3 To-Do List Traps That Most People Fall Into – Part 3

Do you ever find your ‘To Do’ list blows out, and you're left at the end of the day wondering where the time went?

This can be hugely frustrating!

In this blog post series, I explain 3 simple tips that help reduce 3 of the To-Do list traps that many people unknowingly fall into - as well as how to overcome them. 

If you apply these tips, you'll feel less stressed and tense and more calm and peaceful.

Rather than fitting in just the things that feel urgent, you'll be fitting in the things that are important to you and fulfil you.  

In Part 1 of this article, I talked about doing a brain dump. It's where you dump out all the messy ‘To Do’ thoughts racing around your brain, causing confusion and overwhelm.

This frees up more time and energy and allow you to focus on your most important values.

In Part 2 of this article, I explained the importance of categorising your brain dump and how to do this using 4 simple steps. 

In Part 3, I give you my final tip to saving time, which is to:

Make Your Next Action Simple and Doable

Once you’ve put all your ‘To Do’ items into categories, you’re ready for the action step.

Make sure your actions are in small enough chunks that you can start getting stuck in.

Action breeds action. Once you’ve started, you gain momentum.

If diving into the difficult stuff is going to put you off and derail you, make things easy for yourself by choosing a fun and easy task to start with.

Chunk everything down to the smallest action steps and keeping going on them until they are done.

It feels amazing to take action!

Our brain hurts when we look at something that feels too hard. So we find ourselves do something more fun - like making another coffee, flicking through Facebook or something else that is easier to do. And when we do this too many times, suddenly the day is over. Woops!

Let's say you want to do a big workout

It can feel daunting. So sometimes it helps not to think too far ahead. 

Start with just putting your workout gear on. That's just one simple step closer to the task. Then take another simple step - such as putting on your music to get in the mood. Then do the next step - maybe it's one set of exercises or heading out the front door.

Keep doing simple steps until the workout is done.

You'll feel incredible afterwards!

Or let's say you want to prep your meals and snacks for the week

But it feels too overwhelming.

Start by just taking out some eggs and putting them on to boil for snacks. Then while they're boiling, you may as well take a few veggies out of the fridge and start slicing them up for a simple salad. While you're at it, you could even throw a few sweet potatoes in the oven. Now that you're in the kitchen and in action, adding a few chicken breasts to a pan isn't such a big deal.

Next thing you know, all your meal prep is done.

Taking action feels amazing!

Another way to get things done, is to make it fun. Music helps. And give yourself a small reward at the end. Teach your brain that action feels so good. 

Think "How can I make it more enjoyable and fun for me?"

Whatever works for you.

And here's my final word of advice for taking back control of your time.

It's important to consider the following:

Are you making choices based on what you truly want? Or are you bowing to media influence, other people's demands or social pressure?

To live a happy and fulfilled life, make sure your daily agenda is YOUR agenda.

Too often we find ourselves busy doing things for others that we hadn’t planned to do, and which aren’t moving us towards where we want to go.

This isn’t to say that we don’t help out or do things for other people. But these need to be conscious choices, not activities we just “drift” into.

When we allow other people’s agendas to decide our actions, we devalue ourselves and our goals.

How we choose to spend our 24 hours each day is what determines the course of our lives. And only we get to choose how we spend our lives and decide if we're happy with our choices each day.

So what do you think?

Do you feel in control of your time?

What can you do today to apply these tips?

Comment below and let me know your favourite time-saving tip!