If this year is anything, it’s unusual.
Whether you have switched to working from home full time, part of the time, or maybe laid off, spending more time at home and having fewer places to go might be disrupting your productivity.
Maybe you're like me and you have all the time of every day and a huge to-do list, but you never get around to actually starting it. One of the rules of productivity is that the task will fill up the time allowed. So, tasks that you wait until the last minute to accomplish you could have gotten done in a minute. If you're used to having only two hours to do all your projects before you run out the door and suddenly, you're faced with 8 hours somehow it doesn't get done.
Here are 5 steps that I have learned this summer on how to get my to-do list done and stay on focus every day when I don’t have outside obligations and schedules to keep me on task.
1. Write down your To Do List. Making a list of all the things you want to get done that day gives you a finite focus. Now you know what tasks you want to accomplish today. If you think of something you need to do tomorrow, write it on a separate list so your mind doesn’t keep going back to remember it.
Here are 5 steps that I have learned this summer on how to get my to-do list done and stay on focus every day when I don’t have outside obligations and schedules to keep me on task.
1. Write down your To Do List. Making a list of all the things you want to get done that day gives you a finite focus. Now you know what tasks you want to accomplish today. If you think of something you need to do tomorrow, write it on a separate list so your mind doesn’t keep going back to remember it.
2. Now let's assign the amount of time to each of those tasks. How much time does it take to do the first item or the second item? Go down the list and give each item an estimated time frame.
3. Now look at the list and decide priority. Does 1 task need to be accomplished before you can do another task? Put them in order of priority for your day.
4. Now efficiency. Look at the priority of your tasks for the day and determine if something on that list has a lot of hands-off time that is just waiting. For example, baking something or the washing machine running. Adjust the priority of your tasks so that you are doing another task during the waiting time. I line dry my laundry on the clothesline in the summer. So, my active tasks are: loading the washer, hanging the laundry on the line, and then getting the laundry back off the line. The washing and drying time are not active tasks so I can do other things during that time.
5. OK now we're going to set a timer. Whether you use the timer on your phone or a kitchen timer, pick the first thing on your list set a timer for the amount of time that you estimated it's going to take you to get it done and then focus on that one task. Don’t let other things you see as you go distract you from that 1 task.
REPEAT: Once you finish the first task move on to the next task set the timer again. By having the timer set you're giving yourself a built in deadline to get it finished . Go through the entire list following your schedule that you set.
Well done!
Did you learn a new way to stay on task and focused with your To Do List at home? You can use this concept to accomplish anything that you need to, by setting a schedule each day. Now, reward yourself for a productive day and relax!
How well did you guess on the amount of time it would take to do each task? Did you need to add time to any of the tasks? Did you finish any of them faster than you thought you would? Comment below and share with us.
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