Do you feel like you have trouble finding time to do the things that are most important to you? With all of the distractions of modern-day life, it can be tough to find time to focus and work on your own goals.
If you’re like most parents, your to do list is probably endless. It’s a rare occasion when I can truly accomplish everything on my to-do list in a day.
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As someone who loves to finish things and cross them off my list of things to do, my to-do list was always a disappointment. I felt like it was a growing document that would just never go away.
A few months ago, I read a new book about time management for moms, which was written by my friends Sarah Korhnak and Beth Anne Schwamberger of The Brilliant Business Moms. They suggested a technique for focusing on your goals that I found incredibly helpful.
They recommend focusing on 5-6 big goals, and letting the other goals go (for now). If you’re working on too many goals at once, you’ll spread yourself too thin.
In the book, Time Management Mama: Making Use of the Margins to Pursue Your Passions, they suggest a way to get all of your goals and ideas on to paper, and then pick your most important goals. I was surprised to see just how many ideas and “goals” I had been thinking about. No wonder I felt so scatterbrained!
After I chose my five big goals, I decided to work on them a little bit every day. Now, when writing my to-do list, I write a small, manageable task that relates to each one of my goals. One of the goals is to get our household organized, so I am able to put some of the more annoying household tasks (making calls, setting appointments, cleaning) in the organization category.
I use The Brilliant Business Planner to keep track of all of the things I need to remember to do that aren’t on my daily to-do list of five important tasks. I like this planner because it has planning and record-keeping sections for bloggers and Etsy sellers.
When I’m making my daily to-do list, I’ll often pull a to-do item from my Brilliant Business Planner. From time-to-time, I have to do a Power Hour to get rid of the nagging tasks that have been in my planner for a while.
The Benefits of Creating a To Do List Based On Your Goals
- It’s less intimidating. I only have to do five things each day. Often, something doesn’t get crossed off the list, but I can usually figure out why I wasn’t able to complete the task. When I had a huge, running to-do list, it just seemed like a big failure all the time.
- It’s more motivating. Everything on the list is moving you closer to your big goals.
- It’s more compact. You can write it on a post-it note, and then throw it away when you’ve crossed everything off the list. For someone who likes to complete tasks, this is big fun!
- It helps you to get rid of the “mental clutter.” When I start to feel scattered, I just look at my mini to-do list, and remember that those are the tasks that are important for today.
- You don’t forget about the important things that are easy to postpone. Making family or relationships with friends a goal means they won’t get lost in the shuffle of everyday busy-ness.
What do you do to make your to do list more manageable? Please leave a comment below if you have any ideas for helping parents to get things done!
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I love this! The scattered piece is so important for me. If I know just what I need to do for that one day to propel myself forward, I can let the other things go and not go crazy thinking that I have 20 other things I should be doing. Focus and peace and eliminating overwhelm are so important.
And I’m with you too – knowing that time with friends and family is a big goal means I remember to write that down, schedule it in, and make it a priority too.
Thanks for the shout-out Katie!
The scattered part is what helped me the most in your book too. I tend to bounce goal ideas around all day, and I don’t end up accomplishing any of them. Having a set of goals to look at to help me focus has been incredibly helpful!
Wonderful suggestions! This has been a big part of my days lately, and prioritizing has made all the difference!
Hi Rachel,
Thanks for stopping by! 🙂
I love posts on goal planning! I have also been told to plan my goals around my roles in life: Christian, wife, blogger, etc…Definitely adding to my goal planning board!
Awesome! Thanks, Judith!
Thanks so much for linking this up to DIY Inspired over at The Girl Creative. 🙂 You are the winner of the $10 Amazon gift card. Congratulations, girl! 🙂 Can you shoot me an email at diana(at)thegirlcreative.com and let me know what email address I can send it to?
P.S. My sister’s name is Katie and she has twin boys also. 🙂 XO
Hi Diana. No way! I’m so excited! Thank you!! 🙂
It’s so important to set clear, achievable goals. Thank you for sharing these tips on goal planning on #HomeMattersParty. Very helpful!!
Thanks, Sonja!
I am a huge list maker and goal setter and it can get overwhelming! I love the list app in my iphone. I have a billion lists in there! I have a “to-do eventually” which are things I would like to do when I free time to things I have to do next week (and those have alerts attached). Then I have a list “To-do today” of things that have to be done today, like you said 5-6 things. Then I also have separate lists labeled each day of the week to remind me of things that get done weekly on that day, like Saturday is SITS link up day and Tuesday is always my bill paying day. Thanks for the book and blanner recommendations as well, I will check them out.
That sounds super-organized, Angie! Way to go!
I really loved this book! like these mums I was tired of time management books written for dudes by dudes 🙂 I’ve just bought myself a planner for 2017 and I’m really hopeful that the combination of Time management mama and my new planner will help keep me on track (I tend to get very easily distracted!)