Productivity Arata! Here is a special technique for those who have huge to-do lists.
If you’re the type of person who has a lot of activities, gets lost with gigantic to-do lists, and then feels frustration and anxiety, this simple tip will help you.
1. Understand when NOT to use digital applications!
It is not a good idea to use those task managing applications to deal with huge to-do lists. Why? Because the very application architecture allows us to get too carried away—we can just press ENTER to create yet another task.
Those tools usually complicate things further and make our lists even longer.
If you have a lot of enthusiasm, you want to embrace the world and therefore engage in many tasks. Perhaps you are inclined to say yes to everything, and then comes a time when you ask yourself, “How am I going to have time to do all this?”
Then suddenly things start to fall apart— we are late for a commitment, or there is something we wanted to see that is already gone, although it remains on our to-do list … and suddenly we realize that we’ve lost the enthusiasm to even look at our task list. Then we procrastinate.
2. Huge to-do lists can overwhelm us!
If you are watching this video and thinking, “This is not for me” because you don’t have a long to-do list, don’t worry. Check out the other videos we have in our channel here on YouTube, and you will certainly find a video that best fits your lifestyle.
However, if you have listened to this description of those who have scary to-do lists, and if only the thought of them scares you, then get ready for today’s tip, as it will make your life simpler. Let’s leave aside the digital to-do lists for now. Digital resources are easy ways for us to get lost and take on more than we can actually manage, making it difficult for us to get organized.
3. Simplify
Here we will use a small Post-it. That is perfect because it will impose a limit on us so that we stay focused.
Let’s prioritize. Every day, in the morning, we will pick up a new Post-it and write on it with a pen the activities that we have ahead of us on that day. At the end of the day, we will look at it with pride and say “I’ve done everything.”
4. Learn to write down your tasks realistically.
When you describe the task, of course you won’t write something huge, such as “complete my PhD thesis” or “be approved in the public service admission test,” because those are large projects that involve multiple steps.
You will write your specific tasks, with beginning, middle and end, and that you will carry out today. For example, you will write, “Read chapters seven and eight of the book.” Make it something measurable and realistic that you are committed to do today and that will make a difference in your life today.
This will help a lot with your focus throughout the day. Today’s tip is especially important to people who are particularly lost with a very large list of tasks.
Be careful to avoid the temptation of searching for the latest task-managing apps. It is precisely the ease of creating new items on these applications that generates the problem of massive to-do lists that are impossible to get through.
When we simplify, we can increase focus realistically on what can be initiated and completed within a single day. Then we take just a step at a time, feeling accomplished. In fact, I will take this opportunity to tell everyone who is interested in increasing focus that we have a complete and very specific training on focus, so go now to this link.