Productivity Hack for Creative People

When my to-do list gets too long (as is often the case) my head feels like it's going to explode. Can anyone out there relate? 

I sit and stare at it and get overwhelmed with prioritizing. I feel like there is no end in site and get hopeless about how I'm ever going to finish anything, let alone all of it.

Then when I finally do get something done & check it off the list, it doesn't even feel that great because I'm back looking at the giant list of things that still need to be done. 

Lately, I've been trying a different approach and it feels like slowly but surely I'm getting more done and not feeling quite as overwhelmed by all that there is to do.

My to-do list has started to exist in multiple places. First - I have the master list that I work from and add to. It's the one that is a mile long and the one that I don't love to spend too much of my day looking at. 

And now I have my post-its. They're the things that I know that I can accomplish that day. They're the 4-5 things that take priority for what I'm going to accomplish in the chunk of time I have available to work on them. And the actual notes are the things that aren't going to physically exist in my space by the end of the day.

And somehow that makes me feel better. 

So for today, I have some pesky notes that just don't see to want to go away.

Here's what I am going to do to get rid of them:

1. Turn my phone to airplane mode.
2. Open up a new browser window (not just a new tab!) that takes up my entire screen. This way I can't see anything else that is happening on my computer and I can focus on the task at hand.
3. Set my timer for 30 minutes.
4. Move the one task post-it note that I'm going to work on closer  to me.
5. Move all the other post-its so they're no longer in my view.
6. Get a second cup of coffee. 
7. Spend the next 30 minutes finishing up the task that needs to go away and NOT working on anything else. 

And that's it. 

So simple yet so necessary to make these tasks go away. 

I sooooo wish I was that person that just sees what I have to do, I work on it and then I'm done. I've tried to be that person for a long time. And just isn't me. I'm too easily distracted (like I think we all are these days) and I can use any excuse in the world to not work on the task at hand and waste time time on other things or other tasks that don't necessarily need to be done at that moment. 

Hope this helps you get rid of at least 2 post-it notes today! 

xo, Megan