When we are overwhelmed by how much we have to do, it’s easy to run round in circles, achieving nothing. What we need are useful strategies which will help us get the work done, without leaving us feeling exhausted.

I make a daily to-do list and recently I was noticing that more and more things were not getting completed from these lists. I got anxious. Why wasn’t I able to tick everything off?

Because there were so many things on the list for the whole day that I was struggling to pin down specific jobs and just get them done. Then I tried a couple of new things and so far, I am pleased to say, I’ve noticed a huge difference.

The first thing I did was change my daily to-do list, to a weekly one. Immediately, the feeling of stress was reduced because I didn’t have to get the jobs done on a specific day, thereby removing the guilt I felt if I hadn’t managed to do it ‘on time’. For example, if I miss the post office on Tuesday, I still have several days later in the week when I can go and do whatever I need to do.

I thought this type of list might make things more difficult – it’s actually been the opposite – but there is another strategy I’ve started using which I’m noticing is making a massive impact on my productivity levels.

Have you tried ‘time blocking’? I give myself a specific length of time, such as an hour, and see how many things on my list I can get through in that time. If feels more like a fun challenge – For example, I now have a cute little kitchen timer and I’ll set it for an hour and work my way through the jobs on my list. When the time is up, I get to see how many tasks I have completed! I will hang up the washing, put another load on, dishes washed and put away, hoover downstairs, change the beds, tidy upstairs…see how much you can get done when you have a focussed period of time instead of worrying you haven’t ticked everything off for that day?

I find these two strategies are really helping me to pin down exactly what needs to be done without me feeling I have to get them done by a certain time. Obviously there will be exceptions but I just do the more pressing jobs first then continue with smaller jobs or ones which don’t have a deadline.

If anything, I’m doing more now than I ever have. I’m being productive without feeling too stressed and I’m enjoying being busy.

I’d be interested to hear if you do something similar or if you have a different strategy which helps you to be happily productive?