How to be more productive: To do list

I love to write down my goals. It’s the first job I do when I sit down in front of the computer. Because of this, my days are super productive. And in the past, I didn’t write down my tasks, so I was a slacker, a loser, and a lazy ass.

And you, do you mark your daily work?

And what do you do first as you sit at the desk? What do you think when you open your laptop or mobile phone?

If you turn on Facebook, media news, or some other garbage, you do not control yourself! So you have to show the middle finger to your bad habits and schedule your daily routine so your time wouldn’t be wasted but rather bring value!

Remember: Time management is vital because when you manage time, you can devote more time to self-education, happiness, relatives, and friends. 

“Alex, I used to make a to do list for the day, but then forget about it and accomplish only whatever got in my way,” the reader, whom I feel with all my soul, will say because I used to forget to follow the work schedule myself. This was because I had only a few clients. But then came the day when I started getting a lot of orders. I couldn’t handle them all. Therefore, clients began to complain. When you get so many complaints, you start to understand the downsides; plus, due to not knowing how to manage my time, I worked too much, which caused my health to deteriorate. So I became interested in the art of planning (time management).

I started with books like “Don’t Work” or “The 4-Hour Workweek”. These books loaded me—inspired me to dive into the time management culture. What do you think happened next?

Well, nothing good…

A year later, I was still there with the broken clock in front of me.

But I’m stubborn like Rocky Balboa (who gave up a lot but always got back to his dreams); that’s why after many months of experiments, I managed to rearrange the processes of the company in a way where I didn’t have to take care of bills, invoices, and other papers anymore. One part of the work went to the director (she was responsible for meetings with clients + communicating with designers, + signing contracts). My other colleague took responsibility for project management-related work. And the engine fired without me. But although I was given a lot of free time, an exciting thing happened. I realized that I want even more free time! This wish gave me the desire to learn time management. Therefore, I began to delve into time management even more.

And I reawakened my productivity.

I became a rocket.

Even Flash would be jealous of me!

I have developed my own methods of completing the tasks. 

And you can develop your own. 

To make things easier, I will suggest a few super important things. 

1. When completing your to do list, don’t forget your free time! Really, please spend a few minutes on creating tasks related to personal life. Oh yes, you never dreamed of a life where you work like a slave in the office, so make sure to schedule no less than one exclusive hour every day when you can meet with your friends. I’m doing it every day, meeting with people I love to enjoy meals and sweets (for example, an incredibly delicious croissant from a fabulous bakery nearby my workplace). You guessed it right—I have a sweet tooth!

By the way, I wrote more about rest on a weekday here: “Stop trying to be productive.”

2. When completing tasks, write super clear goals that you could complete in 15 minutes. For example, if you write in your to do list: “I want to earn 15 million,” you will hardly achieve it in a day. But you can make a plan. However, this will only be a plan.  

Or, let’s imagine you want to write an article. It’s hard to write an article in one day unless you are Alex Monaco. Therefore, it’s better to spread the article into different stages. The first stage would be “Prepare the structure of your article.” You can do this task in 15 minutes. Let the next stage be to write the first paragraph and… I have already written about it many times. If you divide the work, it will be much easier for you actually to do THE WORK. 

More articles about time management, and productivity:

How to make the most of your day
A time management tool for startuppers
Best time management guide