In my personal and professional life I see people walking around with these to do lists. They are freaking a mile long. To do lists tend to make us all feel bad about our lack of accomplishment because we simply cannot get it all done in 1 day. Then we spend time each day reordering our to do list for tomorrow. Get rid of the to do list and have a strategy.
Your strategy should be 7 days long and as new items come up, put them in the day that makes sense to do it. Running around with a list makes no sense at all. Instead look at what you have going on and make an assessment of when something can get done. Think of your personal life. If your kids have soccer practices, your husband is working late and you want to make lasagna for dinner, your to do list has failed you. You simply won’t be able to do all of that.
In the work place you need to think strategically as well. What do you have to get done today? What would be nice to get through today and then think about what can wait. Now, one thing we all don’t do well is plan for emergencies! There will always be a curve ball or some 911 that pops up. Be OK with it. When you plan for it you can tackle it with a vengeance! When you stress because at work an emergency came up you are simply wasting your time.
When you start focusing on what you need to master today the world gets better! I was recently at a training and everyone was complaining about how busy they are. If you know me you know I HATE that word. I had to stop everyone, I asked do you feel busy in your personal life just as much? Everyone said yes. Great, then it’s not just work, it’s EVERYWHERE. Let’s embrace a strategy to get things accomplished and ditch the to do lists. They do nothing to help you feel accomplished!
