A powerful, productive day filled with intentional action starts the night before. When you sleep with the intention of waking up early to take care of your physical, mental and spiritual life before starting your day’s work.

First thing in the day, you put your priorities on your schedule by dividing your time into blocks of focus, administrative work, communication and breaks and try your best to commit to them. When you get interrupted by an unplanned meeting or new urgent task, you check your schedule and see what you can shift to accommodate this new task. Such a day doesn’t have room for questions like “what should I do next?” Next is already planned. It does not allow for going into a rabbit hole of open tabs and app notifications.

While working, your phone is silent and only important calls can get through. You listen to great focus-inducing music, without lyrics, obviously, to avoid triggering distracting thoughts and emotions.

If you feel you are avoiding a boring but must-do task that does not need your brain power but just some time to finish, you make it more fun by playing upbeat music or great podcasts to accompany you.

You take breaks. You stretch your legs. You have lunch with your colleagues and talk about nonwork stuff, you go for a short walk and come back refreshed. You end the work day by following a ritual that makes sure you close all open loops, marking what’s next for each project you worked on exactly to get you started the next day easily.

I believe you can reset your day whenever you choose to. I always feel that a quick call with a friend and a short walk could work like a restart button for my day, especially when I get stuck in a fire-fighting mode or in unproductive thoughts.

Keeping your planned schedule in front of you can also help guard your time and get it back on track. You can begin your day anew by saying no to interruptions or new requests when possible, or by delaying your response until you are done with your most important work.

As someone smart said, other people’s lack of planning does not have to be your emergency.