If you have trouble sticking to your daily tasks on your to-do list, then you’re probably missing some key ingredients. If you want to get things done – and finish all of your daily tasks – you have to get organized. In this guide, we’ll teach you what you need to do to get ahead with all important things.
Yesterday, I wrote a post about To-Do lists and some forms of using them. Today, I want to talk about something very important when it comes to these lists, and it is finishing everything that you put on them.
The biggest question is how you can finish everything that you put on your to-do list. This is not a simple task, and many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of using a to-do list but never finishing all things planned to be done in the form of tasks.
Here are seven things you can do if you want to finish everything on your to-do list.
1. Make a list of all the things that you have to do
One of the best ways to organize our days is by making a list of everything we have to do. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a professional or a stay-at-home parent—you should be able to see every task, appointment, or errand on your calendar, including those things you only think about every once in a while.
Once you decide on what you want to do, it’s time to plan your action steps. This might seem like an obvious step, but it’s one that often gets missed. There are a lot of people who put their goals off and never actually take the steps needed to reach them. You must write out every step you need to take to achieve your goal. Don’t worry about how many steps you need. Just write them down.
2. Divide Your To-Do List Into Chunks
If your to-do list is very long, then it will feel overwhelming and cause you to procrastinate. Instead, break down your to-do list into manageable chunks. By breaking down your list into smaller pieces, you can focus on one task at a time and finish all of them without getting overwhelmed. Then you’ll have a much shorter list of tasks for the next week and so on.
Chunking is the act of breaking a big task down into smaller, more manageable pieces. In general, the larger a task is, the harder it is to accomplish. You can easily break tasks and complete them more efficiently by chunking them. Chunking your to-do list can help you finish your work while remaining sane.
How can you get this done? The question that really needs answering is, “What is the first step I can take toward getting what I want?”
3. Personal Commitment to Finish Everything on Your List
Personal commitment to finish everything on your list is one of the greatest keys to getting things done. When you don’t finish anything on your to-do list, you end up feeling frustrated and resentful. You lose the ability to enjoy your time on the computer or to have fun with your family or friends.
If you are committed to something you must finish, you will be more likely to finish it. Otherwise, without a commitment very quickly your brain would leave these important things that need to be done, and in the end, you can realize that you cannot finish them.
We’re talking about things like finishing the project you’re working on, putting down the phone, and calling your mother back instead of playing games on your smartphone. These kinds of small commitments are really powerful ways to strengthen the willpower muscles and the ability to overcome inertia.
4. Prioritize Tasks on Your To-Do List
With the number of things you need to accomplish growing every day, it’s hard to keep track of all of the items you need to do. Before you can even begin to focus on your to-do list, you need to prioritize those tasks.
Don’t let your to-do list run away with itself. Use your time management skills to prioritize tasks on your to-do list.
When you start prioritizing your tasks, you first want to make sure you know what you want to achieve. This gives you the foundation to set priorities that will help you stay focused on the most important projects and tasks.
Do this by considering what the most important task is and what tasks are less important. Consider what will really impact the bottom line and how long it will take to complete, and then start working on those items that will help you achieve your goals.
There’s always something more important than other things inside your to-do lists. Prioritization will provide those important tasks and activities to be first on the list and always start with them. Finishing the most priority tasks first will increase the percentage of all finished daily tasks.
5. Analyze Your Time
One of the most challenging aspects of managing a small business is keeping track of your time. Tracking your time is crucial in determining how much work you’re actually doing. Many entrepreneurs have no idea how much time they spend on actual work.
The time you can have is always 24 hours, including sleeping, leisure, time with family, watching TV… But when you know how much time you have to work on your daily tasks, you can divide that tasks according to the appropriate time in which you will be able to accomplish them.
An online time management tool can help you see how you spend your time and how productive you are.
6. Increase Your Time by Delegation
One option for ensuring the accomplishment of everything on your to-do list is to increase the time you spend on that tasks. This means reducing your time for sleeping, leisure, family, watching TV…
However, you can increase your time also through an appropriate delegation process. One of the most effective ways to increase your time is to delegate responsibilities to others. This way, you can focus on the bigger picture and get the tasks done that are on your plate.
Delegating duties means you have faith in the people you’ve selected to carry out those duties.
It means some of the tasks that are with less priority for you, routine and standardized tasks, will be delegated to some of your team members.
7. Optimize Your To-Do List
Another way to accomplish everything you have on your to-do list is to optimize your list.
What does it mean to optimize your to-do list?
Optimization is the process in which you will optimize tasks on your to-do list with your own capabilities to accomplish them. You may want to complete 100 tasks in one day, but your time and your own capacity allow you to work on only 15 of them.
You can take care of the tasks that you can complete in a shorter period of time and put the rest on your next to-do list. This method will enable you to accomplish everything on your to-do list without stressing yourself out.
You can optimize your list so that it’s easy to complete. This means that the tasks need to be written in such a way that you understand what needs to happen. There are two important elements of a well-structured to-do list: the tasks themselves and their priorities. In fact, the more you pay attention to the structure of your to-do list, the better you’ll get at prioritizing the tasks that need to be done. Start with the tasks themselves, and then prioritize the list.
8. Prioritization Review
Prioritization is an important life skill. Whether you’re trying to figure out how to handle a stack of paperwork or whether or not to start a new business venture, being able to prioritize is one of the most valuable skills in everyday life.
As you use your to-do list, self-education is activated for you. On the other hand, the priorities are not always the same. They are a variable category. So, from time to time, review the prioritization that you use.
If you plan to change how you prioritize tasks in your life, it’s essential to understand why you have the current approach. The reasons may include not wanting to feel like you have more than others, having to keep up with others, fear of failure, and guilt. Once you recognize what is motivating your current approach, you can figure out what would be most effective for you.
When you’re considering the best way to prioritize, don’t just rely on the results of one method; try a few and choose the one that gives you the best results. Once you’ve identified the best one for you, stick with it.
Question: Do you succeed in reaching the level when you finish everything on your to-do list most days? Can you share your experience with us?
