In the midst of working through a long to-do list, it’s easy to get derailed and fall into overwhelm. Wonderful to have a list, you can get LOTS accomplished that way, but it’s easy to lose the sense of progress when you’ve accomplished 3 things and have 70 left to do. So in the morning,
Pick 3 or 4 things you want to get done that day.
Write them on a 3x5 card & slip it into your pocket.
Those are your only tasks for today.
When you’ve long derailed onto other activities, pull the card out, and refocus on those tasks.
Choose something fun, 1 or 2 tasks that are a stretch, and 1 or 2 mundane things that, when done, will give you a sense of relief. Today, my tasks are: add more color streaks to my hair (fun), make phone calls to set up appts with a group of coaching clients (stretch), finish psych reports (mundane/relief), and chip away at flushing the pond (fun, fish need it). Because there are multiple phone calls, and multiple reports, my other two tasks are fun activities -- to keep me out of overwhelm. Looking at my 3x5 card, there’s only four tasks listed -- I can do that. And when I finish those, the rest of the day is mine to play with as I wish!
