3 Things to Do Right Now to Have a More Productive Day

The first step to a more productive day is to take out your planner, your notebook or your scheduling software and write down the tasks that are inside your head or not yet organized. Whether they are personal tasks like errands and chores, admin tasks like billing and following up or client tasks, jot them down and get them all out of your head and into one place.

When all of our tasks are bunched together, everything starts to feel urgent and impossible to get done. To stop this trend, we want to take a look at all of the tasks and prioritize them into three categories: urgent, important and can wait. Whether you highlight the tasks, mark them a certain way or rewrite them all into the three categories- separating them will give you a clearer look at what you need to focus on in that moment.

The urgent tasks are things you need to do first thing. Typically, they need to be completed that day and as early as possible. Your important tasks typically need to be completed that day or the next, but can wait until the urgent tasks are completed. Finally, your 'can wait' tasks are the tasks you would like to complete but won't have a negative effect if they don't get completed for a few days.

The best way to stay organized and avoid getting into procrastination slumps is to plan your day the night before or early the morning of. This way, you always know what tasks you need to complete and when. Come up with a system that works best for you. This includes setting up a daily planning time and a place you enjoy organizing your tasks. While some people enjoy the traditional to-do list others prefer using a planner or task scheduling software.

The more and more you work on organizing your daily tasks, the easier it will get and less time it will start to take. Not only will you become a professional at prioritizing and planning, but you will start being more productive and will have less tasks building up to overwhelm you.