How To Get Stuff Done Monday, January 19th Daily News, Self help

So last week I had a lot on my plate – I wasn’ having the best week at work, I was falling behind in my posts and my projects, and the one project that I was focusing on fell flat on its face. Not great. It was about this time I decided I needed to sort myself out – that, or get very, very drunk. Seeing as I had no alcohol and an extreme lack of funds to even buy alcohol…I opted for the former…

So, how are we going to get ourselves organised and focuses on the tasks at hand? The answer is really simple if I’m honest, and I’m surprised its taken me as long as it has to do it – we write a list. Yup. You read correctly, you are going to sit down and write a list of everything you want to get done in the next 3 months. Why this length of time? Well, it gives you enough time to write down a pretty comprehensive list of things, and isn’t long enough to write ‘unrealitic’ goals, such as buying your own house, going on a dream vacation etc.

I started out by writing out a list of simple things I wanted to get done in the upcoming months – one of which was to sort through all my domains and plan out actions for each of them (and to throw them if they were of no use) – obviously I ended up thinking up ideas for even the most ridicoulous of domains I had, so now have them all, lol – but just this one list item ended up with me creating a whole other list, and actually helped me be pro-active!

So why would a list actually help you, as oposed to just something you can throw away? Well, there are a number of reasons. The first is that it allows you to organise the mess that is currently in your head – you can clearly outline what you need to get done, and by writing it on paper, your psychologically ‘releasing the worry’ from your mind, and committing it down into words. Secondly, it creates a list that you are able to tick off – and with every item you tick off, the closer you come to actually completing the list – again from a psychological standpoint this encouranges you to put that little bit of extra effort in to finish off the list. This is particulary useful, as by the time the list has whittled down, you have probably got rid of the ‘eaisier’ items that wont take you too long, and the difficult ones are left – precisly the ones that you will need the most help with! Last, but not least, it will give you a clear list of goals for you to acheive.

I can openly and happilly say that since creating a list last week, I have been getting so much more done than I had without – I’m hoping that the future will be picking up for me soon because of it. So what are you waiting for? Go write that list, and become more productive than you have before!!

Dan