Start off your morning by doing that day’s most important task. And do this every single day – no exceptions.
It’s the WIN principle. What’s Important Now.
I pulled that acronym from retired college football coach Bud Foster. Bud was the Defensive Coordinator for Virginia Tech’s football program for decades. He had his players walk around carrying a beat up old lunch pail with the WIN moniker painted on it.
Bud coached in the 2000 national championship game against legendary Bobby Bowden’s Florida State program. The third quarter of that game ended with Virginia Tech up one point on vaunted Florida State. That’s how close Bud and his philosophy came to the pinnacle of the sport—though Florida State came back to win in the final quarter.
The power of this principle is in consistency.
If you do the most important thing you have to do first thing every morning, every day – that productivity will compound. Over time all those little things will add up to big things.
Darren Hardy spelled out how this works in his book The Compound Effect. It’s a timeless secret of success in any endeavor.
For years I believed the secret of this formula lie in doing your most important task first thing in the morning. But recently I’ve realized that’s not it.
It doesn’t matter when you get the most important thing done. What matters is that you get it done every single day.
The problem is, many of us find ourselves pulled in numerous directions as we get into each workday. We have a range of responsibilities… and that often means we need to collaborate with other people via emails, text messages, and phone calls.
That’s why doing our most important task in the morning is a good habit. We can get it done before other items start vying for our time and attention.
With that in mind, I just discovered a new superpower that I didn’t know my new phone had.
Yesterday I shared my notes from off the digital grid. Those notes are about what I’ve learned since ditching the iPhone for GrapehenOS – an independent operating system built with privacy in mind.
Switching to Graphene highlighted for me just how much my iPhone and its apps were tracking me. They were collecting data and insight on me and remitting it to Apple and third-party companies. It’s likely the phone was listening to my personal conversations as well.
And that’s just the iPhone. It’s documented that Google’s Android surveils users to a far greater degree.
With Graphene I don’t have to worry about any of that. I can ensure my data and my communications remain private and secure.
And then there’s the superpower…
As I was getting acclimated to the new phone, I made the decision to disable notifications for everything except a few important phone calls and messages. I hadn’t thought to do this before… but it’s been an eye-opening experience.
Previously my iPhone would buzz at me all day long… starting late in the morning. It buzzed every time I received a new email, text message, or phone call. And it buzzed whenever one of my apps had something it wanted to draw my attention to.
When the phone buzzed, I would stop what I was doing and check it right away. You know, just in case it was something urgent.
But it was never something urgent. Those buzzes were a massive productivity sink. I allowed them to disrupt my focus and concentration.
Now my phone buzzes a few times a week. Because I only permit notifications from a few important calls and messages. Nothing else.
The result is that I’m able to complete each task I work on far faster and more effectively than I could before. To me that’s a superpower.
Of course, I still make time to check my emails, messages, and phone calls. I just do so on my time – when I’m not immersed in something else.
And here’s the ironic thing – I’m addressing those items more efficiently than I was before also. Because I address them immediately… I don’t have any other tasks in limbo to jump back to.
This is a benefit I didn’t expect. And it takes the WIN principle to its logical conclusion.
-Joe Withrow