And just like that we’ve reached the last post in the this week’s Spring Cleaning series! Let’s tackle those To-do lists Shall we?
This sort of goes back to my mission to make more time for the things you enjoy. I know that tackling your to-do list and making time for things you enjoy together in one sentence sounds like an oxymoron, but I swear it isn’t. You see, I believe that most of us find it hard to feel free to do the things we enjoy, because we are so hung up mentally on the things that we should be doing. Those things that have been on our to-do lists for weeks, months, maybe even years!
Sometimes things stay on our to-do list for a long time because they are long, involved, difficult tasks. Other times they are short relatively easy tasks that we just don’t want to do, or never get around to doing.
Everyday we caught up in those mundane and routine tasks that need to get done, and never make our way to those items that have been sitting there forever. We are all busy. Yes, some of us are more busy than others, but I’ve found that it’s usually the busiest people who are the most organized, and find time for the things they enjoy. Why? Because they know they have a lot to get done, so they just get it done!
What I’d like you to focus on today is writing out all of those tasks that have been on your mental to-do list fir ages. Maybe it’s painting the railing, hanging photos, cleaning the fridge, painting a room, organizing your personal files -whatever! Make a list of everything you keep saying to yourself, “One of these days I’ll do _______”. Then I want you to make the plan to get one (or more) done this weekend. Maybe start with one of the easier tasks, or knock two or three of them off the list. The point isn’t to get everything done in one day, the point is to start making plans to get those, “I need to do that!” things off your mental to-do list. Then the next time you want to go out to a dinner party, or to the movies, or curl up with a good book you’ll have one less thing weighing on your mind.
As a self employed gal, I had a number of things on that mental to-do list. Things that I wanted to get done, but weren’t super important, but still were always lingering in the back of my head. Back in January I made a list of all of those items. Many of them were projects that took a few hours, some took days, but you know what? Just taking the time to make the list, and deciding that I was going to get through it and finish everything on it before the end of the month was all I needed to do! I cleared off the list in a matter of a week or two, and while the results weren’t life changing, it is pretty nice not to have all of those, “But I should be doing _____” floating in the back of my head all of the time!
[Tweet “Clean out your mental to-do list and find more room for the fun stuff!”]
So go – and make your list! And set yourself a deadline (or two) to get it finished. I promise, clearing that mental to-do list will make you feel so much better!