November always seems to be my busiest time of year, on both the work front and the personal front. I work in travel and events, so it’s a popular time for business conferences and events to be held prior to the Christmas ‘silly’ season. It’s a time where people taking extended holidays try to depart on or before 30 November to take advantage of low season rates. And it’s also the time when the business ‘end of year’ get-togethers are in full swing, again trying to get everything done before the Christmas festive season truly begins.
Add to this the mad rush of school breakups, award nights, end of school breakups, end of year concerts and preparations for Christmas itself, holidays and the festive season, and you’d be forgiven for feeling frazzled before it’s all even begun.
So my greatest tip for this week, now that we are in December and heading swiftly towards the end of the year is to work on ‘To Do’ Lists. It’s the only way you’ll get everything done, know you’re on track and also enable you to check and can make sure that you haven’t forgotten anything that you need in preparation for the end of year events. I love lists, as any of my family members will tell you – lists of work items to get through, lists of things to get done, shopping lists, Christmas lists, goals lists… for me the lists are always endless, it’s the way I keep a tab on what I have done and what I need to get done. Working on my lists makes me feel organised, prepared and often stops me worrying and waking up in the middle of the night (surely I’m not the only one who does this?!).
Whether you use a ‘To Do’ pad or tasks/notes in your phone or calendar, there’s nothing better than ticking things off as you complete, striving to get through everything noted. I find it very satisfying to see things being checked off.
Prioritise the tasks you have listed on your ‘To Do’ list, and tackle the more challenging or larger items first. Our most productive work is often done earlier in the day, so dive in and knock over the things you want to avoid (we all have them!!).
Keep your lists short and concise, a few items to do each day, and if you have too much to do, start to delegate to someone who can assist and help keep you on track. There’s nothing more overwhelming than looking at a list of chores or tasks that is a mile long and be realistic when you are itemising what needs to be done. Make sure that you can see that things are being done and please do allocate some items to others that may be able to help – don’t take it all on yourself.
A ‘To Do’ list will keep you on track and organised, which is a great feeling. It will also keep you focused and less stressed, so it is worthwhile spending a few minutes each day putting it together.
In a couple of weeks time, you’ll hopefully be enjoying some well-deserved ‘time out’ so get started on those lists so that you can prioritise, get things done and then reap the benefits and rewards when it’s all on track – you’ll be glad you did!