I’ve been finding my to do list never ending recently. I’ve found that I’m in school before 8 and leaving after 4 and still seem to be getting nowhere in terms of tackling the to do list. This week I was trying to finish my IEP’s and reading a lot about having SMART Targets. So I decided to make my to do list SMARTer and for once I feel I’m getting more things done.
I heard somewhere recently that when making a to do list – write down every single thing that needs to be done – even the smallest of tasks. There is a sense of accomplishment then when you tick them off the list.
I’ve broken my to do list into different categories;
Home – housework, cooking, cleaning, washing etc.
School – photocopying, displays, IEP’s, planning etc.
Blog – writing blog posts, responding to messages, competitions, pictures etc.
Exercise – aim is to do at least 3 Body Coach ‘HIIT’ sessions a week.
Music – I’ve set myself a goal to practice for 30 mins a day on piano and 20 mins every second day on the violin.
I wrote individual to do lists for each day – Monday to Thursday covering each of the areas above.
I broke each task into manageable parts;
- For example I usually write ‘Finish IEP’s’ which is too broad and not very possible to achieve. So instead I broke this down to ‘Finish X’s IEP. Add targets to Y’s IEP.’ etc.
- For blog posts I wrote the name of the blog post I wanted to write (or at least start).
There really was a sense of accomplishment once I ticked little bits off – I felt like I was doing things and the to do list doesn’t seem so never ending and has definitely been easier to tackle!