How To Tackle Your To-Do List

With the start of the new year, many of us have goals to accomplish. Some of those goals may be trying to be more productive, or to feel more accomplished.

Now that the holidays are over, I’m sure you feel like a “back to the grind” mentality. With that, comes the dreaded to-do lists. Things you have to get done at work, at home, for your children, etc. But how do you handle this to-do list when it feels overwhelming?

Here are a few steps you can take in order to complete that to-do list:

1. “Brain Dump”

The first thing you are going to want to do at the beginning of every week, and even every day, is to take a piece of paper, your journal, planner, or your notes in your phone, and just think about everything you have to get done and write everything down. This is called a brain dump. You just want to get everything out of your head and down on paper. No matter how big or small the task, write it down so you don’t have to think about it.

2. Plan Your Tasks

After you brain dump all of your tasks at the beginning of the week, you are going to want to decide which task should be completed on each day. Take a look at your week. If you know you have to work late on a certain day, or you have an extracurricular activity for your child one night, then you know you will not have time to do certain tasks on those days. When planning tasks for the week, you will want to take into account your location. If you will be in a certain area, are there certain tasks that can be done at that time when you are there? This will save you time, money, and gas in the long run.

Which brings me to my next point. . .

3. Batch Your Tasks

Batching your tasks is another great way to save time. When you are planning your tasks, think about your location, and what things are around that location. For instance, if you have a doctors appointment in one area, are there any other tasks you can complete? Is there another store you have to go to? Maybe you have to stop at your bank? Or even just stopping to get gas.

A word of advice when batching your tasks: try to limit your batches of tasks to three max, unless it makes sense to batch more at once (like I mentioned with going out to the stores or something).

4. Don’t Overwhelm Yourself

When planning and thinking about your daily tasks, you are going to want to do another brain dump either every morning or the night before to see if there is anything else that came up throughout the week you have to do. If you can, try to limit the amount of tasks to get done each day to three-five tasks. If you have too many things on your to-do list to look at all at once, you will feel so defeated and will not even know where to start. Breaking it up into bits throughout the week will make a difference.

Another bit of advice: don’t feel bad or guilty if you have to move things around throughout the week. Life happens. Things may change. Adjust accordingly to make it work for you.

5. Eat The Frog

When you are going over your daily task list (either that morning or the night before), you will want to prioritize your task list. “Eat the frog” is a term used for completing the hardest task first. You will want to tackle your hardest task first for the day. Trust me. Don’t let this linger. The more you let it sit on your task list, the more you will look at it and dread doing it, which will make you not do it at all. That’s why you want to do the hardest thing first and just get it out of the way.

This concept always makes me think back to when I was younger and had to do a presentation in front of my class. I HATED it. Of course, I would always wait to go after everyone else. It just made my anxiety grow worse while I was waiting. When I got to college, I finally learned my lesson and would just go as soon as I could to get it over with. I felt so relieved after.

6. Cross it off!

Saving the best for last…

Once you have completed that task, cross it off your list! There is something so satisfying about either putting a check mark or completely crossing something off of your list once it’s done. No matter how big or small the task is, for me, it’s a sense of accomplishment and validation once I get that task crossed off my list.

TIP

Use a tool that will work best for you. Whether you are a classic pen and paper type of thinker, or a digital guru, there are tools for everyone.

If you are looking for some ideas on apps or tools you can use, I have put a list together HERE

Feeling overwhelmed is a common feeling when you are staring at your to-do list. I have been there. I have also found these steps to be very helpful for me, and I hope they will help you also. If you are looking for more help on how to plan your year or even set some goals, you can check out those articles HERE.

I personally am an old fashioned, paper and pen type of gal. I’m curious what works for you? Are there any apps that you have used for lists that have worked for you? Tell me in the comments!

Talk soon,