Some days just glancing at my to-do list is enough to make me weep. Are you the same?
Luckily, it’s one of those things that is easy to solve with a proactive attitude.
9 tips to organise your to-do list & be more efficient
Have a day by day list
It can be really intimidating if your list stretches off into eternity. You’ll find it much easier to motivate yourself if you just write your tasks for tomorrow.
Delegate
Is there anything that would be better done by someone else? Are you getting behind your deadlines? Delegate the tasks you can to someone with more time, so you can concentrate on the vital stuff.
Group your activities into similar chunks
If you group similar tasks together you’ll be far more efficient. If this is a weekly occurrence it can be really worthwhile grouping activities (like calls and emails) into a specific part of the day, or week.
Stop multi-tasking
We think it makes us more productive. It really doesn’t. It just leads to a day where at the end of it we aren’t sure what we achieved.
Turn off the internet
If you aren’t specifically using it then it is probably distracting you. Do you need to have your emails popping in at any moment? Will it hurt to just check it once an hour?
This is the one piece of advice that I know makes a huge difference but I am terrible at following it. The trick is to be strong willed, or to use a bit of software to help (http://mashable.com/2012/01/03/block-internet-distractions-apps/)
Have a specific time dedicated to thinking about your long term goals
Sometimes the little tasks just piled up while you wonder in indecision if you should be doing something different to achieve that long term goal. Do yourself a favour – give yourself a day of the week to analyse how your long term plan is going and if you need to change anything going forward. The rest of the time focus on the short task at hand.
Make sure everything is in your calendar (don’t get caught out)
To-do list catastrophes occur if you forget something which then has to be urgently done at the last minute – throwing everything else off-schedule.
Prioritise
Everything on your list should be in order of priority. This will help you work through the day without having to stop and think about what you need to do next. Plus it will help you to stay on top of your deadlines.
Estimate how long things will take you
Estimate how long you think your tasks should take you to give you some extra incentive to get them done on time. Did you go over your predicted time? Was it because the task just took longer or did you get distracted? Compete with yourself to get faster and more efficient.
Do you have any extra tips? Let me know in the comments and I’ll add them into the post.
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