Starting Your Day with What's Important

I have spoken to some big crowds over the last few years around the world. One of the questions I ask is, what are the first things you do when you get to work in the morning? All crowds, in all cities and towns, have said the same 3 things in various orders - get a coffee/tea/water, check my voicemail, check my email.
While this may seem like a great way to get started, it is, in fact, one of the least effective ways to manage your tasks and the things that are important to you or your productivity. The best way to start your day is to organize the things that are most important to you that day ... what couple of items must you get done or are critically important to making you look like a genius to those around you?!
The staff over at 1-800-GOT-JUNK use a method like this. A Top 5 or a Top 3 to determine what are the 3 most important things I need to do today. They write them down and make them the focus until they are done. Then they get on with the other work. This means that sometimes they might not get to emails until 11am! Can you imagine!? What this does is get them working each day on what is most important, while most of us work on what is urgent (usually determined by someone else).
My suggestion is try planning out your day over the next week by selecting 3 things that are absolutely the most important things you can do. Write them on a Post-it-note and have it front and center. You will find you get them done by about 11am and still have the rest of the day to respond to all the emails and voicemail. You will start to move through the things that really matter and it will show in your performance. Performance equals importance. Performance does NOT equal busy.