ARE PROCRASTINATION AND BEING OVERWHELMED RULING YOUR LIFE?

This is the third installment of my Life Management series. If you missed session one or two, follow the links to catch up.

What is important to you? What must be done immediately? What can wait? What can you skip? If you set up a regular daily schedule you will be more productive. Make time each day to determine what must be done and what items are not as important. Your scheduling time could be done before bed or first thing in the morning. (I do mine in the morning.)

1. Write out your daily schedule.

2. List all the things you must do.

3. List all the things you would like to do.

4. Rank each item. (I rank mine in groups. Example A-urgent, B- important but not mandatory to complete today, C-like to do, but no big deal if it doesn’t get done.)

5. As you go through the day, go back to your list and put a check by each item as you complete it.

You’ll be more productive and have a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. Obviously, you are not going to get to all of your B’s or C’s. So you transfer them to the next day’s schedule and re-rank them.

Assume you’ve been following your schedule and your life is now more organized. Your self-esteem and productivity are riding high. But then…

A friend calls and asks you to join a committee. What do you do? She’s your friend. It’s for her favorite cause.

First, is the cause important to you? What are you willing to stop doing in order to put this new activity in your schedule? Every time you insert something new into your schedule, you must eliminate something else…otherwise you will become overloaded and in turn be unable to do what’s already on your schedule.

The last tip of the day…Only do things once.

Little things that add up to wasted time. I get the mail and read the envelopes as I walk in. I open what is urgent, and then put it on the counter. The next day, I sort it into junk, bills, financial stuff or letters that need responses. I then put it in the bill pile, the banking pile, the trash/recycling, or on my schedule for me to deal with in the future. I have now touched the mail three times and haven’t dealt with anything except the junk mail. A better plan is to bring in the mail, sort immediately and get rid of the junk, file the banking information, put bills in the bill pile and deal with any other mail immediately.

Other example of wasted time are: bringing in the shopping and not putting it away immediately, not putting laundry away as soon as it is folded and ironed, reading emails and not deleting or dealing with them immediately.

In review:

1. Create a daily schedule and stick to it.


2. When you add something in your schedule, delete something else.


3. Don’t waste time by doing things more than once.

Now that I’m on a formal (written) schedule, I’m getting more accomplished, both in writing and homemaking.

Are you willing to try any of my tips? Do you have an organizational tip to share? (I’ll be unplugged for the next 8 days.) Have a great weekend and week.