The Secret to Getting It All Done

Good morning, friends! I have a little thought to share with you today but first, how cute is Miss Pumpercot! She is actually photo-bombing here. I was trying to take a picture of my desk and she hopped up right into the very middle of the frame. Cutie.

Do you ever have those days when you feel completely defeated by your to-do list? I used to always feel like such a failure at the end of every day because I couldn’t finish my list no matter how motivated I was at the beginning of the day. One evening while going over my list and seeing all the items that did not get marked off that day, I expressed my frustration to my husband. He took one look at it and said, “That’s all for ONE day? There’s enough on that list to keep any person busy for an entire week!”

Here’s the crazy thing: I was making my daily to-do list on a piece of notebook paper and filling in every line! Every. line. And they weren’t all little things like get the mail or feed the dog. Each line was just about a project in and of itself.

And then it hit me. Just that one observation my husband made helped me see that the secret to getting it all done is redefining the IT in “getting it all done”! There were more items on my daily list than any single person could cover in a reasonable number of hours.

So, I quit making my to-do list on notebook paper and switched to making it on a post-it note. Just take a look at the difference between the two. The post-it note forced me to think through the time I had for the day and prioritize just a few most important items, which resulted in a feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day.

But I do fall back into old habits occasionally. I recently purchased this new planner from Aldi, and I almost put it back because as I flipped through its pages, I thought but there’s not enough space on each day! Thankfully, I came to my senses and decided it was perfect for me.

In closing, here’s Pumpkin’s reminder to us all to slow down and smell the roses. And btw, that sweet little watercolor was a gift from my daughter.