My Top Tips For When You Have A Million And One Things To Do

I have to admit, right at the beginning of this post, that, most times, I don’t have all my sh*t together. I’m one of those people who’s great at giving advice to other people but might need a little help when it comes to applying it to my own life. But I try and that’s the best anyone can do!

Lately, I’ve been struggling with deadlines, meetings and life in general. There’s no shame in that. We all go through rough patches sometimes. After a meltdown (or three) and plenty of anxiety attacks, I decided that I needed a plan. Working of yourself has its ups and downs, especially when family and friends think you’re just sitting at home all day watching Grey’s Anatomy. But that’s a post for another day.

I came up with a couple of tips that I try and remind myself throughout the day and I thought they might be helpful to some of you.

Invest in a solid organiser. My organiser is my life. If the house was on fire, I will not leave the premises without it, and I don’t even think I’m joking. Although I’m constantly on my phone, I have always preferred to schedule meetings and deadlines on paper. My current organiser was a tad pricey, and yes, my boyfriend might have made a couple of faces when he found out how much I spent on it, but it’s honestly worth every penny. I’ll try and link in down below for you.

Compile a to-do list. I try and do this every day when I wake up or before I go to sleep to have it ready for the following day. I write down all the tasks that I need to get done by the end of the day and all the meetings that I have scheduled in. For my health and sanity, I pencil in a gym session every day. Which brings me to my next point.

Schedule in some me time. One of the biggest struggles with working from home is separating work life and personal life. I’ve learnt to TRY and not get carried away with work and have some me time every single day. My me time is normally going to the gym. It’s my biggest stress reliever.

Dedicate a specific time for emails and messages. There’s no worse distraction than email and Facebook notifications. Gone are the days when I try to instantly message everyone right away. I try my best to answer as soon as possible but I’ve found that dedicating a specific time slot for answering back does not distract my productive stream of thought during the day. I normally try to get back to everyone at night. That way, everyone is sound asleep and I won’t have to worry about replying back until the next day!

Do not over do it. If possible, give yourself time to breathe. You can’t do everything in one day. Know your limits because scheduling too much in one day can break you down and put you off track. And that’s the worst thing that can happen when you’re super busy.

Discipline yourself. This is probably the hardest to implement. Be your own warden and practice time management. You cannot spend a day scrolling through your Facebook feed and, pretend you’re only doing it for inspiration, when you’re drowning in deadlines. Yes, that’s an advice I’d like to take on myself, thank you very much. But honestly, whether you’re working for yourself or in an office, be your own boss, be your worst critic (but also cut yourself some slack once in a while) and just kick ass!