Overwhelmed by Your To-Do List? Do This Right Now

Feeling like you have too much to do and don't know what to do next? This video breaks down the steps for you.

In today's video, I wanted to talk to you about what to do when you're completely overwhelmed with your to-do list. I see this happen with everyone from my college students, they're really in the thick of it right now with busy to-do lists, and my clients to struggle with “I have all these things to do and I don't know where to start.” Since a lot of people struggle with this, I thought it would be a great topic for today. That's why I say, “What do you need to do if you're feeling overwhelmed right now?” Here's what you can do right now about your list.

Write down your to-do list

The first thing would be, do you have your list? Do you actually have it written down? Because a lot of times I find that people have a mental to do list. They haven't written it down on paper or kept it in an app on their phone, instead it just keeps circling around and around and "I have to do this and I have to pay that bill, I have to pay that bill." You say it mentally in your head but you don't have it somewhere on paper or written down, so that you could actually see it and know that it's there. It keeps popping up for you. Make sure you have that list. I'm sure a lot of you have long lists in front of you and so that's where the overwhelm is coming from. But sometimes I find if you haven't written it down, it then seem like, “Oh, this might be more manageable than I thought because I see it on paper.” It can help. If you're there, start with that. Start with writing it down.

The Eisenhower Box

Then, if you have it already written down and you followed that step, we want to break it up into categories. This is a method that was made famous by Dwight Eisenhower, U.S. president, and it's called the Eisenhower Box. It's breaking down your to-do list into tasks into quadrants and so the quadrants are broken up by urgent, not urgent and important or not important. Okay. So, you have tasks that are urgent and important. On your long list, what do you have to do today?

1. What is urgent and important?

   What is something that is so urgent and important it must be taken care of? This is usually having to meet a deadline today or by the end of the week for your boss for example. Those are urgent and important – must get done. Alright. Let's put those things on your to-do list. Let's put those up to the top. For a lot of people, I find that the list of urgent and important is lengthy, right? That they're constantly living in this world, “I'm only doing the things on my to-do list that are both urgent and important.” So, let's look at what else is on the list.

2. What is important but not urgent?

   Do you have things that might be not urgent but you feel like they're important? These might be things on your list like, “I know I want to exercise” or “I know I want to call my sister” and they're really important to you, but you know that if you don't get to them, the world will not end today. It's not urgent, and so, can you schedule that in? Can you decide – that’s what they say in this method – can you decide on when you will exactly do that thing? So, put a date on it. Put a time even too especially for something like exercise and can you start to build that in. We've been talking in past videos about how habits and new habits are fragile, but let's stick to what we have right now. I'm focusing on, “Okay, that a list I know I want to get to and here's what I'm going to make that happen in the future.”

3. What is urgent but not important?

   The other quadrants on our list here would be things that are urgent, but they're not actually important. We've made them out to be “I must do this right now” and it could be delegated to somebody else. And so, when things are urgent and not important, we want to delegate as much as we can and so this looks different for everybody. But, do you have to be the one that makes dinner tonight? Do you have to be the one that picks up the kids tonight? All kinds of examples around that. Do you have to be the one that does this task for your business? At work, do you absolutely have to be the one that does it? So, that's part of delegating so that it also gets off your plate. Imagine that crossing things off our to-do list so that it is on somebody else's plate.

4. What is not urgent or important?

   And then, what’s our last quadrant, it's things that are not urgent and not important. This is a hard one to recognize, but these are things like watching television for example, if it's not important to you. For a lot of people, it's just something they do to fill the time or all kinds of little things that we do. Do I really need to spend that much time on social media or do I have to go and do that? If it's not urgent and not important, we actually want to delete it, and again, take it off our to-do list. So, we're focused on those urgent and important things and things that are important but not urgent.

Again, to review, Eisenhower's Box has four quadrants:

Things that are urgent, not urgent, against things that are important, not important. All of your tasks, all of the things on your to-do list today are going to fit into those four quadrants. When you break it down that way, it helps prevent some of the overwhelm because we're deleting things off of our list, we're recognizing what has to be done today and we're able to start to think about “You know it is really more important for me to call my brother or sister. How am I going to start to get that into my schedule?”

Now I'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts and questions below!

How to Make Actionable Steps Work in Your Daily Life

Do you have trouble sticking to your plans and to-do lists?

You're not alone. A lot of people know the nuts and bolts of time management and productivity. They know what they "want" to be doing or that they want more time in their day. But it seems really hard to execute the plan. Or they start out really well, for a week...and then it all falls apart. 

If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you know I'm all about being productive for a purpose. So I always start with helping people figure out the purpose behind wanting to "accomplish more" or "get more things done." Do you know why you want an extra hour in your day? After gaining clarity on your "reasons why," then it's time to figure out how to take actionable steps.

After gaining clarity on your purpose, then it's about figuring out where to start.

Often when I'm helping clients or students figure out where to begin with steps, they need to start with tracking. It sounds too obvious almost. But seriously, ask yourself these questions:

• How much time did I spend surfing the internet when I wanted to be working yesterday?

• How much time am I actually commuting?

• Exactly how much time did I sleep last night?

• What did I eat for lunch yesterday?

These are the kinds of questions people have vague answers to usually, but can't point. So I recommend tracking. Hour by hour, track your time and where it goes. I love tracking and somehow I still managed to not realize how much time I was spending on Facebook last month. I had turned off my StayFocusd browser extension and thought I wasn't spending "that much time." Oh I was spending lots of time. Almost an hour a day (broken up into tiny moments, but it all added up quickly). StayFocusd is back on and it reminds me when I'm getting close to my daily limit. You'd be surprised at how much awareness comes from tracking, even from just a day.

After tracking and gaining awareness, it's about pinpointing something small.

Time to get a tiny snowball shaped and formed. Something to get the momentum started. Eventually it will turn into an avalanche, but for now, form one small snowball. What is one place you are "wasting time" in your day? And what can you do about it?

• Can you go to sleep 15 minutes earlier (replacing browsing updates)?

• Can you delete an app that keeps distracting you?

• Do you have to be the one completing the action? In other words, can you outsource something small?

• When are you most able to focus? And can the task that needs the most work move to that time slot?

• Have you thought about actually scheduling "down time" instead of crashing into it from exhaustion?

Just try one thing. For at least a week. Be consistent about it and see what kind of results you get. Does it help? Does it not help? You're on a mission to conduct mini-experiments here. Some things may not work out and that's okay because they are tiny and can be changed.

Along the way, most people benefit from some type of accountability.

Whether or not you need accountability on each of your goals depends on a lot of things. One of my favorite resources for this issue is from Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies. I'm an upholder, so I keep myself accountable for most of my own goals. But a lot of people are obligers and need the extra support from a friend, a colleague, a coach, or someone else on a regular basis. If you're not familiar with her tendencies, be sure to check them out. Knowing your own tendency helps you know what works best in for you.

"Don't compare your start to someone else's middle."

A classic line that several people as a reminder when working on goals. As you start to get the ball rolling on taking action and asking someone to help keep you accountable, you might start to look around. And you might start to notice that lots of other people are "doing it better" than you are. They seem to have this productivity thing all figured out. They seem to manage their time really well. Be careful of the social comparison - it's a slippery slope. Stop and remind yourself that it probably took them months if not years to get to that point. You're beginning today. They are somewhere in the middle. Encourage yourself by talking to others who are in the exact same boat with progress.

When the ball is rolling along steadily, shift to the bigger picture.

After gaining momentum for several weeks or months, try to step back and see the bigger picture. Are tasks on your list becoming "less urgent" thanks to your new steps? I'm always working with people to move out of the "important, urgent" part of the Eisenhower box. When everything is both important and urgent, it can be overwhelming to make any progress. Reducing the amount of things in that one section can help you focus on the rest of the tasks you want to accomplish. 

So tell me, what's the next small step you want to start to take action? Leave a comment below!

Why You're More Productive Than You Think (And Just Need Clarity)

So you think you have a problem with productivity.

Almost everyone struggles with productivity.  We want to be superhuman and accomplish all the things all the time! But that's really difficult. When you do finally find the time to work on something important to you, you feel like you're not using your time wisely. And that makes you look into productivity tips and hacks around the web, including finding this blog post. And you get into a cycle of thinking you have a productivity problem.

Yet there are tasks you complete everyday.

Make a list of the tasks you do everyday. What are they? How often do they occur?  Tasks that you actually complete tend to be both urgent and important. I will pay this bill today (important) because it is due by midnight (urgent). I will drive my sister to practice right now (urgent) because she relies on me for a ride (important). I bet you will find dozens of examples of tasks you regularly complete because they are both urgent and important. (Note - If you're struggling to get out of bed or complete anything on a daily basis, please seek out medical care.)

This concept of urgent and important is part of a larger matrix known as the Eisenhower Box, crafted after President Eisenhower's ideas on productivity and time management.  A great visualization and spreadsheet example lives over on James Clear's website.

But the tasks that gnaw at you are the ones that keep getting pushed aside.

These tasks are important to you, but not really urgent. I think I should exercise (no urgency, but important for your health).  My friends mean the world to me (important), so I'd like to call them more often (no urgency). I really want to make a difference in this world (important), but I don't know how to make it pay my bills (not urgent to figure it out).  We all have hopes and dreams of goals we would like to accomplish, from big to small.

So tasks that aren't important or urgent keep getting in your way.

Instead of prioritizing our time for the bigger goals, we get lost in the tasks that are neither important or urgent.  Things like scrolling through all of our Snapchat updates (or other social media).  Binge watching the latest television show (is that really on your bucket list?).  Mostly tasks and things that could actually be deleted or dropped from our lives. If we truly valued them, we would consider them as important as treat them accordingly. Instead, they should just be eliminated from our priorities and goals.

There are tricks for making yourself do the things that are important to you.

Force yourself to make them urgent. Get into the mentality of "I must do it today." Each day adds up to your overall goal. How can each goal be broken down into something that must occur regularly?  "I want to exercise" could turn into "It is important for me to exercise and I must complete it every other day in order to see results." Be specific about your goals and include an accountability partner if it helps you.  A coach can help you target these steps as well.  Anything that can make your goal urgent will help it move into the box of things that actually get done.

Next time you think you have a productivity problem, think of your goals where they fit in the Eisenhower Box.

If your goals need realigned in the Eisenhower Box, do it! 

Now it's time to share. What tricks do you use to make tasks both urgent and important? Please comment below.

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