For years I've spent the first part of my day, and likely the most creative part of my day, checking emails, catching up on blogs and tweets, and knocking out administrative tasks. Usually by the time I checked these items off my list, I had a whole new list of tasks that were someone else's priorities...and just like that, my plans for the day were shot.

Over the past year and a half I've wondered how can I be more productive, specifically in the areas that mattered to me and not someone else. I've tried a lot of different things, but recently I came across this quote by Mark McGuinness in 99u's Mange Your Day-To-Day:

"The single most important change you can make in your working habits is to switch to creative work first, reactive work second. This means blocking off a large chunk of time every day for creative work on your own priorities, with the phone and e-mail off." (Mark McGuinness, Laying The Groundwork For An Effective Routine, Manage Your Day-To-Day p.26)

While this is extremely difficult in practice, especially since my first reaction when I wake up is to grab my iPhone and see what emails are waiting, it has been working for me. The days I start with the "creative work" and do the "reactive work" second, I find that I accomplish more of the work that is important to me. Those are the days I really enjoy work and am able to leave it behind when I get home to family.

I would challenge you to give this a shot and see if it helps you to accomplish more of your creative work as well.

If you'd asked me a few years ago if I'd ever use Adobe Premiere Pro professionally, I would've laughed in your face. I was an Avid guy who would occasionally jump over to Final Cut Pro, but never Premiere. In my experience it was so unstable that it was never a real option.

However, somewhere around Premiere Pro CS5 something happened. It seemed like Adobe had been listening to the video community. It became more and more stable, became a more robust NLE, and of course Apple pissed off everyone with the release of FCPX.

As motion graphic work has become a larger portion of the work I do, the integration between Premiere Pro and After Effects has made Adobe Premiere Pro the clear choice for my workflow.

Today Adobe continues to build on Premiere as it announces it's new lineup of Creative Cloud mobile apps, one of which being Premiere Clip. While mobile video editing isn't new or ground breaking, it's never been practical for me due to the lack of precision I want. I've always taken any mobile video I've shot and brought it onto the desktop. Premiere Clip may change this with the ability to get a rough cut on your mobile device and then finish on your desktop. You can see a sample of that workflow here.

I still don't think I will be taking a project from start to finish on my iPhone or iPad, but I definitely think there may be occasions that I rough in a timeline in Premiere Clip and then refine it in Premiere Pro CC.

Overall, I'm excited to see how the future of content creation evolves with mobile and cloud technology.