I’ve always been labeled by those that know me as a “go-getter” personality and I pride myself on my organization skills, so put those together and I’ve always been able to have set goals, go after accomplishing them and get a lot of shit done, excuse the language.  I get asked a lot, “how do you get so much done with so much going on?” The answer to that is my way of organizing my life and enjoying having my toes dipped in a lot of different ponds – I own my own business, work for an architecture firm and teach part time, not to mention this little blog of mine.  All in all, my days are busy and my to do list is never ending, but at the same time, I feel like I’m able to manage it all (most of the time) by staying organized and just working my way through my list to things to do.  So today, let’s talk about how to just get shit done and accomplish all your goals at the same time!

Know what your goals are and have a plan for them.

First, you need to actually know what your goals are and have a plan for them to happen.  If you don’t know what your actual goals are, why waste time on things that might not matter in the end?  Before you do anything else, figure out what your goals are, whether for the day or for the year or for the next 5 years, and then work your way little by little toward them.

Make a To Do list – with small items at the top and big at the bottom.

One of the things I notice most often, especially with my students, is that when they make a list of things to do, they start with the biggest, most time consuming stuff.  Then what happens is that easy quick stuff never gets done because they are constantly working on the larger stuff that takes longer.  Instead, to really get the most done in the time you have – start your list with all the little quick things you have to do.  Work your way through those first and knock them off the list, THEN start your bigger stuff.  You’ll feel like you get much more accomplished in the time you have and won’t have as much on your list at the end of the day.

Put it on your calendar.

One thing that helps me tremendously is to put things in my actual calendar as well as on my to do list.  This way, I know when specific things need to happen.  Mark your calendar for deadlines and for the stuff that has to happen on certain days.  I live or die by my calendar so having stuff on there too really helps!

Don’t push it off.

One thing I hardly ever do, is push stuff off.  I know this is super hard for a lot of people that procrastinate but the best possible way to get the most done is to not do that.  I almost always do stuff immediately, even if it’s not due for a while because in my experience, stuff always comes up last minute and causes more problems.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had project done way before their deadline and then something comes up at the last minute before they are due that wouldn’t have allowed me to finish the project at all and I’m so glad that it’s already done.  Don’t push stuff off, do it immediately.

You don’t have to be perfect.

I feel like the term “perfectionist” gets thrown around too much these days and sometimes it becomes a hinderance to actually getting things done.  I’m not a perfectionist but I do expect the best out of myself, so if you feel like you constantly have to be making everything perfect, instead, think about doing everything to the best of your ability.  Then you have to be able to walk away.  Redoing things over and over just because you think it’s not perfect isn’t doing any good for anyone and is probably putting you behind on other things.  Do your best the first time, then be done with it.  You don’t have to be perfect, do your best and call it a day.

Even when you really don’t want to do it, at least start it.

Everybody struggles with be unmotivated at times in their life, myself included, however even when you really don’t want to work your way through that list of stuff to do, that’s when you really need to push through and just do it.  Or at least, start it.  Getting the momentum going can be a challenge sometimes, but once you start, at least you’re part of the way there!

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