I like to put the work in during the early hours of the day. I’m sitting here in Ave Maria, outside The Bean with a black iced coffee, rum butter muffin, and iPad Pro. It’s an overcast morning, and the quality of the light is vaguely menacing.

In looking over my Todoist agenda for the day, I always find I’m able to tackle most of it early in the morning at times like this. Peter Drucker, Cal Newport, and many smart people talk about the importance of deep work, uninterrupted focus, etc. to achieving big projects—completely true. There’s junk that’s been left in my notes since November that hasn’t been addressed, because many of them require enormous chunks of time that I haven’t carved out yet.

I’ll be tackling those notes and addressing what I can before wiping the rest away. It’s as important to know when to wipe the slate clean and start fresh as when to put in the time to knock something out.