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In my experience, when working on projects for a wide variety of clients it can often get overwhelming. You have so many tasks to do and find yourself working like crazy all day. Even worse, when the end of the day rolls around, you often feel like nothing was accomplished.
Something that’s helped me throughout my career is making a simple list of each day’s work.
At the start of each day, I write down everything I’d like to accomplish that day. It’s simply a short, bulleted list of my main action items and anything “required” for the day (i.e. tasks I’ve committed to completing) gets highlighted. I use this list as a starting point for my day.
The, I pick a task and stick with it to the end! I realized a while back that, usually when I’m feeling overwhelmed, it’s because I’m trying to do too much at once. At the end of the day, this behavior would leave many of my tasks at a 75-80% level of completion. Inevitably, the same four items would be on my list for the next day and I’d still need to stress about those items getting done.
Working a task to completion helps in many ways:
- I’m more efficient. Bouncing from task to task negatively affects my concentration and the pick up/put down time will makes me less effective.
- I feel instant relief. Completing a task and striking it off my list permanently is a powerfully good feeling.
- I finish my list sooner. Staying on task means I’m be able to complete the things I set out to, in a methodical manner, which usually translates to getting things done more quickly.
At the end of each day, I review my list and what I’ve completed. Seeing all the things I’ve been able to strike off the list gives me a tangible sense of accomplishment for my hard day’s work. At the end of each day, I re-evaluate my list, taking everything that wasn’t completed and moving it to the next day. When I find myself consistently pushing tasks back day after day, I evaluate these items to ensure there’s real value in having them there in the first place.
Creating my daily lists helps me manage my work and alleviates the stress of the “unknown.” I used to frequently find myself thinking, “I have so much to do, I’m never going to get it all done!” My lists helped me realize everything I am able to accomplish each day and, when I leave for the day, I can be proud of what I’ve achieved and focused on what comes next.
