If you’ve been pondering how some people get many things done in a day, knowing that you spend the same hours but feel like you’ve done nothing (except binge-watching what’s new or doom-scrolling through social media) most of your waking hours.
You feel like waking up from a stupor. “Something has to change,” you tell yourself.
But where to begin?
Recently, I also felt like waking up from a dream. I felt the urgency that instead of letting the day happen to me, I realized that I needed to take charge and seize the day by laying out the things I needed to get done. What I did may be extreme for you and may not even be up to your preference, but it sure did work for me and might work for you.
1. I logged out from the social media app on my phone.
Removing ease of access helps when you want to keep yourself from getting distracted. I wonder why we just want to fiddle with our hands, especially when we should be focusing on the task we’re working on.
It even made me laugh when it began to dawn on me one day about how I was trying to drown myself with too many screens (a phone in my left hand, my right hand on a laptop in front of me, and my eyes on the tablet playing music a few feet away from me).
You can imagine how my thoughts are all over the place when it’s supposed to zone out and finish the work right before me.
So when I logged out from the social media app (the one I frequently visit) on my phone when I was supposed to be working, I felt like I was in control of my time again. When I stopped reaching out for my phone (although it felt like a hard habit to break because I can still find myself reaching out for it sometimes), I started to redeem the time and allowed myself to do something else (like the work I’m supposed to be doing as a working professional).
If I think there’s really something worth checking in my social media feed (although in most cases, there isn’t because my work isn’t dependent on it), I now log into my computer, which makes the activity less appealing than when using my phone.
But that’s precisely the point of why I did what I did.
2. Aside from my monthly calendar, I follow a daily checklist.
I discovered the magic of checklists in college while trying to get ahead of college life. Since then, I never parted ways with checklists, and when I did, even when I was not supposed to, those days became the unproductive days of my life.
Let me be clear. There are moments in my life when I don’t do checklists, such as:
- Vacation
- Rest days
But when it’s a work week, and I have so many things on my plate that need the appropriate attention (based on urgency and importance), then having a checklist keeps me from missing out on something.
Having a checklist is like having a secretary reminding you about everything you must go over throughout the day.
I find it most effective when I prepare the checklist the night before because my mind can still think about what I might have missed. My checklist often contains the routine tasks I have to do that day (say, devotions and blogging), minor tasks like reminders, and major tasks like finishing the data visualization for the journal paper.
If you haven’t worked with checklists before, you might overload yourself with tasks you can’t finish within the day. But once you get to know yourself better and the hang of what you can only accomplish within 24 hours, you begin to write down what you think you can work on and finish that day.
So, in terms of checklists, be realistic!
3. Using project management tools and a monthly calendar.
Same with checklists, I discovered the magic of monthly calendars in college. I’ve gone through online resources telling me I should plan my activities in a calendar to effectively manage my schedule. The experience was even more fun when my sister gave me an artsy monthly planner she did not intend to use. Since then, I have always plotted my life on a calendar.
Yes, you can say I live a structured life. It felt like my being was wired to enjoy life in this fashion. But I can attest that managing what you don’t track is challenging. So, having a personal calendar of activities allows me to dedicate days of rest and never miss any deliverables at work.
For a monthly calendar, I still find printables handy. I’m just glad that bookstores still sell the kind that does the job.
And as a versatile professional with so many responsibilities here and there, I keep track of all of them using Notion, a project management tool that delivers. My friend introduced it to me in 2020, and I started using it the same year. Since then, project management with the right tool has made much of a difference. (Here’s my Notion story.)
jessa 