Tuesday, August 13, 2013

3 Tips for Crushing an Overwhelming To Do List


When life hands you multiple tasks to do at once, what do you do? Do you run the other way? Do you put your nose to the grindstone and just “get it over with”? Or maybe you lock yourself in a closet and have a good cry (no judgment). We all handle stress differently, and this past week of my life really had me thinking about the way in which I manage mine.

 
My life is not simple. I work 50 hours a week at my regular job, do my coaching and other fitness training and meal planning with clients on average another 30 hours during the week, get my daily workouts in (or I would go insane), plus I am a full time graduate student. Life is anything but boring…but at the same time it can get very boring as a social life is limited.

 
This past week I let the stress get the best of me. I just freaked out, the brain went to a pile of mush, and rather than devising a plan of how to ease the situation – I shut down.   I just shut down, ignored anything that I had to do and did what most girls do best – I went shopping.

 
Now, here I am on a Sunday night when I could be relaxing trying to make sure that everything I had neglected the past week gets done so that I can start Monday fresh. Had I of just taken 10 minutes to organize my days, this would not be the case and I could be kicking back watching a DVRed episode of Real Housewives (so much better, right!?) 

Here are my tips to prioritizing your tasks, and knocking them out of the park:

 
Step 1: Write your shiz down. Anything you have to do during the day, write it down. I even like to write down weekly tasks that I must accomplish, and goals that I would like to achieve. I have a whiteboard in my office where these go and very morning I make sure I look and consider “Where am I with this?”

 

Step 2: Look for the ugliest, most boring one that you can find. What one do you want to put off the most? Do that first. Get it over with. It’s like a Band Aid…just rip it off.

 
Step 3: Physically cross things off of your list as you complete them. Believe it or not, this act releases feel good chemicals in your brain helping you to feel accomplished and a bit more excited about accomplishing the rest of your tasks on your list.

 
Hope this helps! It sure would have helped me to stick with my own advice last week, but you live and learn!



Want to see my life as it unfolds (along with all the craziness that goes along with it?) follow me on Instagram @Nik4213

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