Make A List At The Start Of The Day
Write it down. Plan your day either in the morning, based on tasks from the previous day that weren’t completed, midnight thoughts, and your actual to-do list for that day. Once you’ve made the list it’s important to keep it visible. Put it somewhere where you know you will see it throughout the day. Use what works best for you. Type it out on an excel sheet and print it out, use colours, or just stick to the classic notepad and pen style. That’s not important, what is, is the list!
…And Make A List At The End Of The Day
Sum it all up. What weren’t you able to finish during the day? Move over unchecked items from your old list onto this new one. Let this be the warm down of your day. Think about what was accomplished, and what wasn’t. Provide yourself with a plan for the next day. This allows you to also reflect on these points outside of your working environment. Hint: Keep your phone on-hand to take notes of this while watching a series or preparing dinner!
Wake Up Early or Stay Up Later
There CAN be more hours to your day, but you have to make them happen. Getting up earlier will give you access to the quiet time to do those pesky tasks you have been putting off. Think about it – wake up an hour earlier 5 days a week and that’s 5 hours of “spare time”. The same goes for the night-owls. The human body is a complex organism, with preferences differing in all aspects. Some people work better in the evenings. As long as you remember to take a break between work and your extra hours in the evening, the result, in the end, is the same!
Prioritise & Then Organize
Getting your priorities right is king in this list. When you have your list, step one would be in making sure the most important tasks go first. Getting the important things out of the way leads to a productive work day. Organise the list within itself. There will be tasks that can be grouped together, or finished simultaneously. Others could be at the top of your list in terms of priority, but external factors will prohibit you from moving forward. Go with the flow (of the list) and you should be fine!
Finally…Remove Those Distractions
Regardless of how good your list is or how well you’ve prioritised and organised similar tasks together. If you are constantly distracted by meaningless disruptions, all of your prior work will be in vain. The most helpful hint would be to turn off the pop-up notifications from social media on both your computer and smartphone. There are also countless mobile applications catering to removing distractions or monitoring your overall productivity. Have a look online for more info!
Hope this helps!