There are only so many hours in the day. And whilst some people can sail through the day ticking things off their to-do list, others struggle to find the motivation to get much done at all. And let’s face it, we all have our ‘off’ days!
There are all sorts of ways that you can change the usual routine of your working day to ensure that your productivity is top-notch but to get you started, here are four top tips to ensure that your task list is checked off each and every day:
Have an Achievable To-Do List
You may well have a list as long as your arm of things that need doing but staring at an unachievable list of things to get done is likely to have you just looking and not actually doing anything at all. The best way to tackle your list of tasks is to break them down:
1) Things that HAVE to be done
2) Things that NEED to be done soon
3) Things that can WAIT for another day
4) Nice to do but NOT necessary
5) Quick wins
Prioritise your list of tasks based on the above and your soon have your starting point. There’s nothing quite like getting a few things ticked off the list so make sure that you start with a few simple tasks to get the ball rolling. You’ll be amazed at what a difference this can make
Time Tracking
Knowing how much time a task will take to complete may assist you further in prioritising your to-do list. You can easily plan your day if you know how long something will take to do. Using a time-tracking App can easily help you to make short work of this by listing out your daily/weekly/monthly jobs and simply pressing ‘start’ and ‘stop’ for each one will give you quick run-down of all these tasks for future reference. Personally, I use Harvest for business clients plus Toggl for my private clients. There are plenty of other options available so see what works best for you.
Take A Break
Starting work at 7am and working straight through to twelve hours later is not going to do you any favours in the long run. You will become tired, drained and worn-out before you know it and you won’t be any use to anyone. Simple things like ensuring that you take five minutes away from your desk and just have a walk around, get a cup of tea or get some fresh air – these will all give you just a small break for your brain to reengage, your eyes to rest and your second wind to arrive.
Delegate!
Whether you have a full compliment of employees at your disposal, have family and friends who can help you out or you are able to enlist the assistance of a Virtual Assistant, delegation really will give you precious time back in your day. And especially for those small business owners or professional people whose business lives eat into their personal time, if you’re spending excessive amounts of time on monotonous every day activities, surely your time would be better spent dealing with the more important things?