The key to getting a lot done in your day is to do the hardest thing first. You know, the thing you’re dreading. Maybe it’s a quick phone call you need to make, and it’s weighing you down. If you get it done first (just force yourself to do it), then you feel lighter. You will be relieved and energized to do everything else you need to do in your day.
As much as I love filming my homeschooling to upload to my Unit Study Treasure Vault, during the month of December I just wanted to rest. We took the month off from homeschooling, but I still hadn’t filmed a few things to polish the Cell Unit Study. I needed to film how to put together the shadow box of the plant cell. I had all the materials out on the kitchen counter. They stayed on the kitchen counter for days. It was an easy project, but I was tired. I just kept putting it off. After all, the unit study wasn’t due in the vault until the 1st of January.
Well, my husband wanted to put his stuff down on the counter when he got home from work. But the counter was crowded with my cell stuff. This is why the project was weighing down on me. I finally decided I would just do it. We filmed it, and it was super easy. And it was done. I felt so much energy after that. I got more done that day than any other day in December, just because I bit the bullet and forced myself to do the thing that for some reason I had procrastinated.
You will not know what is weighing you down until you make a list of the things you need to get done. Making a list of to-do’s the night before will make you more productive the next day. After you have the list of things weighing you down, you can choose to do the hardest thing first, and force yourself forward to get it done. I’m telling you, this works.
Tags: Organization, productivity, time management, to-do list
Hi Susan
That is so true about getting the toughest least liked task done first
Also I have recently started doing my following days to do list the night before, and that really does help
Thanks for the reminders
Sue
I have never met a person who said that doing the hardest thing first didn’t work.
This is spot-on! Yet despite how much I’ve experienced it firsthand, I still “leave my cell stuff on the counter for days” on a regular basis! I think I need to start choosing just one procrastinated/dreaded task to do the next day and maybe it will become a habit. (Maybe I’ll even stop procrastinating! Nah…)
P.S. I just noticed your blog must be set on MST, because it’s showing that I left my comment an hour later than it actually is here.
Yes, I think choosing one thing is a good idea, and then reward yourself somehow when that hard thing is done!