.