Here is something you can do to really kickstart your workday. Start each day on a downward slopping hill. A metaphorical downward hill that is.
Stopping a task at an arbitrarily defined time like 5PM really makes no sense. Try stopping your task on or shortly after the point you’re most excited about it. One would think if you’re excited about something you should continue working on it until the excitement wanes. This is great if you can complete the task in sitting. If the task takes you into another day you may want to consider quitting while you’re ahead.
The whole point of this is that it takes an incredible effort to get back to that level of energy and excitement the next time day. Sometimes generating that kind of interest is just too much to ask early in the morning. So we allow the distractions to take over. Like processing email. In other words procrastinating with something that feels productive but is really just busy work.
Stop when you find yourself totally motivated and pumped up. Move onto the next item and get that task rolling.
When you start your next day you’ll be excited to get back to the first task where you left off. Ideally if you stagger your tasks like this it will never feel like a chore to get going, and you’ll be a ninja on startup every day.
Update: 4314 days after I originally posted this I learned about something called the Zeigarnik Effect which basically explains this phenomenon.
The Zeigarnik Effect is a psychological phenomenon in which people remember uncompleted or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks. It is named after Russian psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, who first described the effect in 1927. The effect has been used to explain why people often have difficulty forgetting unfinished tasks and why people often feel compelled to finish tasks that they have started.