What Stops You From Being Productive?

Lots of things get in our way when we are trying to be productive.

Most of these are easy to spot and tend to boil down to being distracted from our goals.

We want to get something done, but the email inbox is full, the grocery shopping can’t wait, the car needs an oil change, the daily work-related tasks, and the personal task, usually weigh us down mentally. Those things exist and we have to accept the fact that there will always be ‘little things’ to distract us from the things that we want to do.

The ‘secret’ is that we actually do have enough time to get our tasks done - both personal and work tasks. And we even have enough time left over to enjoy some relaxation. The secret is that we only think we don’t have enough time to get stuff done because we don’t actually know how much we need to do!

Most people keep their task list in their head. And here’s our problem: our minds just aren’t very good at keeping lists of things to do. We very quickly perceive that we have too many things to do, so we become discouraged and sometimes overwhelmed.

The easiest way to get control over your own productivity is to start, and use, a simple to-do list. For personal tasks. Keeping it simple is the key.

To keep a to-do list functional, you need to get rid of items when they are done. Don’t just cross them out – that just adds clutter and adds to the perception that you have too much to deal with. If you are using paper, then re-write your to-do list every night, leaving out the things that are done, so you have a nice, clean list the next day to work from.

Once you get into the habit of keeping a clean to-do list, you’ll find that it’s not overwhelming to get your tasks done. The reason is simple: you’ll be able to just look at your list to know what you need to do. Tackle each task, one at a time, and remove it when it’s done. Before you know it, you’ll be in control of your own productivity. And there’s no substitute for the feeling of satisfaction earned by getting stuff done before the end of the day.

SUCCESS IS ALL ABOUT DEVELOPING THE RIGHT HABITS