Whether you’re a working professional, student, parent or retiree, everyone has a task list and schedule and sometimes it feels like we’re trying to fit in several days of activities into a single day. Let’s face it, there’s just not enough hours in a day. No one likes, or thrives from, that feeling of being out of control. Fortunately, and unfortunately, there are multiple methods and systems to organize schedules and task lists. The question is, “what works best for you, your style and your life?”
If you Google “organizing your schedule” or “organizing task lists” or any other multitude of other organizational questions, you’ll find countless methods, tools and ideas. Overwhelmed, much? Like most of my previous posts, I strive to find the simplest method because typically if something is too intense and cumbersome, you’re not going to utilize it long term. Choose just one method or idea to implement and go from there. It’s not realistic to think you can incorporate every idea immediately and be successful. Below are some tips I’ve discovered and implemented that are simple and realistic. Pick and choose what works for you and take it one step (or tip) at a time.
- Make your bed every morning
The book “Make You Bed: Little Things Than Can Change Your Life and Maybe the World” by Admiral William H. McRaven is a #1 New York Times Bestseller on powerful life lessons. It all started with a commencement speech when he shared ten principles that he learned during Navy Seal training that guided him in overcoming challenges throughout his life experiences. And yes, one of those principles is making your bed first thing every morning. This is a practice I live by and as silly as it may sound, it actually jumpstarts my day into a more productive one. You leave the house with a satisfied feeling that everything is in its place and complete and it’s one task you can immediately check off your to-do list. In the evening if you have unexpected company or are just exhausted and ready to jump into bed, you don’t have to allocate time at the end of the day to straighten your bed.
2. Keep what you need in one spot
When you arrive home place your keys, purse, wallet and shoes in their designated spots. The best part of this tip, it doesn’t take any additional time! In fact, it will save you time spent searching for your keys when you’re in a hurry to get out the door in the morning. Carolyn Steber’s article, “6 Tips for Organizing Your Schedule So You’re More Productive” highlights this tip, as well as other simple tips, on how to have a more organized day. There’s at least one thing we can each take away from her list of tips to have a more organized and productive schedule.
3. Purge your office
Whether you work in an office building or from home, your workspace says a lot about you. Consider this scenario, your boss, an executive or a vendor walks into your workspace and takes a seat, what would their first impression of you be simply based off what they see? Are you the person with papers piled up on their desk and books stacked in the corner, or are you the one with everything organized and in its place? Which impression of you would you prefer they take away with them? Royale Scuderi’s article “15 Best Organizing Tips for Office Organization and Getting More Done” gives tips on how to organization your workspace and to achieve higher productivity use your time more efficiently.
4. Reduce your commitments
Julie McCormick (2019) explains, “clutter can distract you, weigh you down and in general it invites chaos into your life.” I couldn’t agree more! She goes on to explain how reducing our commitments with home, work, school and family can clutter our lives and lead to stress. In her article “How to Declutter Your Life and Reduce Stress (The Ultimate Guide)”, Julie explains how simply jotting down each of your commitments and reflecting on which ones bring you joy and value can help you prioritize and determine which ones are worth your time. The most challenging part of this tip? Learning how to say no😊
5. Delegate responsibilities
This tip works hand-in-hand with the previous one, reducing commitments, and is relevant for home and work. By simply taking one task from your to-do list and delegating it to another, you’ve saved yourself time and opened your schedule to do something else. Delegation is challenging to a lot of people, most commonly women, we know how we want something done and in order to ensure it’s done up to our specification, we rely on ourselves to complete the task. What we must keep in mind is that there are multiple ways of doing things and our way is not the only way. I know, your spouse probably folds the towels the wrong way, but in the bigger scheme of things is the way the towels get folded as impactful as the fact that the towels are getting folded? And don’t be afraid to delegate chores to your children. This is a lesson that teaches responsibility, plus your future son-in-law or daughter-in-law will thank you for it one day. Not sure what chores are appropriate for your kids? Molly Maid has an age-appropriate cleaning checklist you can download here.
6. Stop procrastinating
It sounds obvious, I know, but let’s be honest, we all have the best of intentions, but we all do it! There is always at least one task on our to-do list that we dread and instead of buckling down and knocking it out, we find other things to do in its place. So how do you stop the habit of procrastinating? One method is The Ivy Lee Method. As James Clear explains, by having a clear system for deciding what is important we can prevent slipping back into the habit of procrastination. By following these six steps, every day, you can break the cycle and gets things done.
- Write down the six most important things you need to accomplish the following day.
- Prioritize those six tasks by importance.
- The following day focus on the first task and don’t begin the next until it is complete.
- Follow this cadence through the rest of your list and move any unfinished tasks to tomorrow’s list.
- Repeat this process every day!
7. Use a calendar or planner
Time management is everything! Whether you prefer a digital calendar or an old-fashioned paper planner, find something that works for you that you can use to manage your schedule daily. An article by Mind Tools “Effective Scheduling: Planning to Make the Best Use of Your Time” explains the importance of scheduling and guides you on how to schedule your time effectively so you can have more time available for the things you enjoy. It’s important that your schedule includes time for both your professional and personal goals. If after following their six-step process to preparing a schedule you have little discretionary time available, then revisit your tasks to determine what can be done differently in order to have a work-life balance. Need help starting? Download their free worksheet to begin mapping out your schedule.
These seven tips are just a starting point in creating an organized life. Select one that resonates with you that you would like to focus on and once you’ve aced that one, work on another. Be patient with yourself – change doesn’t happen overnight! And remember small changes can make a big difference.