To Do or Not To Do – 5 Steps to Staying Productive

Being productive has never been an issue for me.  I have been told I am very productive and as my last post showed, I’m also very focused.  Of course everyone tells me that I make it look so easy.  Here’s the secret, I need to make it look easy to me in order for me to be productive.  Does that make any sense?

When I first began working in the self-employed arena, a lifetime ago,  I had no choice but to make things happen.  I had children to support and had to make the most of the hours in the day…and night.  I would make sure that before I went to sleep every night, the house was in order, clothes were picked out and my To Do list was ready.  Once morning came, there would be very little time to try and organize my thoughts about what I needed to do to be productive that day.

Everyone that knew me, laughed at my To Do list. It was a pink pad and was always full.  However, they also knew that if you made it onto my pink pad, whatever was listed would be completed before the night was over because I never carried anything over to the next day.  How could she possibly do that you are thinking? I was VERY strict with myself and that allowed me to be productive.

So how did I do it? I will share with you what I started to do many years ago and still continue to do.

1. Get a pad…ok that’s easy but make it different from all the other pads you use-mine was pink
2. Write EVERYTHING you need to do on it and I mean EVERYTHING.  My list begins with wake up… if you get my drift.
3. Check off the tasks as you complete them-you have no idea how great that feels.
4. Review the list often-when you see those check marks, you will have a different mind set.
5. See what “chores” are left before lunch-by putting everything on your list, you should be able to check 90% of your tasks off by lunch time.  Do you know what is left? The 3-5 tasks that are the most important.

Why does this work? If you look at your list and 20 items are completed and there are only 3-5 left, your mind will play a trick on you.  It will register as having only a few left but look how many I completed.  It works every time.

Try it, what is the worst that can happen?