Do You Make a To-Do List, But Don’t Get Half of The Work Done?
Here 6 Productivity Hacks To Get Things Done
There are two types of people in this world — the people who just get things done and the people who procrastinate and get almost nothing done.
Does this situation sound familiar to you? You write a to-do list and tell yourself: ‘’I’ll get it all done today!’’ And at the end of the day or later in the evening you realize that you can’t get it all done today. Then, you postpone many individual tasks until tomorrow or skip them completely.
The same task remains on your to-do list for the next couple days. Nothing happens. You feel guilty, not enough disciplined and feel like you failed.
Here are a few tips on how you can avoid such situation and feel better:
1. Redefine Your Priorities
Successful and effective people know what to do, when to do it and what tools they need to achieve their life goals. You can’t accomplish anything in life if you’re not clear about exactly what you want.
‘’If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably never get there.’’
A good way to redefine your priorities is to think of how you spend your time every day. Observe where you spend most time, where most of your focus goes and if that is really meaningful to you. Think of your grand vision, your values you have and redefine if needed your priorities. It helps you to allocate various tasks faster in future and analyze if it’s even worth your time.
Separate urgent tasks from important tasks, rank them in order of importance, access the value of each task and finally add the estimated time to complete the work. Then, get it done.
‘’A priority can change over a time, but to get started to achieve your grand vision, you need to know what the first step is and make this FIRST step as your priority.’’
2. Make a Success List Instead of a Long To-Do List
What does success mean to you and what is your main goal? Instead of doing a To-Do list, create a success list. It will serve you better.
‘’It’s a simple list of what you’re going to do today that is purposefully driven to achieve extraordinary results towards your vision.’’
To-do lists are usually long. Success lists are short. One pulls you in all directions, the other targets a specific direction.
One is a disorganized list, the other an organized directive. If a list isn’t built around success, it won’t lead you there. If your to-do list has everything on it, then it will probably take you anywhere but not to the place you really want to go.
3. Timeblock and Monotasking
The ability to focus on one thing at a time is an underrated skill. I always thought I’m the queen in multitasking. I got this. Indeed, sometimes it works. But on the long-term the results are not satisfying.
‘’Multitasking works, but on the long-term it drains the energy out of you while you can’t really even put in 100% of your energy into one thing to absolutely crush it. You just get to crush 5 things halfway if you’re lucky, or none.’’
Mono-tasking changes everything. It forces you to maintain your focus. Your output can increase 2–5 times when you monotask intentionally with little or no distraction.
Monotasking means you have a clear priority and a specific task at a given time. It’s the best way to get things done more efficiently with less stress in less time.
Determine from your success list which important tasks you will complete today and set aside a specific time for that task. For example, give yourself 1 hour to write a specific article. Then focus on that particular task without distractions for 1 hour. Work in an environment that makes you work.
4. Crush One Thing And Put The Rest In Maintenance Mode
Example: Let’s say, you want to build your own brand, because that’s your main mission according the vision you have. Alongside, you want to build a community around it which is also important to you, but not your main focus. Then, put this community in the state of maintenance: Write down how much time you want to spend maximum on it per week, what content you post, what work you can outsource to someone else.
‘’Create a system around it that is more effective in order to do the minimum to maintain a side-goal (part of the main mission) while having your focus on building the brand (main mission) itself.’’
5. Do The Most Challenging Task First
I know it’s really hard to do so. But if you get the most important and most challenging task done first, it will increase your productivity enormously.
‘’Achievement is a great motivator. Progress keeps you on your toes.’’
If we push the most difficult tasks to the back, there is a high probability that the task will not be completed or will remain incomplete at the end of the day.
After completing your most challenging task, you are more inclined to complete the smaller and more fun tasks as well.
6. Live By The 80/20 Rule
You’ve probably heard of the Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule, where you focus on the few things that bring you the most benefit.
If you prioritize correctly, you can often get 80% of your work done with just 20% of your efforts. To live by this rule, it is important to identify your relevant tasks, focus on the work effort and accept the limited resources. Many people find this difficult because their own perfectionism and too high expectations get in the way. That’s why priorities are so important.
Instead of working with a long To-Do list where you mostly don’t even get half of the things done. Rethink. Redefine. Work with a simple step-by-step success list and keep the list very short, but meaningful.
