5 Tips to Check Off Your List

You've been making your lists wrong your whole life...maybe. Check in with these 5 tips to check off your list to see how you're doing.

I have researched and tested these theories, and WOW, has it been life changing. Let's get sh*t done and feel good about it! Let’s dive in

Mind Space Evaluation - Priorities

Okay, so first things first, we need to take a minute to think about you and not all the stuff you need to do today, tomorrow, this week, or this month. You need to take time at least once a month to evaluate what your goals and priorities are – if these do not correlate, we need to do some work! We want to make sure we know exactly what we are working for every day so we ensure that we are staying on track!

Turn “Possibly” Into “Positively”

Listen, the checklists I used to make had every.little.thing I could POSSIBLY do that day – we are talking sticky notes, upon sticky notes, upon sticky notes (gesh, I get antsy just thinking about it lol). And the worst part? I would never…ever…get all those items crossed off and I always beat myself up for it.

So, this is where we take a step back and become realistic – we need to list what we know we can positively get done today not all things we can possibly get done. Limit this list to five to seven items. Then, list them from most important to least- psychology shows we just won’t get it done if we don’t list them this way– plain. and. simple. (okay, maybe not simple, but we are working on it, right?) Also, make your most urgent item at the top of your list, and do not, and I repeat DO NOT, move on until it’s done!

To-Do’s Versus Daily Tasks

Sorry, checklist, but we are about to give you a major cosmetic makeover (you’ll thank us later)! Do you ever just mush everything into one list? Well it’s time to stop that craziness! Split your list into two sections. One side will be your “to-do’s,” and the other, “daily tasks.” For example a “daily task” might be emails – we do this every day, right? It’s a daily thing – so put it over here, and leave items like complete expense report by 2 pm on the other side because its specific to today.

Quantify It

Quantify – Ewwww...why are we bringing numbers into this?! – great question! We need to add two quantifiable limits to our list. 1. the amount of time spent on each item and 2. how many of each item we are planning on accomplishing, if applicable. So, we have our most urgent and prioritized task at the beginning of our list, we need to make sure we have a deadline (set an alarm on your phone!!) for this task to hold ourselves accountable. Not only do we hold ourselves accountable but we also feel that we cannot work on anything else during the time frame or we may not get the task done (and we don’t want to do that to our confidence, now do we?).

As human beings, we are not made to multitask, as much as the world tells us we need to be ultimate multitaskers, it’s a LIE. We are not productive or efficient when we jump around with our tasks.

Next, if we have an item that can be quantified, like client calls  – lets add how many. Now our checklist says three client calls. Sweet! We have quantified two aspects of our list, which helps us keep track of what the heck we are doing.

Celebrate

Wooohoo! You FINALLY did it! You completed that list and you cannot deny the satisfaction that comes with that! Make sure you always give yourself a pat on the back, or a dance party, either works. Personally, I like the latter, but it’s totally up to you! Have fun in life, celebrate and enjoy the little things that add up to our goals.

Let me know if this helps you in the comments below! I can’t wait to see how you re-organize your day-to-day.

One last tip…try to always have your checklists written down – I know, I know, we all have smartphones, but physically writing things down truly makes a world of a difference!