SPOILER ALERT: FREE PRINTABLE BELOW!
Have you ever had one those days-or honestly, those weeks, months and entire seasons- where you have so much do to that you can’t even remember what all of the things even are? I’ve had a few of those lately when I was overwhelmed with everything swirling around in my head that I didn’t even know where to start or what to do first. Here’s what I did to get organized and start tackling my life:
Just write it all down on paper. (Or on an app on your phone if that’s what works best for you.) You’ve got to clear everything out of your head before deciding what to tackle first. Just make a list of everything- big or small- that’s inside your brain, and just write it out. You can focus on one thing at a time when you’ve reassured yourself that everything you need to remember is safely in one place for you to reference later. This is traditionally called a ‘brain dump’, but frankly that term grosses me out and I refuse to use it. Or, rather, use it again since I just did.
Decide what is urgent and important. Most articles on productivity will probably tell you to prioritize your tasks, but don’t give any detail on a strategy for how to actually DO that prioritization. Using Stephen Covey’s Time Management Matrix, here’s what you do:
Take a piece of paper and divide it into four sections:
Urgent and important
Important, not urgent
Urgent, not important
Not urgent and not important
Take your to-do list and categorize every item into a category. Be really honest with yourself here! Is it really urgent or just a task you’d prefer to do first because it’s easier or more fun?
3. Now that you know what is most important and most urgent, you’ve got to make a plan to actually get it done. Look at your schedule and ask “When do I have time to take care of this?” What I like to do when my days are extra crazy is plan out how much time I’ll realistically need to check something off my list. This stops me from trying to do too much in one period of time.
I’ve found that I’m actually better at guesstimating times than I thought I would be. When in doubt, plan more time than you think you’ll need. It’s way too discouraging to get behind your plan than it is to be ahead of schedule.
4. Start at the top of your urgent and important items and schedule them in one by one, with realistic expectations of how long it will take you to do them. Move on to important items, then urgent ones, and lastly to the non-urgent, non important ones if you still have time. Consider asking for help with any task that you don’t personally have to do yourself. Spread the tasks out over days or weeks as needed and don’t feel bad for taking something off the list completely if it’s not necessary!
Tell me more about what you do when you have too much to do? Do you make lists? I’d love to know in the comments below!
Hey, I’m Meghan
I’m here sharing content all about pursuing your own version of more and loving how you feel doing it. If that sounds good to you, stick around and let’s be friends!
