Kat Millar

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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

Short on time? Take back control

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!

3 To-Do List Traps that most people fall into

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.

veggies-sliced

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!

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3 To-Do List Traps That Most People Fall Into – Part 2

In this blog post series, I give you 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.

In part 1 of this article, I talked about the first step being a brain dump. This is 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.

Once you've done this, the next step is to:

Categorise Your Brain Dump

The goal of this activity is to prioritise the tasks on your brain dump.

What many people get wrong when it comes to their to-do list, is either:

a. Starting doing their to-do list without doing any prioritising. This often leads to getting to the end of the day frustrated or overwhelmed because their most important tasks are still undone.

b. Spend WAY too much time trying to prioritise everything. This can be another procrastination technique which can waste a lot of time.

The way to avoid these 2 problems is to keep it really simple.

3 To-Do List Traps That Most People Fall Into – Part 2 - Kat Millar

Wouldn’t it be great to feel like your ‘To-Do’ list was actually within your capacity of time and energy?

Here are the 4 steps that make it happen:


1. DUMP

There are things on your ‘To-Do’ list that just aren’t worth the time and effort.

Instead of spending half a day cleaning out a drawer you haven’t opened in three years, would it really hurt to dump the entire contents in the bin?

For each item, ask yourself - how valuable is my time compared with the value of the results?


2. DELEGATE

You really don’t have to do it all yourself.

Family members can help with things like chores. Colleagues may be willing to swap tasks you don't like or find hard for ones that are easy or enjoyable for you.

Students or interns who want to learn your skills may love the opportunity of taking on a project under your supervision.

Often, just asking "Is this something only I can do?” opens your mind to other possibilities.

Things that you assumed you needed to tackle could be removed from your ‘To-Do’ list altogether.


3. DIARISE

We all overestimate what we can achieve in a day. But we often underestimate what we can achieve in a year, or three, or five - if we strategise well.

Think long term, and think specific.

For each item, make a realistic decision as to WHEN you will do it. Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?

Then put it in your diary for that day.

Successful live by their diaries - not their to-do list.

The way I do this, is to put everything in a column in a spreadsheet. In the next column, I write a date I want to do the task. I then filter the dates.

Sometimes it's hard to choose a date, but it's a great discipline to get into just making yourself do it. Our brains work better with deadlines and if you have a sense of urgency, you are more likely to get it done.

Then look at the day's tasks and reduce your ‘To Do’ list to only your most important tasks for the day.

Ideally, choose no more than 3 tasks that strategically take you towards your major goals.


4. DO

It's action time!

Look at your most important tasks and get on with the most important one.`

Discipline yourself not to move on until you have completed it. This is the most important thing. Do NOT jump around to other tasks. ONLY once you've finished your highest priority item.

Many people know this already, but very few people do it.

Also, remember to re-evaulate your deadlines, for when you’d ideally like things to be done by. The goal is to reduce overwhelm, so if your month is blowing out, consider revising some deadlines.

And if they can’t be done in a day, then they’re not ‘To Do’ items, they're more 'project' items that need to be chunked down to tasks.

Stay focused on spending your time wisely so that you feel happy about your choices and your results.

Part 3 of this article is where I reveal my final tip to transform your To-Do list.

Click here to read Part 3

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3 To-Do List Traps That Most People Fall Into – Part 1

Do you want to get more time back?

These days, life can be so busy and many of us pack our schedules so full.

A lot of people wonder why they get to the end of the day exhausted and frustrated - wondering where their good intentions went.

If we're not careful, the days can just fly by and we can miss the things that we need to do in order to achieve our health goals. If we don't prioritise exercise and healthy food preparation, these things usually don't happen.

I'm pretty obsessed with maximising my life and not wasting time - and helping others do the same. I love supporting people in finding ways to spend their time on things that take them towards their highest values - whether that's having a massage, doing a lunchtime run or taking a holiday because their soul needs it. 

The trap that many people fall into, is thinking that they have no choice as to how they spend their time. This is hugely disempowering - that belief takes away our power and can leave us feeling stressed and frustrated.

Time Management

When I started to realise the importance of prioritising our time-management, I started attending courses on how to automate and systemise areas of our life to free up more time to do what we love.

I learned incredibly powerful techniques on how to better manage time and energy - based on what is truly fulfilling. 

When it comes to how you spend our time, it's important to remember that it's YOUR life and it's only YOU who gets to choose how your spend your time. 

Yes we have responsibilities, but we have chosen them and we have full control about what we do each day.

If health is a priority to you, it needs to be on your to-do list. 

If you're finding it a struggle to find time to eat well and exercise, in this blog post series, I give you 3 simple tips that help reduce 3 of the To-Do list traps that many people unknowingly fall into:

  1. Doing our To-Do List - without prioritising it

  2. Living from a To-Do List - rather than a calendar

  3. Doing things well - that don't need to be done at all

Are you falling into these 'to-do list' mistakes that are sucking your time away? If so, here is my first top tip on how to transform your To-Do list:

Do a Brain Dump

Short on time? Take back controlIf you have a ‘To Do’ list, the trap we can fall into is that we will just start doing it.

We don’t question it.

We haven’t worked out whether these things are actually what we want to be working towards in the big picture.

Here’s what to do with all the messy ‘To Do’ thoughts racing around your brain, causing confusion and overwhelm.

Dump it out of your brain.

  • Get a big piece of paper or notebook, or open a Word or Excel doc. 

  • Write out everything you can think of that you need to do.
  • Keep going until you have no more 'open loops' in your mind.

Include things like emails that are sitting in your drafts, text messages you haven't responded to, notes you've written on random post-it notes, inside your head, in your handbag, in your calendar etc.

Include things like remembering to send your Mum a birthday card, ring your mechanic, make a dish for a shared lunch, thank a friend for her help - EVERYTHING swimming around in your head that you need to get to.

It may feel like a big task, but you'll notice that it literally seems to write itself when you start.

You'll feel SO much better to just have it OUT and onto something tangible.

If will free up more time and energy and allow you to focus on your most important values.

Remember - if transforming your health is a priority to you, it needs to be on your to-do list. 

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this article, where I reveal my next top tip to transform your To-Do list. 

Until then, focus on spending your time wisely so that you feel happy about your choices and your results.

Want to find out more?

I have spent thousands of hours helping people get great RESULTS and I know I can help you too. 

Take the next step and click on the link to email me. 

Let’s start a conversation today about how we can work together to get you feeling great. 

Click Here to email me

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