Todo to Todone: Making an Aligned List

Sundays are for planning. I know I will not have the luxury of free time this week once 5am Monday morning rolls around, so it is my job to make the most of it right now. With that being said, there are errands I need to run today that will ensure a more successful week ahead. 

• Grocery Store
• Laundry
• Prepare presentation for Monday 8/17

The list as written is highly ineffective. 

Relate Action Items to your larger "why"

If grocery shopping is on your list, think about why you are actually going to the store. What is the motivator behind the initiative?

Grocery Shop - So I don't max out my budget for takeout this week from lack of groceries

This helps remind yourself the action is driving you towards your larger goal of being financially responsible, thus solidifying it in your mind as a priority. It also allows you to be in more charge of when you opt to order take out. It becomes a decision of desire instead of obligation.

This method helps you align your actions with what you are working towards and can work in reverse as well.

All I can think about doing today is going to Anthropologie, but that is moving away from my goal of being financially responsible, and it would take time away from working on my already limited Sunday. It’s not that I can’t go, so much as I recognize that by going, it would be undoing progress I have otherwise already built into my schedule / financial plan etc.

Notate important deadlines

Make sure to include deadlines on your list you might overlook later, when it is too late.

Laundry- do on Thursday

I am leaving for a trip on Thursday, so I am assigning this task a specific deadline based on the optimal time for completion. This is one of those things that can seem obvious initially, but is likely to be forgotten once the energy of the week picks back up. This leads to an unfavorable situation that would have been completely avoidable beforehard.

Address Stressors

I had a dream about a work responsibility today, which is an indicator that this is something very much on my mind. A worried thought is the precursor to stress, and stress only gets worse when it is ignored. With this in mind, I am going to make sure to set aside time to prepare for said presentation before the end of the day. While it initially sounds like a bummer to work on a responsibility on the weekend, I look at it more as preparation for a successful week, or a continuation of my planning session. It is easily something I could put off, but that decision would come at the price of later stress. 

Identify Known Upcoming Time Suckers

I have a dentist appointment this week that is going to take a significant amount of time, and I will have work responsibilities to catch up on in the evening, meaning I need to iron this time out at some other point throughout the week. With this in mind, I marked the dentist appointment in my calendar a week ahead of time to prevent meetings from being scheduled during this time. I also put it on my todo list, even though it is technically not an action item, as it is something I need to keep in mind. 

My updated todo list looks something like this:

• Grocery Shop - So I don't max out my takeout budget from lack of groceries
• Laundry- Complete Thursday before trip
• Prepare presentation- due Monday at 9:30AM; goal = unified sales team and on target customer messaging
• Be Mindful of Dentist Appointment on Wednesday afternoon

 Make sure to download your todo list from the Allison Ziggy printable library! You can get access by clicking on the printables tab across the top of the browser!

xoxo,

Allison