This is how I work. One thing at a time.

daily productivity habitDo you have feeling that you have too much to do at work? Do you have same feeling at home?

I have learned, and I am still learning, that they way out, is to slow down and go small.

The usual instruction is to make a to-do list and then order it. I will instruct you to do a bit opposite.

If you want to get something done. You must go small first. Don’t create a list.

If you have the one, throw it away.

There is no point of keeping a long list of items that you need to do. It will stress you more and most of the things won’t get done.

Put your to-do list away.

Choose one goal. Big one. Something that you want to achieve. Something that won’t happen today, but will happen sooner or later if you constantly work towards it.

Write that goal down.

When you have your goal clear. You need to find the stress items.

What is the thing that stresses you the most?

I admit that sometimes I stress about ridiculously small things. When you find out what is stressing you the top most currently, start working with it.

If it is too big, take a small part of it, and do it. Take care of it right now.

When you process the stressful items first, you will notice that your life feels lighter. And that is exactly what I am after. When you don’t stress about small things, you are open. Your mind will work better and you will at the end get more done.

It does not matter if they are work or home things, but stress needs to be removed. It does not help if you do yoga or breath deeply. You need to take care of the stuff that stresses you out. One way or another, the source of stress needs to go.

The next step is to pick a task that has big value, meaning and effect.

Rethink what is the most important thing you can do. Think the effect and value. And think what will happen if you do it. You need to find tasks that will make things easier, move or unnecessary.

What would create the biggest movement?

When you find the task with BIG effect, it will be the goal of the day.

Your first priority is to take care of it.

If you can do one important thing every day. It is 365 things per year. If you do it only weekdays, it is still over 200 things.

I have worked like this for a long time.

There are days that I don’t find anything that would have huge meaning. What do you choose then?

Pick something that is a bit unusual. Something that will still fit in your big goals. Something that you don’t usually do.

Do you have something that you need to do at home? Small repair work? Cleaning? Pick one thing every day. Something different. Don’t step in to normal routines. Break the routine and decide to do one thing every evening. If you every day do decluttering, repairing or cleaning. You will do 365 things in a year. You house should look different.

It is difficult to think like this every day. For helping me out, I have created form that structures my day. I am filling and revisiting the form daily, to keep goals clear and stress items away.

You can read more about how I work from this post:

How to build Daily Productivity Habits?

If you want to have my book. It is available in Leanpub. If you buy it, you will get all updates to the book for free.

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