A Busy Monday

Nora opened her email on Monday morning and saw twenty-three unread messages. Before she finished reading the first one, a colleague sent a chat message about a meeting at ten.

Nora’s first idea was to answer everything immediately. Then she looked at her desk and saw the unfinished report that her manager needed before lunch. It was the biggest job of the day.

She took a piece of paper and made three columns: urgent, important, and later. The report went in the important column. Two client emails went in urgent. The rest could wait. The longest list was the third one.

For one hour, Nora closed the chat and worked only on the report. The first ten minutes were the hardest because new messages kept arriving, but most of the report was ready by the end of the hour.

By lunchtime, not every task was finished. However, the most important one was almost ready, and she was pleased with her decision. It was the best way to start a busy week.