How Time Flies
It wasn’t until I bumped into someone last week at a mixer and they said to me “I haven’t received your newsletter in a while you’d fallen off my radar”, that I realized how time had flown by, thank you Mary for the nudge.
Yes ‘stuff happens’ and before you know it another month or two has flown by. For me it was the passing of the favorite uncle and traveling to and from England as well as catching up, more travel etc., etc., etc., you know how it goes right? There is always something that puts some of the tasks to the bottom of the list and we have every intention of getting around to them (note the plural as there is usually more than one task).
What have you been intending to do that the summer, kids, vacation or some other reason has delayed or stopped you from doing something you intend to do? How important is it and what is it costing you to not do it? For me, not writing my newsletter was making me invisible to those of you who I don’t get to see on a regular basis and it was also not allowing me to share valuable information to help others succeed.
There’s no real magic secret, there really is no magic wand, it still comes down to focusing on those skills of planning and prioritizing, making a list, figuring out what is most important, and then the key is to schedule it into the calendar.
8 action steps to get back on track:
- Grab a glass of water, a cup of tea, coffee or something else that you prefer to drink. Take a clear note pad and pen and find somewhere quiet to sit with no distractions.
- Write down all the things that are on your mind, it doesn’t matter how random they may be. Errands that need to be run, jobs that need to be done, items that need fixing, letters that need writing, calls and appointments that need to be made, whatever is burning a hole in your mind and causing drained energy. The list will probably be a mile long!
- Now by the side of each item write down the level of importance on a scale 1-4. If there is a cost involved what that might be so you know if it needs to be budgeted and saved up for. Last but not least the approximate time you think it will take to do the task.
- Decide is this something you absolutely have to do, or can somebody else do it? Sometimes a shared task is a time halved.
- Look at your list, place the tasks in order of importance and pick the 3 things that are most important. Decide which one you will start first and break it down into smaller tasks.
- Go to your calendar, day planner, whatever you use and schedule the time in for each activity. Are you going to do it all in one day? Is it a project to be done over a series of weeks? Either way calendar it in, task by task. If you are not sure how long a task will take assign a time frame to it and then at the end of that time frame decide whether to continue on or schedule another time for this particular project.
- Make sure to have a ‘plan B’ list of activities just in case you finish something early or realize that you need something else to continue on.
- At the end of the day, sit down and evaluate how far you got with the projects or tasks and decide what needs to be done the next day.
The good news is that with this kind of focus, your tasks will be managed accordingly and before you know it there will feel a sense of achievement. The bad news is there’ll be a myriad of other tasks that turned up on the bottom of the list! Rest assured while ever you are alive, you will always have a ‘to-do’ list!