 Do you cringe every time you look at your to-do list? Do you find yourself writing the same task over and over, day after day? If your list feels endless, the problem may not be your motivation. You may be asking one list to do two very different jobs. Try this for a week or two and see what happens: SEPARATE: Keep your MASTER to-to LIST separate from your DAILY to-do list. Your MASTER list is where everything lives: ideas, errands, goals, projects, obligations, loose ends. Your DAILY list is much smaller. It's (ideally) no more than 3 actionable tasks that can be completed in one day. CATEGORIES: Create page categories in your MASTER list Give each major area of life its own page or section:
GET SPECIFIC: Under each category, write the goals or projects you want to complete. Then break each one into small, concrete, actionable tasks. Example: PAGE - WORK Goal 1: Organize Studio
ADD A TIME STAMP: Guesstimate how long each task will take and write it beside the task. *Your primal brain will fight this but it’s shockingly enlightening and calming. "Look brain, this one thing will only take 30 minutes” CONSTRAIN: Pick 1-3 projects or goals from the MASTER list to focus on this week. Less is more. Constraining your choices helps prevent the primal brain from getting lost in indecision or choosing the "low-hanging fruit" as a form of productive procrastination. MAKE A SEPARATE LIST: Use a daily planner to write your list one day at a time. *Either write it the night before (which can help you sleep better knowing what your day will look like tomorrow) or first thing in the morning with your coffee/tea/bev of choice. DECIDE ON AMOUNT OF TIME: How much time are you willing to commit to each particular goal per day? 1 hour? 90 minutes? 3 hours? Start with smaller time chunks in the beginning. PICK 3: Choose no more than 3 things from your MASTER/PROJECT list to focus on per day based on your predetermined time availability. (Bonus - write WHEN you will do them - "first thing out of bed" “after breakfast” or “11am” - the brain likes a plan). LEVERAGE DISTRACTIONS: Use things like social media, reading or watching a video as a reward after you complete your actionable tasks for the day. (This actually helps re-wire the dopamine addicted brain.) MADE A SLIP? Don't trip! Ask yourself with kindness and curiosity “What happened?” "What can I do differently tomorrow?” Then hit reset. Start fresh the next day. START SMALL. CELEBRATE THE WINS. REPEAT. Need help? Bring any questions you have to the table. Book a complimentary session with me. I’d love to work with you! Comments are closed.
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