This seriously is the ultimate shortcut formula to achieving the impossible!
The formula slowly but steadily transformed itself from a challenge into habit and is now part of my daily routine. I oftentimes get asked about productivity and how to achieve your goals. Most of the time it's not one goal but several goals and so the very first thing I ask is:
This seems to be the first hurdle most people, including myself get stuck on. Having a lot of goals is not the problem and you should have as many goals as you like and know that they are achievable, but a lot of times we think we can work on 10 goals at the same time, like changing your habit of eating unhealthy, working out twice a day, working a job, writing blogposts daily, learning a new skill, starting a business...and so on
You try to work on everything every day, feel stressed out and guilty when you didn't manage to get all the tasks done that you wanted to whic makes you frustrate.
If you have different aprroach, please feel free to share yours. I've been there and will walk you through the steps that got me out of it and hopfully help some of you out... So first of all:
Let go of unreal expectations!
Or as Oprah put it:
You can have it all. Just not all at once. This is something I learned after days and weeks of having a lot to do and getting nothing done.
The key to success for me lies in effective progress, which can be achieved by 5 major abilities that you either have, need to get better at or need to start to develop.
This post is about the first step out of 5. I'm giving you this guide in portions, so that it doesn't look like a giant mountain of "too much to comprehend", but rather manageable steps you can apply immediately.
1. SET priorities!
Setting priorities sounds simple, but often is the first step that keeps most people from making progress where they want to and wasting time on BS!
If you're like me and tend to constantly multitask, this is for you! You might think that if you do multiple things at a time you will get more done. I always want to get as much done as possible in a day and I think we all do and it is possible as well, but do you also sometimes feel like you have so many things on your list you get anxiety before you even start? Well the problem is not that they are "too many things", they are just too many things to focus on at once and you shouldn't. So in this first episode of getting shit done the right way, let's start by organizing you long to-do list.
Here is a quick exercise that I just thought of:
Answer the following questions:
"What is your favorite movie?"
"Who is your favorite singer?"
"What's your favorite song"
"Who do you dislike most?"
If you answered each question with ONE specific answer in under 10 seconds, you're better at this task than I am. I'm the person who would when asked: "what's your favorite color?", give an answer like this: "purple, and turquoise... but for flowers pink and white... but not to wear then it's probably beige or black. But like my favorite favorite color would be turquoise...or purple".
As you can tell I hated giving straight answers, just like I was that girl in school who loved to bookmark every page in the book because I thought everything is important... AND surprise surprise, I was the same when it came to getting shit done! I simply did not know where to start...
So here is how I overcame the struggle of not being able to decide on THE MOST important, which is the first step to setting priorities, because when you have 10 priorities, guess what... they are not all priorities, just like purple, turquoise, pink, white, beige and black cannot all be my favorite colors. Yes the "favorite" color can change depending on what the question is on, but if you're asked to name ONE you need to be able to make a decision.
In life that question is similar and I ask this myself every night before I go to bed:
"What is the most important task that you need to get done tomorrow?"
If you have ONE answer already, Congrats! You're done with this first task.
But don't worry if you're not yet there and have about 3-10 things you're thinking about right now that you need to get done and can't simply decide on one. Just like you can't do all at once you can't say yes to everything, because if you don't set a focus, none of what you wish to do will become fruitful.
This exercise helped me a lot to make my mind practice the art of narrowing down:
- Write down ALL the things you WANT to get done tomorrow. My list is usually 5-15 things long. Let's say you have a list of 10 things you would preferably all get done tomorrow.
- Now circle the 5 things that are the most important ones. Great!
- Now underline two of those
- And finally highlight ONE!
Here is an example of how I do it with 5 tasks:
What you have now is an organization of priority levels. Your goal for the next day is to get the underlined task done. The underlined task is your NUMBER 2 (I will explain later what that means) and the other highlighted task is your bonus task NUMBER 3. Just write down those numbers (2&3) next to your two tasks.
Next, write down on another piece of paper or in your phone schedule how long it will take you to complete each of the two tasks. Be realistic and if it's a creative task give yourself more time.
To find out how much time you need ask yourself this question..
Is it possible to complete the task in 30 minutes? If yes, then write down 40 minutes.
If not, ask yourself... Is it possible to complete the task in 1 hour? If yes, then write down 70 minutes.
Continue, until you know how much time you need to complete the task.
Now you have two priorities set, NUMBER 2 being your focus and goal of the day for tomorrow and if accomplished you can be proud of yourself and are allowed to take on NUMBER 3 as an option.
By limiting your daily tasks and making them achievable through your strategy, you will be able to get more done in less time with less effort. We all need the feeling of success once in a while and you need to have those small accomplishments in order to make progress, keep pushing and don't feel frustrated every day. When I realized that I was overwhelming myself, that it was affecting my healthy and well-being, I began to change my strategy and instead of pressuring myself to get 10 things done in a day which in reality kept me from getting just two of them done in 10 days, I allowed myself to breathe again with a new approach and I started with 1 task a day and slowly worked my way up. Now I'm able to handle a lot more, get more done and also have more time for myself, friends, activities without feeling guilty about it.
This is just the start, but I hope this helps some of you answer the question of "where do I start?"
To be continued....
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Much love,
Mrs.Steemit
Thanks for the insight. Everything you have laid out , is still based on what you can call what your opportunity cost!
You're very Welcome. I don't really agree, because opportunity cost (correct me if I'm wrong) is what you sacrifice and while you might sacrifice some other activities, that in reality are not as important as your priorities, you're actually gaining time, get more done in less time which leaves more space, time and energy after you've finished your main tasks. You can do many tasks in a day, I certainly have more than 3, but it's about having a structure and achieving a focus. Going one step at a time will get you further than trying to jump over a stai rcase.
My personal method:
Work smart, hard, or a lot: choose 2 out of 3
otherwise you get burned or you will drift all day (run on low productivity).
On an operational point of view, i chose to strongly separate work and family time.
It does:
Thank you for sharing! Good point you have there about getting burned out and I agree it's definitly important to give yourself a break from work every day where you free your mind and get enough sleep, very important !
Good article! By the way is it the first one or the second, that you have planned for today (according to picture)))
It's the Second task! But I like to firstly und figure out my Second and Third task before the first one. What the First one is you'll find out in the next part. Hopefully that's not too confusing
First Upvote!!!!! Going to read it now @mrs.steemit
You are just great
Thanks :D You too!
The trick is to list "Distraction" and number it far down the list...