I’ve talked about the power of automatic thinking, which some call habits. Others, like this consultant writing in the Harvard Business Review, call them rituals.
He writes a great article, very much worth reading, but here is his ritual in a nutshell: Plan, focus, review.
Plan: Before you do anything, take five minutes to decide what will make this day highly successful
Refocus: Every hour, stop for one minute and look at what you have done or not done in the past hour, then recommit to what you will do in the next hour.
Review: At the end of the day, take five minutes to review what you accomplished, where you got distracted, and what you learned.