The power of the start

Òwúrò l’ojó, sings one of my favourite artists, Beautiful Nubia: “the one who honours the morning is the one who would be blessed.”

From the literal morning of the day to the start of anything—projects, meetings, businesses—I’ve found the beginning disproportionately pivotal compared to the rest of the timeline.

There’s even science to the saying “first impressions last longer.” It’s called the psychological primacy effect: our brains “lock in” the first bit of information we receive about a new thing or person.

You can pour blood and sweat into a project, but if errors marred the start, stakeholders may stay cold. An employee onboarded carelessly may carry that perception long after things improve.

The start is high tension. It sets the tone, for good or bad.

This also applies inward. We make impressions with ourselves too. If you start your day browsing through Instagram reels, ‘the rest of you’ may get the memo that today isn’t for deep, focused work.

Imagine the vice versa — you start your morning with journaling, reading or meditation, followed by some 2-4 hours of deep, focused work. Yourself might just look at you like… “it’s like we mean business today” and act accordingly.