Podcast

August 28, 2017

26: Simplifying your To-Do List

Applying hustle in your business is important, but so are the things you’re doing when you’re doing the hustling. If you want to move forward efficiently and achieve the results you desire, it’s essential to make the work you’re doing flow better, easier, and smarter. This brings us to something that a lot of people face every Monday morning – the To-Do list.

 

Is your To-Do list a massive, never ending collection of tasks that you completely dread doing?

 

Maybe it’s a short, sweet, and to the point goal sheet of what you want to accomplish this week. It’s also possible that you don’t even have a To-Do list because you’ve been feeling quite overwhelmed and frustrated regarding what you’re supposed to be getting done. There’s no right or wrong answer here; this is about becoming aware of your objectives and creating a better flow for accomplishing them.

 

Often, we feel overwhelmed when trying to hustle and manage our tasks. It’s important to take a look at what we have going on for ourselves, and try to simplify it. Yes, it’s necessary to hustle and work hard, but it’s also just as crucial to be smart and strategic about what you’re doing and why.

 

Giving yourself endless amounts of busy work all of the time won’t necessarily bring you closer to achieving your goals.

 

You need to create flow, not only in your life but also your business. Create an easier, more creative space to do what you want to do and fuel yourself from that feel good vibe and energy. If you feel like you are tackling too many things at once and they don’t seem to support you in reaching your goals, then it’s time to start trimming some of it away.

 

Let’s say that it’s Monday and you’re looking over your To-Do list. You’re scanning over all of the things you need to do, whether today or this week and all it’s doing is making you want to go back under the covers. At this point, you might be ready to completely give up on the whole thing and start crying into a wine bottle. You know that you have so much to do, but you’re deciding to avoid it all.

 

If you’re feeling exhausted, bored, or avoidant when it comes to the things that you need to do, then you are probably putting crazy expectations on yourself.

 

You may have been excited about a particular task at one point, but somewhere along the line, it became overwhelming. Then a couple of days go by and it hits you all at once just how much you have to get done. Everybody has gotten to the point of procrastination, but it’s better to simplify things before they get to that point. None of this means that you’re lazy, a failure, or a bad entrepreneur – it means that you’re stacking too much onto your plate without being specific enough about what you’re choosing to take on.

 

You have to tap into yourself. Do you need to do this task? Do you need to do this to hit your overall monetary goals and is this supporting you? The answer may be no, and if so, you need to be focusing on other ways to reach those goals. But, maybe the answer to these questions is yes. Then the next thing you have to ask yourself is, do you want to do this?

 

I don’t necessarily mean questioning your fears or doubts of something being new to you or feeling uncomfortable and uncertain. If you’re sure that it’s the right thing for you to do, then you should do it regardless of feeling afraid.

 

If a particular task feels off and doesn’t align with your current goals, give yourself permission to let go of that project for now.

 

You don’t have to let go of it forever necessarily but create the opportunity to put it to the side for now. If it’s not firing you up and making you excited, and you’re confident that it’s not just fear holding you back, then it’s ok to come back to it later if you choose to. You may never actually get back to these things, and that’s ok. Be clear and honest with yourself about why you’re doing something.

 

It’s important that you create these habits and behaviors so that you’re fired up about moving forward in every single step of the way. If you don’t understand why you’re doing something, then it’s going to be really hard for you to actually do the work to accomplish it. Make sure that you’re using yourself as a guide.

 

It’s ok to use what someone else says as a framework, but remember that you’re in charge and that’s the most important thing to keep in mind.

 

Secondly, you may want to do something but are procrastinating because you haven’t broken that task down yet. For example, building a funnel or launching a program is not a task – these are big projects. Something that you need to do is break these projects down into phases and then break each phase down into smaller steps and stages. Each stage can then get divided into smaller tasks and steps, and so on. Then you’re able to project manage.

 

This will help to keep you on point and really plan out the timing of when you’re supposed to be doing what. You will be able to organize what week you need to focus on a certain task as it relates to that bigger picture. Understand that you don’t have to do an entire project in one week, or even in one month. There are very specific tasks that you should be doing that will support that bigger project as a whole.

 

Become aware of how to break something down and know that it’s ok if some things take longer than planned.

 

If this needs to happen for you to maintain your sanity and avoid burn out, then it’s well worth it. Be kind to yourself and give yourself permission to let go of the things that aren’t serving you. For the things that excite you, break them down in a way that helps them feel more achievable when it comes to your daily or weekly To-Do list.

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