Yeah, yeah, I know…it’s the beginning of the year and everyone is talking about goal setting and vision boards. Well, maybe because these strategies have been proven to work.
One strategy that has worked well for me in my corporate life as well as my entrepreneurial life is having a to-do list. Today my to-do list is simply my weekly schedule.
Are you using to-do lists throughout your day? If not, you may be missing out on one of the most powerful productivity tools out there. It doesn’t matter if you use the old-fashioned notebook and pen, or a to-do list app on your phone. There are three reasons why they work so well when it comes to keeping you productive all day long.
To-Do Lists Make You Plan
When I create my weekly schedule, each day becomes my to-do list. What this does is force me to plan your days. Using my Google calendar, I take a look at everything that needs to be done for the week and place it on my schedule. Within each day I decide what I need to take care of and in what order.
Some people prefer to make a fresh to-do list each day, I used this method when I was in the corporate world. Depending on how you make out your list, you may even think about what items on your list have the highest priority. The simple task of making the list makes you work out a lot of things in your head ahead of time. This alone will help you stay more productive throughout your day or week.
To-Do Lists Keep You Focused
Having that list in front of you, or next to you as you work away will help you stay focused on what you need to work on and accomplish throughout your busy day. We are all dealing with distractions. It’s easy to lose focus and get sucked into meaningless tasks and conversations.
With your list you know at a glance what you should be working on and if you make yourself get into the habit of not calling it a day until each item on your list is taken care of, you’re less likely to allow those distractions to take over big chunks of your day.
I like to work in 90-minute time blocks. I even set my timer on my phone to be sure I stay the course.
To-Do Lists Give You A Feeling Of Accomplishment
Checking off an item on your to-do list gives you a sense of accomplishment. For some this is more effective when they can cross something off a piece of paper. For others, clicking the little check mark on the app does the trick. Try them both and see what works best for you.
Take a moment to appreciate how much you’ve gotten done each time you check an item off the list. Then use that feeling of accomplishment to power you through the next item. Rinse and repeat and before you know it, you’ve made it through another highly productive day.
If you’re not in the habit of using daily to-do lists yet, I hope this encourages you to give it a serious try. Make a list of five things you want to get done before the end of this day. See how that goes and then get in the habit of working from a daily list starting tomorrow morning.
Here’s to Designing Your Victory!
I love teaching female coaches how to be more productivity in business. This is one of the topics I will cover during my upcoming Design Your Victory 2019 Women’s Retreat. My retreats are like none other. I bring my personal chef and personal licensed massage therapist to pamper the attendees and I will deliver 2 full days of business and personal development training.
If you want to Design Your Victory, rest and relax, and make some meaningful connections with other like-minded women, join us. Check out the details at http://bit.ly/dyvwormenretreat2019.
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