Your to-do list is growing, and you feel like you are left with less and less time to get things done everyday. You feel scattered and all over the place. And you’re frustrated and feeling like you haven’t accomplished anything in days. Sound familiar?
It’s normal to get bogged down with things to do and places to be, plus, on top of your regular life, you’re working to improve yourself and crush these goals that you keep putting off. You’ve told yourself you won’t quit this time but with all these things to do, you’re starting to feel rather discouraged.
What if we said there’s no need for that extra worry? Or any worry at all? If you find yourself saying,I’m doing everything I can already! while reading this, we get it. We’ve been there. And we’re not saying your methods are wrong. But what if you could adopt more efficient and positive methods for scheduling, prioritizing and getting things done? The tips below are methods that we ourselves have found to be so helpful in our own lives, trying to manage family, friends, work and self-care. They’ve been tried and have been true to us, and we want to share them with you because we have your back on this journey.
We may think we’re getting things done during the day, but when we’re packing up for the night, our to-do list is just as long as it was nine hours earlier. One way to make sure you’re getting things done is to manage your time. This is a skill that comes with time and practice, but once you stick to it, you’ll find it hard to believe you were ever organized before. Start simple: set timelines or a stopwatch for certain tasks. Sit down and do the work. Try not to be distracted by internet memes, or colleagues passing by your office. If you do find your mind is wandering, take note of it, that way you can find ways to eliminate those distractions.
The way we think really affects our actions, mood, and the way we live our lives. It’s crazy to think that a simple shift in perspective can completely change the way we see and experience life. Author Matt Fitzgerald dives deep into this concept of mental fitness and health in his bookHow Bad Do You Want It.
“The question that one part of you asks another in the crucial moments of a race –How bad do you want it? – is really an invitation to self-exploration...if you want to get the most you can get as a person out of an athletic experience – you will accept it. The journey toward becoming a mentally fit athlete is very much a journey of personal development.”
In this case, Fitzgerald is writing about endurance sports, but the same concept to applies to any goal you’re chasing.
If there’s a big project you’re doing for work, or you want to start spending more time creating content for your Instagram feed, start by setting achievable goals for yourself. You can get discouraged from looking at a task as a whole; you tell yourself there’s no way you’ll ever be able to do it. But if you break the big task down into smaller ones, it all of a sudden feel so much more achievable. Plus, once you finish a small goal, you’ll feel a sense of accomplishment and confidence, which will encourage you to move onto the next phase. Before you know it, you’ll have reached your final goal!
What is most important to you may not always be what’s at the top of your list of goals. If we let fear dictate what we do, we can end up shoving what should be our priorities to the bottom of the barrell, leaving us feeling unfulfilled and unsatisfied. This in turn leads us to take on the other things we have to do with a bit of resentment; when you’re not living with purpose, it’s harder to do the things that need to get done – the things you don’t really want to be doing.
Reevaluate what is most important to you. You can look at it big picture, and also on a daily basis. What is the most important thing you need to do today? Some days it may be getting ready for a work presentation, or shuttling the kids back and forth from soccer practice. You can have more than one (daily) priority; just make sure that you’re putting your effort where it’s most needed. Hint: oftentimes, that effort needs to go towards yourself – your self-care and self-improvement.
Visualizing is similar to meditating, but requires that you actively think about how you are achieving your goal. You can think of it like a vision board for your mind. If you have the goal of nailing a handstand, your visualization practice will include you picturing yourself sticking that handstand.
It’s not to be forgotten that there is work involved to get to these visualization peaks; just because you’ve visualized yourself nailing an inversion doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to do it spot on the next time you get on your mat. Rather, visualizing is intended to create a sense of confidence in a person; if you can visualize yourself reaching your goal, you’re more likely to put in the work to get there, because you have seen that it’s possible to get there.
