If you often find that there is not enough time in a day to conquer your daily to-do list, the solution might lie in the things you do during the first hour in your office. What you do during that first 60 minutes can set the tone for a successful day.

Here are four ideas that will help you use that time more effectively:

1. Complete “leftover” tasks
There are always jobs that get shuffled from one day to the next. Dan Richards, CEO of Clientinsights in Toronto, suggests using your first 15 minutes to deal with one of those “leftover” items. It could be an important client issue or a simple administrative task that tends to be postponed.

Procrastinating does not make those tasks any easier to resolve, Richards says. And not performing these tasks — and worrying about them — can drain your energy.

Once you get that job done, you will probably find it wasn’t as difficult or unpleasant as you thought.

2. Plot out your day
The next 15 minutes can be spent identifying what needs to be completed throughout the day and how you would make the best use of your time.

In Richards’ experience, successful advisors tend to use this time to organize their day, identify priorities and decide how much time to allocate to various tasks.

3. Schedule an activity with the highest pay-off
Devote the next 30 minutes to a task that will produce a direct benefit to your business.

Richards recommends spending that time making three proactive client calls. You are not just calling to say hello. Have a purpose for the phone call, whether it is to remind your client of an upcoming investment deadline or to discuss a recent product purchase.

This exercise will help keep you organized and increase your value to clients. It also creates a routine of regular client contact.

“There’s a lot of data suggesting that advisors get much more credit for phone calls they initiate,” Richards says, “compared with talking on the same subject on a call the client initiated.”

4. Get your news at home
Richards advises against spending the first hour of the day checking the latest market reports. This activity is not the best use of your time. It distracts you from completing important, tasks — like calling clients — that will provide more direct benefit to your business.

Richards considers catching up on news at the office a waste of time. “When we watch YouTube, we know we’re wasting our time,” he says. “When you go onto the [news websites], you can actually convince yourself that you’re using your time productively.”

Catch up on the news at home, Richards says, so you are ready to get down to business when you step into the office.