LGR Holistic Wellness

It’s the end of the day, and when you look back over it, you feel you have not really accomplished that much. What a frustrating feeling this is. If this scenario resonates with you, you might have to assess how efficiently you’re getting through your tasks.

Do you tackle them blindly and just work on whatever task first comes to mind? Worse, is your day an exercise in crisis management, where you run from one problem to another, totally unstructured?

Or do you prioritize your tasks and have a to-do list that guides you to focus on what is truly important?

One of the best ways to ensure you can successfully finish your tasks is through prioritization. It’s about choosing not to do things you simply ‘feel like doing’ or attending to distracting unimportant tasks. Instead, it’s about selecting the most significant tasks among everything that’s on your to-do list and doing them as soon as possible.

It may sound easy, but it takes discipline, hard work, and determination to get your work done in an organized manner. Knowing which task needs your attention immediately and carefully deciding every task according to its importance will help you become more productive.

When you realize how important and necessary it is to master your prioritization skills and practice them, you are well on the way to effective time management and increased productivity.

Below are some techniques that can help you create an effective to-do list and prioritize your tasks.

Improve Your Organizational Skills

It can be said that your capacity to enhance your organizational skills and prioritize things is concrete evidence of how strong your self-confidence is. The better the working arrangement you have, even if it is as simple as making (and sticking to) a daily schedule, the easier it is for you to conquer procrastination.

Procrastination happens to many people, and it is one of the biggest reasons that most people fail at prioritization and time management. It may take a while to shake it out of your routine, but it is attainable if you are determined.

Having clear, firm and achievable goals is one way of working on fighting your procrastination issues. One of your highest goals should be to work on your organizational skills to allow you to obtain your optimal professional and personal skillset. Being consistent in completing tasks and goals is the desired end result and a barometer of how effective these skills are.

Make a To-Do List, and Follow It

Do you ever feel overwhelmed and stressed in simply imagining loads of responsibilities you need to accomplish during the day, the next day, or the coming week that keeps popping into your mind? You need to unload those from your mind and have them written and organized in your to-do list.

Get them out of your head and onto paper, or virtual paper. If you write down all your obligations, it will allow your brain to give a hundred percent focus on actually completing your tasks in due time, instead of wasting brain-space trying to remember them all.

Having this visual board in front of you every day will remind you that you have a list of tasks waiting for you to start. Adding items to your to-do list can be done the night, weeks, or months before the deadline or whenever there’s an important task or event that pops into your mind.

For this system to work, you must have your to-do list notebook or app always available for you. When you do this, you have an always up-to-date list of things to do, and this is also one way of motivating yourself to be productive.

This routine and lifestyle will save you from having missed deadlines, and most of all, it will help you achieve your work goals easier than ever before.

Set Your Priorities

The next step in maintaining your to-do list is to break down your list into which tasks are urgent, which are important, which are both, and which are neither. Organize your day-to-day duties according to priority and category.

While looking at your list of tasks, decide which task or assignment is the most important for you to accomplish today. After setting your priority tasks, it is time for you to set a goal of finishing them and put your focus on that. As much as possible, put aside everything else that is not connected to your task on hand.

Time Management

It is important not to just list your tasks and sequence them according to urgency and importance, but you also need to set a time limit on every task. That will give you a clear reminder of how long you should work on a particular activity so that you won’t jeopardize other tasks.

Be specific on the goals you set for each day or time period. Learning by experience to be able to accurately estimate timeframes to complete tasks and projects is a highly desirable and sought-after skill.

Summarize and Review The Day

Before you call it a day, take time to go over the list of things you have done, or more accurately, things you might have forgotten to do. It is also important to assess what you have accomplished today and review which part of your work or working styles you need to improve. Reflect on your strengths and weaknesses based on your daily performance.

Creating a to-do list and prioritizing your tasks allows you to be far more productive. It helps you to be organized and see more clearly what needs to be done and how much time it should take to work on a specific project. That way, you can plan accordingly. A huge bonus is a reduction in stress from not having to rely on your memory. It is like having an unpaid employee remembering it for you. That leaves you free to get the job done!