I've been a major to-do list checker-offer lately. I learned years ago about how to set goals that actually stick, but for some reason those tips still didn't help me. I needed something that fit my style a bit better. Today I wanted to share the way I plan out my week and my to-do list!
When you work from home, you have more flexibility in how you organize your day. This can lead to being much less productive because you feel like you have more time to finish everything. Below is how I remedy that and get myself to stay on track.
Let me preface this by saying that everyone is different so you have to find what works best for you. I just want to share what works for me in hopes that it may help some of you too.
First, let's take a look at my real life planner. I use the Erin Condren Life Planner in the neutral vertical layout. I've been using a physical planner for almost 3 years and it's a total game changer for me. If you're someone who doesn't like the act of writing things down, maybe just using the calendar on your phone/computer and the notes app will work for you. It's all about figuring out your own style. I put meetings and dates I need to remember in my iCal too, but use my planner for the day-to-day items.
I like to use the monthly layout for all of the big dates I need to remember. It's an overview of my month. I usually fill it out at the beginning of the month and then add things as they come up. I also color code everything so I can easily glance and know exactly what it is. The color coding continues on the weekly view.
The weekly view is my working to-do list. Generally, I like to write out my daily to-list the day before or the morning of. If you get your day started without your goals in place, your chances of succeeding and hitting the goals are much slimmer. There's room for flexibility in my week because life is life and there needs to be wiggle room.
On the left side of the week I write out some to-do items that I'm not sure which day they'll fit into yet. Those are to-dos that need to get done at some point during the week.
Each day is broken down in the planner into 3 sections. The top is any content I'm pushing out that day (videos, blog posts, social media, etc.). The middle is any meetings or social plans. Lastly, the bottom section is my to-do-list which is usually the most full.
I truly believe that daily to-dos should take 30 minutes or less each. They seem much more attainable when you know you can take a look at your list and cross items off of it quickly. That's why a lot of my days will have quite a few to-dos, but I know personally that I feel better about my day if I've been able to cross off multiple items and therefore are more motivated to stay on the productivity train.
My to-dos for today are as follows:
Ship out my Poshmark sales
5 flatlays
Clean my office
10 emails
Work out
Style and pack outfits to shoot photos tomorrow
None of these items will take me a long time to accomplish. The longest ones are working out and cleaning my office. The point is that I can start crossing them off my list which will automatically make me feel good about the day and I'll want to keep going so I can finish the day strong. Yes, I play mental games on myself. Find what works for you, and do that!
All big goals can be broken down into a lot of smaller goals. For example, all blog posts include a few different stages -- come up with the idea, take photos, write the post, edit it into one post. These are all smaller items that can be broken up over a few days depending on my schedule. I like to figure out the most efficient way to do everything so tomorrow, for example, we're shooting photos for 5 looks that will go up on the blog over the next few weeks. That means that that one piece of 5 posts is done. I hope that makes sense the way I explained it. It works with every aspect of life.
I notice a huge difference in my productivity when I have my to-do list created ahead of time and when I totally slack on it. Make your goals big enough to make a dent in your big picture goals, but small enough that you can actually attain them. Sometimes when you set unattainably high goals, it lowers your confidence because you feel like you've failed.
I hope this helps some of you with your planning and goal setting. What are your tips to setting and achieving goals? Let me know in the comments!
Now I'm off to create my to-do list for tomorrow!
xoxo,
Sarah
