I’ll be honest…I thought having a baby and working from home wouldn’t be all that much different from before I had the baby.  I think I just didn’t fully grasp just how much time and effort goes into mom-ing.  I am learning each day but I’ve definitely had to make adjustments on finding the right balance to still get my work done for my partnerships and other projects I have underway, while still giving Emma what she needs.  I’ve always thought of myself who really liked a good to-do list but now more than ever they help me so much!  So I’m going to share my tips for prioritizing your to-do list as well as other habits that help me stay organized and manage my time most efficiently.

Tips for Prioritizing your To-Do List

Write Everything Down

Whether it’s an actual to-do or just a reminder of some sort, just write it down!  You may think you will be able to remember but you are going to forget.  Okay I’m kind of talking to myself here…perhaps your memory is better than mine.  But just write it all down (I live by my planner) because it’s a failsafe way to know that you aren’t going to forget anything.  I mean sometimes I forget that I’ve even forgotten something.  SO yeah.  Obvious tip here but start prioritizing your to-do list by actually physically writing out said to-do list.

Decide What Is Most Urgent

There are only so many hours in the day but chances are not everything needs to be done right away.  Look at your to-do list and put things in order of importance by when they need to be done.  Obviously put the more urgent things at the top of the list for the day.  Then just focus on each of those tasks at a time before you move to the next.  Don’t think ahead to the other things you have to do later in the week…put those blinders on, put that head down, and do the work for the task at hand.  If I start allowing myself to think ahead about everything I have to do I can easily get overwhelmed and it gives me a lot of anxiety…so this helps me a lot.

I like to do this at night before I go to bed so I’m not anxious at night about the next day’s to-do’s.  I put them in order and then decide which are the big items I’ll tackle first thing.

Decide If It’s Necessary

Ask yourself if each item on your to-do list is really necessary.  Sometimes when I think about why I’m doing something I can get to the point where I figure out it’s not the best use of my time and might even be counterintuitive to my goals.  Often times we may be doing “busy work” just because we are in the habit of doing it.  So just be sure that the items you have on your to-do list are serving your end game and your goals.  If not…bye!

Time Block

This is next-level day organization if you ask me but many people swear by time blocking to be productive.  So, for example, you block your time in chunks of an hour (or whatever time frame you prefer) and you work on one thing and one thing only during that block.  Remove all other distractions (see next point) and other work and focus solely on that task.  This removes “multitasking” and instead promotes you working really deeply and diligently on one thing at a time.  I’ll admit I’m terrible at this and am often multitasking all day long.  I very rarely am ever doing only one thing at a time….perhaps I should really give this a go!

What Can Be Done Quickly?

I personally like to get my smaller, quicker (but still necessary) to-do’s done first over the ones that are going to take longer.  I always feel like I never know how long big projects are going to take so if I can knock out my smaller ones first I’ll do that.  Then I don’t feel as pressed for time and can focus on the bigger items when I’m done.

Put Away Your Phone

Okay I am actually terrible at this but I am going to work on it!  Putting your phone away is obviously very helpful for getting through your to-do list because it isn’t there serving as a major distraction.  I mean, I don’t know about you but I can get lost in Instagram stories and then 30 minutes later be like what the heck was I just doing???  Such. a. time. suck.

Give Yourself Breaks

You can’t be a full-on to-do list crushing machine without any breaks!  So be sure to take breaks throughout the day and if possible, get fresh air.  That always really helps me rejuvenate my mind and refocus.  Give your eyes a break from the computer screen!

What Can Be Automated?

Instead of wasting your time doing the same tasks every day over and over again…is there a way to automate them?  Can you create templates?  For example, this is what I’ve done with my weekly workout post and my weekly newsletter.  Rather than starting from scratch each week I have a template and I just pop in the new information week to week.  It saves me a ton of time when I’m working on those!  You can also prepare canned email responses which is essentially responses that you might send over and over and this way you don’t always have to re-type it.  Basically, take the time to automate anything you can because it will save you more time in the long run!

Delegating Tasks

Maybe some of you have a team of people that work with you and you’re able to delegate job responsibilities or maybe you have kids old enough to help with chores…personally I’m not in that place and so certain things I’m unable to delegate out, however, there are some services that can help with certain daily to-do’s.  Many grocery stores now have online shopping + pickup or many even will deliver.  Instacart is a service that will deliver your groceries to you.  I also like meal services like Home Chef because you don’t have to take time to plan out what’s for dinner and the grocery list and then cooking it.  Home Chef specifically is the easiest I’ve found and I’ve just about tried them all.  So just things like that even if you only use them occasionally can help you on your super busy days.

Evaluate How It’s Going

In order to improve anything we have to be willing to evaluate ourselves and our productivity.  After a month, take a look back and see how you think you are doing.  See what things you’re doing well and keep doing them, and write down the things you want to improve upon.  Brainstorm ways you think you can get better at them and slowly implement those new habits into your routine!

What are your tips for prioritizing your to-do list?

xo,

Bess