The two-hour rule
The first two hours are the whole day. What I protect them from, and why nothing else works if they go.
I have tried every productivity system and abandoned all of them except one rule, which is not really a system: protect the first two hours.
Why the morning
Not because mornings are magic. Because they are the only hours the world has not got to yet. No replies owed, no small fires, no one else's priorities in my inbox. Two hours of that is worth six of the afternoon kind.
What they are for
The hard thing. The one that needs a running start and a quiet room. If I spend the two hours on it, the day is already a success and everything after is a bonus. If I spend them on email, no amount of the rest of the day buys them back.
The whole rule
That is it. Protect two hours. Spend them on the thing that matters. Let the day be mediocre after that if it needs to be — it usually does, and it usually does not matter.
