It takes  work to accomplish your goals. Whether they’re large or small, perseverance is key to achieving them.

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed when you’re not sure where to begin. A perfect place to start is to focusing on your natural habits. What tasks do you naturally gravitate towards? What is the most productive part of your day? Beginning here and understanding your natural rhythms can make a huge difference.

There is, however, a way to get a headstart just by optimizing your daily schedules and to-do lists. Once you have a system in place that works for you, it’s only a matter of time before you start to become more productive. Keep reading for small ways to improve your productivity and accomplish more each day.

The simple act of planning ahead can get tomorrow and every day off to a good start and help you accomplish your goals. After dinner or before you go to bed, take a few minutes to plan your next day.

Your list can be a brain dump, but it’s important to identify the three main things you want to accomplish the following day. (I mark these with a star or you can number them 1-2-3.) Your list can deal with work things, home and family, or a specific project like cleaning out your closet.  

Next, group like items such as phone calls to make or errands to run. Then block out time on your calendar for getting those tasks done. Productivity expert, Michael Hyatt, says: What gets scheduled gets done. Truth! 

In addition to blocking out time for projects like writing this blog, I use my Google calendar to block out time for personal activities that are important to me such as daily exercise and clarinet practice. (I actually schedule these as recurring events.) And because I’m such an organization geek, I even color code activities.

Word of caution: Don’t schedule in every minute of your day with back-to-back activities. Inevitably, something will take longer than you anticipated or you just need a break to stretch or do nothing. Yes, doing nothing can help you accomplish your goals too! 

Is your to-do list riddled with minor tasks and then a few major ones sprinkled in? While it’s easy to gravitate towards the quick and easy tasks, you’re actually giving yourself a false sense of progress. And you’re wasting energy focusing on tasks that aren’t as critical as others.

When prioritizing your day the night before, identify the hardest task that needs doing. When you procrastinate getting the larger item done, it looms over your head for the rest of the day. This will ultimately affect your productivity with other tasks. But when you get in the habit of completing the hardest task on your list first, the rest of your day feels like a piece of cake. 

While it’s always satisfying to complete a project, sometimes it’s more productive in the long run to split large projects into mini-projects. Whether it’s an ongoing work project or your Saturday chores, you may find yourself accomplishing more when you complete it in stages.

Let’s take a deep cleaning day, for example. As we are quickly approaching the holiday season, you may already be thinking about deep cleaning your kitchen. Purchasing all of the supplies needed, on top of decluttering and then actually deep cleaning, can feel like a lot of steps. And all these steps in a row can be daunting – and may even deter you from even starting.

So take it one step at a time. Make a list of what needs to be done. Maybe start by ordering your cleaning supplies online. When waiting for them to arrive, you’ll have time to start another project on your list like decluttering your pantry. So you’re simultaneously getting two to-do’s checked off. Once you receive the essentials, you can pop right back into the next task on your “clean the kitchen” list. 

Sleep is directly correlated to our performance. While we all know this is true, it’s easy to sacrifice our sleep in order to finish a project. While it may feel like you’re being more productive by working late into the night, this is not always the case. When you’re exhausted, you may end up redoing tasks.

It’s important to get an optimal amount of sleep. The recommended seven to eight hours of sleep truly supports your output of work and even the quality of your work. And it’s not just quantity of sleep that matters, it’s also the quality of your sleep. If you’re tossing and turning throughout the night, you aren’t getting the restful night’s sleep you need to help you accomplish your goals.

Try tracking your sleeping habits throughout the night and pinpointing where the issue is. Maybe there’s too much light coming in through your windows – easily solved with blackout curtains. Or maybe you’re in the habit of scrolling through social media posts on your phone or laptop and the blue light is interfering with your ability to fall asleep. If so, you might find that donning blue light blocking glasses makes a difference.   

Everyone is different. What’s important is to have faith in your ability to find what works for you. Ensure your environment supports your personal needs and you’ll wake up ready to tackle the day. 

###

FULL DISCLOSURE: This post contains Amazon affiliate links that may result in a referral commission to me at no additional cost to you. Thanks for supporting my work by shopping via my links.

The post 4 Tips to Help You Accomplish Your Goals appeared first on Declutter Your Life with Donna Smallin Kuper.