Coffee first, then headphones and something instrumental. Then the inbox, before anyone needs anything.
I treat it as sorting. Two-minute jobs get done now. Hour-long jobs get a slot later in the week. Anything that belongs to someone else goes to them, which took me far too long to learn.
Then messages, which tend to arrive more urgent than they are. Then I block the day around the real priority, so the first request has somewhere to land.
It's not a productivity system. I just make better decisions at half past eight than at three.