Let’s talk about the importance of mastering your to-do list and how to go from being stressed out to absolutely smashing it. I’m excited to share a better way for you to manage all the things in a way that could change your life. When it comes to feeling chaotic and feeling like there’s too much for you to do in a day, or a week, or even in the next year… I promise it’s possible for you to become like the superhero lady from The Incredibles. Imagine combining the one that goes really fast with the one who stretches really far, and that’s what we’re going to do today.
Any idea why I am focusing so much on productivity topics here on the blog right now? Fall is coming and kids are going back to school. Whether you’re homeschooling or you’re sending your kids off to school, there’s the need for consistency and the requirement to show up. It’s the change in seasons and the back half of the year… There’s something about a pumpkin latte at Starbucks that makes everyone want to get stuff done. Do you feel me? Grab something to take notes because I have some homework for you to do!
Listen Below For The Entire Episode On The Systemize Your Life Podcast
First Of All, Here’s What NOT To Do If You Truly Want To Master Your Weekly To-Do List
We’re going to start with what you shouldn’t do. One great technique on the internet is called the Eisenhower Matrix. It’s where you categorize your tasks into four quadrants. This is what NOT to do. Don’t do this. Do not take commonplace time management strategies off the Internet that apply to the masses and expect them to work for you as a stressed out, overwhelmed mom. It’s not going to work! And I honestly don’t know that these strategies work holistically for anyone. What we need to consider is how our lives have to be treated, which includes how we treat our bodies and minds. It is super holistic and applies across the board to your family responsibilities as well.
The Eisenhower Matrix
So back to the Eisenhower Matrix, where you categorize tasks into four quadrants. They are: Urgent AND Important, Important but NOT Urgent, Urgent but NOT Important, and Neither Urgent NOR Important. Are you confused yet? Because I am! Believe it or not, this is a real thing that is supposed to help people focus on what really matters and reduce overwhelming feelings. I just got overwhelmed trying to decide what the difference is between urgent and important! If there is something happening in my life right now that is neither urgent or important – pigs are flying. Because everything is urgent and everything is important! What’s actually happening here?! I literally just rolled my eyes. We need something concrete here, people. Actionable steps that help us get everything that is urgent and important, done in a day.
Today, Your Life Is Not On Fire
So let’s reframe. Is today actually on fire, friend? It’s not. Today is not on fire. Now there are times when urgent things happen, like sicknesses, illnesses, true urgencies. Okay great. We drop things and we deal with those fires. Most things we treat as urgent, could be prevented from ever making into the urgent category to begin with. We’ve got to start reframing how we’re actually doing life. Today your life is not on fire.
You may be in a hard season and I hear that. Where things are crumbling and things are burning. And so you’ll cope, and you will survive, and you will thrive on the other side of it. If you’re in a season where your life truly is coming up from the ashes, or maybe in the midst of the ashes, this is a time for you to focus on survival techniques and how to maintain health and well-being for you and your family through that process. I don’t want to be insensitive or ignore the fact that there are those seasons for survival. But when we’re not in those seasons, there’s much greater potential for mastery than we’ve been taught.
Focus On Mastering Your Enormous To-Do List
Over the last 8 years I’ve analyzed this issue until I came up with the core problem we face, along with a solution for it. What I found is not rocket science, but it’s a brand new discovery for managing our time. Our lives revolve around this 7-Day pattern we call a week. What does this mean for our stress levels and to-do lists? It means we have to start looking at our WEEK instead of just our DAY. There are lots of important parts in a DAY that we need to refine and automate, and it’s something you’ll need to become more skilled at. But we’re not going to cover that here today. I just want to focus on your enormous to-do list, and teach you how to reduce the stress so that you can start mastering your tasks like an actual machine. Here we go.
#1: Evaluate Your Work To-Do List
First, put all of your work to-do’s on one list and decide how much time you need for the week to complete those. This is the same concept we detailed in the previous blog post, so there’s much more to organizing your work to-do’s than what we’re covering here. This is just right now, to get you actually working and processing like a machine. Like literally turn that baby on and you go at it, so you can smash your to-do list. I’ve acknowledged that you likely have a very long running to-do list, so I need to get you up and running with THAT to-do list, ASAP.
#2: Create A Completely Separate List For Household To-Do’s
Second thing I want you to do is create a completely separate list for everything you have to do for your house and family. Then plug those in the time frame that falls before and after work hours, or school hours for the kids – depending on if you’re homeschooling or not. So that’s where those things are going to live. That’s when you’re going to DO them.
#3: Set Aside 2 Hours Every Week To Focus On Mastering Your Home To-Do List
Pick a day of the week to reserve around 2 hours to do nothing other than knock out your to-do list for your home. This is where you’ll make phone calls, pay bills, do exchanges, go to the post office, etc. Whatever it is – those two hours should be sacred on your calendar and always reserved. They stay there and you never move them. Okay, there is a caveat. We do have to move ours around every week because of my husband’s interesting rotation as a first responder, but it’s always there. So we live and die by that and not the typical Monday through Friday and then the weekend. We don’t have that in our house but we’ve created consistency in other ways.
If you DO have the consistency, you’ll want to put this very specific 2 hours in your calendar and it needs to stay there week after week after week. Now if you don’t get all of your to-do’s done during that set 2 hours, it’s okay. You’re still going to get way more done than you would have trying to randomly tackle things all week long. Then whatever you don’t get to, can be moved to the next week. Just focus on the most important tasks. This is not like making a photo album for the kids. Those are considered projects. Those are not to-do’s. I’m talking about the random things you can never seem to find time for. And also, if you don’t use the whole 2 hours you’ll get free time back!
#4: Block Out Time On The Weekend To Reset Your Home For The Upcoming Week
Okay here’s the fourth and last thing. Number four is to save about 4 hours on the weekend to reset your home for the new week. I know this is asking a lot. But if you are serious about becoming a superstar and running your home well, then you’re going to do this. And you’re going to get serious about it. This might look different for every person, but the food and cleaning calendars are the most important things. Reset your food for the week, reset your main spaces by tidying up, get some Zone Cleaning done, and then do your calendar.
If you do nothing but number four it will help you tremendously. You can easily break this up into 2 hours on Saturday and 2 hours on Sunday. Or you can get a jump start and knock some of it out on Friday and do nothing on Sunday. It doesn’t have to take 4 hours, but if you do this alone it’s probably going to take about 4 hours. I can get this down to 2 or 3 hours depending on how consistent I’ve been with my zone cleaning, but this is the time and energy I put into it. It’s how I make sure I can nourish my family, that they can easily navigate their space and their environment. It’s an effective and efficient system that includes me, my husband and our children.
This time I spend on the weekends, resetting for the week, is what sets me up for success to do all of the other things we covered in 1-3 above. This gives you a lot to chew on and it’s the foundation and the premise of my workflow systems.
Do not take commonplace time management strategies off the Internet that apply to the masses and expect them to work for you as a stressed out, overwhelmed mom. It’s not going to work!
It truly is possible to start mastering these concepts with the right systems in place. If you end up using any of these tips, I’d love for you to share them in our vibrant Facebook community. Or come over and visit me on Instagram. Not only will it serve as a piece of accountability for you, but it will also encourage other moms who haven’t yet taken action on what they’ve read. And remember that we would LOVE to see you inside of Systemize Your Life as a student!
Thanks so much for being here with me!
Frequently Asked Questions
What other useful tips do you have for me on tackling my never ending to-do lists?
Check out some other similar blog posts that can be helpful like: 3 Easy Steps To Regain Control Of Your Day, Time Blocking To Reduce Stress and Anxiety or Beat Mom Guilt Using Systems and Time Blocking
