To-do or not To-do

Have you ever sat at your desk with a full To-do list gazing at your computer wondering where to start? I am experiencing this right now and it is so frustrating, because I would like to accomplish a few things before calling it a night.  I had an amazing day, which started out with me speaking to the great people at Key Kiwanis Club in Atlanta about developing their personal brand. I returned home to find out that my partners and I have begun talks with the one keynote speaker on our wish list. I had a great dinner with a friend and now I am sitting at my computer … just sitting and gazing at my Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn timeline.  How do you begin to attack your to-do list when you do not know where to start? This is what I did…

1.  Start with the quick one – When you have an extensive list that will take a couple of days, a week or even longer you need to find something that will give you instant gratification.  There has to be a task on your list that you can finish within minutes.  Do that one first.   For me that task was sending my web designer information and edits, so that he can complete my site - I was done in 5 minutes.  I completed it and physically crossed it off my list YAAAY.
2.  Work on an easy one – Pat your self on the back you have accomplished one thing on your list and although there are a ton more to do you are feeling good, so keep going by completing something easy.    My easy task was posting to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (the ones I was gazing at earlier).  I have been falling behind on my daily updates, so I quickly posted a few key messages to my friends and followers.  I even scheduled a few for the next few days…yes, I am on over achiever J
3.  Impact someone – What is an impact task?  It is a task that will make you happy to accomplish, because it is not just being crossed off your list, but it is also positively impacting someone else’s life as well.  My “Impact” task is this blog.  One of my duties is to finish another post and I figured this one might help someone else stop gazing at his or her computer and get some work done.  Your task maybe returning a call to a friend, sending a recommendation or maybe just making dinner for the family instead of ordering pizza.  Whatever it is, the recipient(s) is sure to be happy to receive it.
4. Reward Yourself - You have accomplished three goals, give yourself a small treat.  I took a quick dessert break. Yum, now back to work.
5. Now it time to work on the hard one – By this time you should be feeling pretty good about yourself.  You have accomplished three tasks and are rearing to complete one of the items on the list that you have been pushing off each day.  This task is definitely going to take you a while and its not easy, but since you have a little momentum and a ton of energy why not go ahead and tackle it.  My hard task is to begin editing my eBook “Posted”, so I can have a few friends read it, before sending it to the actual editor. Imagine how satisfied you will feel when you have checked this one off of your list.

I hope this post inspired you to begin your to-do list or maybe just knowing someone else is gazing at his or her computer made you feel a little better.  If you have any other ideas on how people can jump start their to do list, when they are not motivated please list it below.  I will check the comments after I finish task #5.

Be Blessed

A. Mayartis J