Tips for Conquering Your To-Do List

You Can Conquer Me!!!

My life has gotten so busy that it’s become unavoidably clear that I need to once again stop and take stock of everything I have to do and divide it into two sections:  Stuff I will do myself and stuff I will farm out.  Then I need to hire a few more members to my team and get on with my life.  I vowed to myself that I’d tend to this all-important task on Sunday but lo and behold, my life was too busy to sit down and do it.  It’s now Friday and I’ve gotten nowhere with it because my life is still too busy to sit down and figure out how to not make it so busy. 

Or is it? 

We put off changes, tasks, conversations, emails, etc. even though we KNOW they’ll make things SO MUCH EASIER.  Most of the time it’s harder not to do the things we need to do than to just do them but alas….in the end, it usually has nothing to do with time and everything to do with not wanting to step up to the next level of yourself.  

Fine, myself.  

It can all be traced back to whatever story you have around being large and in charge, why you’re scared of it, who you think will be hurt by it, why you don’t deserve it, blah blah blah.  While we’re waiting to psychologically rise to the occasion, however, here are some simple steps to get things moving to make your life more productive and fun:

 Chunk It Out. 

Think about what it is that you need to do and then do it in chunks.  For example, if you need to make $10,000 to pay off a debt, set a date that you want to make it by.  Then chunk it down into days – how much do you need to make each day to pay it back by your goal date.  Then figure out how many new clients you need to book or how many products you need to sell each day.  Then set your mind to making it happen and go do it.  If you think about paying back a large lump sum or writing an entire book or building a house, you’re more likely to go take a nap than get anything done if you look at it as a whole.  Chunking it out makes it accessible.  It gives you a clear, focused map of what you have to do so you can get off yer butt and do it. 

Get a Dominatrix. 

Find a friend or colleague who is as motivated as you are to make things happen in their life and be accountable to each other.  Talk each morning about what you’re going to do that day and report back at night.  Pick someone who will challenge you and hold you to your word.  If you can find someone you’re either scared of or so enamored of that you’d hate to let them down, even better.  

Time It. 

Give yourself a set amount of time to get something done.  As the old saying goes, however much time you have to do something is the amount of time it will take.  Or something like that.  Do not just say, “today I’m going to write the first five pages of my book,” but rather, “between noon and 2:00 I’m going to write the first five pages of my book.”  Then do not get up, do not make food, do not pass go and collect $200, finish it and move on.  If you can stick something to hold you to your time slot, like meeting a friend for lunch right after your end time, it’ll put much needed pressure on you to focus and bang it out. 

And now if you’ll excuse me, I am off to make my list and get on with my life.