3 Steps to Healthy Time-Keeping Habits
1. Make a simple to-do list!
Making a list the evening before you start your day will help add more organization to your productivity. Make a list of up to 10 things. You don't want to add too many things to do and set yourself up to fail when you can't achieve all 30 plus things you planned to accomplish. Listing 10 to less things ensures you can be focused on the tasks at hand and can be rewarding as you get them completed.
2. Prioritize!
When making your list of things to do, make sure that you are listing the tasks from greater to least importance. Your average completion rate might max out at 80-85% so don't be alarmed if you don't get ALL your items done on that day. But listing your tasks by priority will ensure that you DO get the most important ones done that day and leave the rest for the next day.
3. Focus!
We have a lovely habit of making lists and not even completing a fourth of them. One of the culprits to this is the habit of adding more things to your list as you go. By adding more things to your list as you go, you steer away from your goals for that day, you get sidetracked to focusing on something that can be less productive, and that can be done another day. At the end of the day, this can leave you feeling rather disappointed in yourself, as well as stressed.
To cure this, go back to step 1, when you are making your list. Make it a rule that once your list is made the night prior, you will only focus on the items on that list the next day. Add any other extra tasks for the upcoming next day’s list, and start the process again. Unless there is a high emergency that you need to tend to, if you follow this method, you will find you will get things accomplished at a faster pace and more efficiently.
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