Open the dashboard and work top to bottom
Read the four KPIs at the top: Active Jobs, Active Candidates, Placements, Revenue MTD. The deltas tell you whether you are trending up or down vs last period.
Scan the kanban for any card with an amber 'X days stuck' badge. These are the highest-priority moves of the day; click each one, send the nudge, and watch the stuck count drop.
Open the Tasks Due Today widget at the bottom-left. Mark off whatever you have already done; pick up whatever has been waiting.
Open the Upcoming Interviews widget. Click into anything happening in the next 4 hours and prep yourself.
Glance at Recent Activity at the bottom-right. If something happened overnight (a new inquiry came in, an email reply landed) you will see it here.
Throughout the day
Use the kanban as a working surface (drag to advance), and use the Cmd+K palette for everything else. New inquiries arrive automatically and trigger the ack email; you do not need to refresh.