Morning sunshine and happy almost WEEKEND – hope you have some great self-care planned because self-care is the BEST care!
I hope you have been bonding with your planner, you’ve tried out the Brendon Burchard Battle Board method and you are getting in the focus groove!
It’s NOT easy to get this started, you are creating NEW habits – so give yourself some grace. It’s not all or nothing, it’s a process. Find what works for you – and that may be something that I’m totally NOT doing and it’s OK!! I’m not the almighty Focus wizard – remember I have ADD and have struggled with this for a long time. I’m sharing what works for me in hopes you can adopt some or all of it to help you.
The LISTssssssss
Today I want to chat about To-Do Lists as it pertains to achieving your goals. Where most people fail – and this girl was included in that hot mess – is making the list so unachievable your eyes glaze over. You ultimately never complete them and then you say screw it – I’m a lost cause and I’ll never master this shit.
Deep breath – I’ve got some good mojo coming your way.
Remember I mentioned you have the BIG vision – your vision boards, your Battle Boards all those amazing things you want and need to do. At some point, you have to put actionable steps behind those dreams and desires.
Again the Battle Board will help and remember you are not eating the whole elephant – one bite at a time. OBAAT.
My OBAAT process
- YEAR: In my planner, I go through the entire year and put in the big things – weddings, birthdays, vacations etc.
- MONTH: at the beginning of each month – I add in any due dates that are big in there – just so I can see them when I get there. At Red Barn we use Active Collab to track all of our work projects – again it’s EVERYTHING so it gets overwhelming for me. I want to add the due dates but the ACTION items to get those done happen before that. I also update any additional appointments I know about.
- WEEK: Sunday nights I look in Active Collab and add all the action items that I need to work on during the week – so I ensure my due dates aren’t missed. I, of course, could just leave this all in Collab and not repeat it in my planner but for me this works. Writing it down just helps me think. I highlight any tight deadlines, any personal to-dos – like make a doctor appointment, call my sister etc.
- DAY: Active Collab will send me an email notification if I get something new assigned to me – so I review them as they come in and add them to my planner. Each morning I review my planner – only that DAY and focus ONLY on what must happen that day.
Because I know how long things take and I know when I work best I time block most of my hard work in the morning – most of my creative work. You do what works for you.
AND because I take the time to review my Month at glance, My Week and then my Day when appropriate I don’t get this sense of doom at my to-do list.
Each Day I only have on my list what I feel is realistic to accomplish. Am I perfect? Hell no, but I’m close. Sometimes things get moved to the next day – but it isn’t a novel. It’s one or two items and they are typically the least important.
Recap:
Big picture, Year, Month, Week, Day, and then time block your hours. The structure will help and having everything as a PROCESS is the secret sauce to it all!!
Go get em!
Cindy