Keep Your To Do List Manageable
You may feel overwhelmed because you don’t have a plan, but then you try to do it all and find yourself even more overwhelmed.
Recently I was talking with a ladies group and someone shared that they really wanted to start using a to-do list and a planner, but they just didn’t know how to get started. Maybe this is you? Or maybe you have tried to use a list and feel overwhelmed? Here are a few to tips to get you started.
Start small. If you’re new to this, don’t do a brain dump and then try to use that as your list. Let’s be honest, even if you’ve been using a planner successfully for years, you can’t do EVERYTHING on your brain dump list. We have to choose the most important things. And if you’re new to this, only choose a few things.
In fact, you should only choose 3 important things and that’s it. No more. What are the things today that really matter and must get done? Examples of these important things are bill pay, zoom call with your boss, or a task that moves your goals forward.
Keep it realistic. What stage of life are you in? Do you have small kids at home? Do your teens have busy schedules and you’re the chauffeur? How many hours a day do you actually have to get things done? Sometimes we can overwhelm ourselves by choosing tasks we don’t actually have the time for. If you are at home all day with small children, you only have a certain amount of time you can focus on those tasks. So choose your important items wisely.
Break big tasks into small tasks. Most of our projects cannot be done in one day. Or we don’t have the bandwidth to complete them all in one day. So break them into manageable pieces. For example, if you have a deep cleaning project, break it into smaller tasks and get one of those done today. Another way I break projects down is by setting a time for 30 minutes. I know this must be a big item on my to do list, but I can never get this done in its entirety in one day. So rather than putting something impossible on my to do list, I will put 30-project. I set a timer for 30 minutes and then when it goes off, I know I have completed that particular task for the day. Sometimes I have the time and energy to keep going and if so, that’s great! If not, I can set aside 30 minutes tomorrow to move it further along.
I can promise you that by using a daily to-do list or planner will make a huge impact in your productivity. I hope these tips give you the courage to try it out!