I've never spoken to someone who told me he or she did not
have enough tasks on his or her To Do list. Most people are
overwhelmed by the number of pending tasks that still have to
be done.
Business professionals have reports to complete, meetings to
attend, letters to write, decisions to make. Stay-at- home
moms have to take the kids to school, make meals, check
homework and maintain the house. Even teenagers in school
have classes to attend, extracurricular activities to
participate in, essays to write and papers to organize.
There's no doubt, there are a lot of things, on a lot of To
Do lists. So, how do you go about getting things done? Here
are 4 quick ideas:
1) Make a list and pick 3. First and foremost, you need a
Master List of the things you have to do. Don't try to keep
everything in your head. Free your mind, and get the tasks
and projects down on paper.
But even people who make To Do lists can still get
overwhelmed. Matthew, a business professional from
overwhelmed him. Instead of it being a helpful tool, just
looking at his list was paralyzing.
I told Matthew that the more he avoided his list, the more
the things that had to be done were going to grow. Instead, I
relieved his frustration, by having him choose just 3 things
from his list each day, and to focus on those before he
started anything else.
After practicing this system for a few weeks, he discovered
he no longer felt overwhelmed. Instead of seeing hundreds of
things to do on his list, he was so relieved to know he had
to pick ONLY 3 a day to actually start getting things done.
If you're having trouble getting things done, each night
choose a total of 3 tasks you plan to work on the very next
day--and get started on those 3 tasks as early as possible
tomorrow.
Don't do anything else, until those 3 tasks are done. By the
end of each week, you will have completed a minimum of 21
tasks. At the end of each month, you will have completed a
mininum of 90 tasks!
2) Control your interruptions. Most people SAY they hate
interruptions, but would you believe that many people
actually love them?
Jill, a financial analyst from
couldn't get things done because of all the interruptions--
people stopping by her office just to chat, her ringing
phone, her computer indicating that incoming email had
arrived. She SAID she hated interruptions. But I noticed that
Jill always welcomed unexpected visitors, she always answered
the ringing phone, and she checked her email the second her
email indicator sounded.
In other words, she didn't hate interruptions at all. After
all, people are rarely that enthusiastic about immediately
doing things they hate to do.
Jill used those interruptions as an excuse so that she could
say she was too busy to attend to her To Do list. The reason
I knew this was because I had her sit in a quiet conference
room to work on the tasks on her To Do list for a few hours,
and she finally admitted that it was too quiet and the tasks
she had to do were really boring.
Those interruptions, as Jill first defined them, were actually
welcomed breaks in her day.
Everyone needs a break during busy days. When you're busy
working on a project, someone stopping by to chat for a few
minutes may be a welcome break. But if you allow this to
happen all day long, you're not going to accomplish too much
on your To Do list.
The answer--instead of allowing interruptions to control you,
you can actually control your interruptions.
Close your office door, let your voicemail field your calls,
and get to work on your To Do list. After completing an item
or two, then give yourself a break to call someone you wish
to call, or to check your incoming email.
If you're trying to get something done at home, but the kids
want you to play with them, send them away and work on one or
two items. After completing those items, find the kids and
play with them for 10 minutes.
If you control your interruptions, you'll get things done.
Plus, you will have taken some relaxing and fun breaks
throughout your day.
3) Don't just work on low priority tasks. Every task you have
to do, is either high priority, medium priority or low
priority. You would think that the higher the priority, the
greater the chance that item will be done first. But that
doesn't happen most of the time.
Very often, people choose the tasks they're going to work on
based on the difficulty level. The easiest tasks often get
done first no matter what the priority level, and the most
difficult tasks often sit on the sidelines even if they're
very high priority.
Gina, a junior in high school, had to write an essay for her
history class and it was due in 2 weeks. She was not too
happy about this because she viewed it as one of her more
difficult assignments. For the entire two weeks, she
concentrated on her quick and easy school assignments. Not
once did she even begin to work on her essay during that
time, until the evening before it was due. As it turned out,
she couldn't get it done and it adversely affected her
semester grade.
Instead, she should have been working on that essay for 10-15
minutes each day during that 2-week period.
To be sure you're working on your high priority tasks, when
choosing your 3 To Do tasks each day, be sure you choose at
least one that is a high priority task, no matter what the
difficulty level is on that task. Even if you can't finish
that high priority task in one day, even working on it for
15-30 minutes each day will ensure you're working towards its
completion.
4)
10-minute rewards--taking a catnap in the backyard, enjoying
a glass of lemonade while listening to some relaxing music,
going outside for some air and maybe a quick walk and so on.
Choose things you'll really enjoy.
Tell yourself that as soon as you're finished with one task
on today's To Do list, that you'll then indulge in one of
your rewards. Then, do another task on your To Do list, and
then enjoy another reward.
In essence, you're going to be sandwiching your rewards in
between your tasks. For example:
1. Task
2. Reward
3. Task
4. Reward
5. Task
6. Reward
Your day will be both productive, and enjoyable, at the same
time.
Jack, an insurance agent from
work continuously all day, with no rewarding breaks in
between. Each evening, he'd end the day feeling frustrated
and overworked.
He began sandwiching rewards in between his tasks. His
favorite rewards were taking reading breaks, and simply
taking the time to sit back and rest his eyes for a few
minutes. At the end of the day he was happy to have had a
productive day, and he felt much more relaxed at the same
time.
