My New Work Routine

I'm always looking for new ways to boost my productivity. I want to be better today than I was yesterday. Part of being better is spending some time figuring out the best way to do tasks.

Confession: I'm like really sucking at getting tasks done lately. Like, they get done; but I'm not as happy with myself as I should be.

I can sit down and work on a project for several hours straight, but my biggest problem is that there are so many different things that I feel like I should be working on that I jump from project to project to project. Worse yet, I'll get distracted because I have to answer an email or a tweet and fall down a gaping BuzzFeed or Candy Crush Saga internet hole. .

I want to spend more time each day working on big projects and getting big things done. I want to make things happen. I have amazing plans in my head, and now its time to step up and execute these plans.

So I'm trying a few new things:

• Each day of the week will have a specific category assigned to it (with one flex day). My plan is to spend 120 minutes each day working on those big projects.
• I also came across this great blog post from Sarah Von Bargen, and I'll be implementing her 40 minutes a day strategy for branding and business.
• And I have this crazy idea brewing in the back of my head for a wall mounted google calendar. Hopefully I can make this happen asap, it seems so cool in my head. 

Let me know if I'm missing out on the golden key to productivity! What productivity methods are working for you right now? What isn't working for you?

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Free Weekly Projects Printable Worksheet

Goal setting month is going well. I nixed the 'no TV when I'm home alone'; it just wasn't working for me. One of the things that has been working well is the weekly goal setting worksheet I created for myself.

Here is a free printable version of that worksheet. Download and customize it each week to keep your goal setting on track.

Click here to download.

Do you have goals and projects that you'd like to get a better handle on? Follow along this month and share your Goal Setting progress. Subscribe to this blog & follow on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook. 

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April is Goal Setting Month

April is Goal Setting Month. 

This month I'm pushing myself to set up and follow through on goal setting. I have a bunch of projects going on around me and I'm struggling to finish them up and move on.

I'm good with short-term goals -- I just put them on my to-do list and they get done. I'm good with long-term goals -- I know what's reasonable and what I can accomplish.

What I have a problem with is medium-term goals. The ones that take just a little bit of extra planning and follow through. So April is going to be the month where I push myself to work on those medium-term goals.

A Couple of Ways I'm Tacking Goal Setting Month:

• I picked up I Choose: A self-paced workshop from Elise Blaha Cripe and Big Picture Classes. I love Elise's blog and her take on goal-setting and completion is definitely something to aspire to. It's a goal setting workshop and I'm at a point where I really need to sit down and get everything organized, not just some things organized.

• I'm working on figuring out how to organize my time on a weekly basis. Since starting to work from home I try to spend about 60 hours a week on 'business related things'. The problem isn't actually spending the time working; its spending too much time on one thing and not enough time on other areas. The result is mismatched priorities and an inefficient use of my time. 

• Set concrete goals for this month:
• Cook a sit-down dinner 5 nights a week. 
• At least one blog post each weekday.
• Finish my workshop. 
• Take at least 5 pictures a day.
• Write every day (even if its for 5 minutes). 
• Not turn on the TV when I'm home alone
• Set a new long term goal: 52 Meals: Sunday Dinner at Home; I'll be writing more about my 52 Meals project later this week! 

Here are a couple of my favorite goal setting resources:
1. Elise Blaha Cripe
2. Lemon & Raspberry
3. Campfire Chic on Productivity

What are some of your favorite resources? Leave them in the comments below.

Follow along with my Goal Setting progress this month by Subscribing to this blog & following on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook. 

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4 Ways to Feel Good About Your Daily To-Do List

Lists keep me organized & I love daily to-do lists.

They help me stay on track for the day and not get lost in the twitter-verse, on facebook, or anywhere else in the deep, dark, never-ending hole that can be the internet.

My go-to organizational tools are Google Calendar, TeuxDeux (on both the computer and my iPhone), and a pen & paper.

I write out my to-do lists every day. Appointments that I need to keep and special dates go on the calendar. All the tasks that I need to accomplish get put on TeuxDeux -- my favorite feature is that tasks roll over to the next day if they aren't crossed off. For everything else that I need to get done around the house I make a daily to-do list on paper.

I rarely ever check off everything on my list, and that's okay. To-do lists are more about keeping me on track to work on the important things throughout the day and not about making sure every last thing gets done before I go to sleep.

Here are four things I do that make daily to-do lists work for me

1. Write down all the stuff you have to do: Not just the important things, not just the business/work stuff, not just the physical tasks. Write it all down. There are so many things that we have to do throughout the day that sometimes they overwhelm the other responsibilities we have and at the end of the day it looks like nothing has been accomplished. So make a habit of writing it all down
2. Break it up into smaller tasks: Instead of 'Cook Dinner'; write out some steps: Take the meat out of the freezer, chop vegetables, pre-heat the oven. This way you can start to accomplish your big tasks
3. Add already accomplished tasks:  Add on the extra stuff you had to do but already accomplished. It will help your to-do list feel more complete (and accurate). 
4. Start your to-do list the day before: At the end of the day, I'll start my to-do list for tomorrow. It helps me to de-stress and no longer worry about everything that needs to get done tomorrow because I know when I wake up its already on the list 

A daily to-do list shouldn't be just a list of things that you need to accomplish by the end of the day. It also needs to be a list of the things you have accomplished and your progress throughout the day.

PS - If you love lists, make sure you check out the next round of 30 Days of Lists coming in March! 

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