How To Attack Your Most Dreadful Tasks By Front Loading Your Schedule
Yous know those weeks when you go to Fri and still have a couple abrasive tasks left to do that you've been putting off all week? Now it'due south Friday afternoon and yous're anxious to first the weekend, but you still need to terminate those dreadful tasks before you lot tin call it a day.
Those kinds of to-dos are the worst! They bleed your free energy and stress you out considering they keep showing up on your to-do list twenty-four hour period later twenty-four hours. I bet you can think of something you've been dreading doing. Making that phone call to your insurance company (don't tell me I'm the only ane who hates those!), finishing upwardly a tedious report for your dominate, replying to that nails-on-a-chalkboard email from a client….we all have things to do that aren't the most fun. Information technology'south called being an developed I guess ?.
I thought I'd take today to share a strategy that helps me attack those dreadful tasks earlier they get annoying constants on my to-practise list. Wouldn't it be nice to become to the last day or ii of your work week and only take enjoyable projects left to work on? Things that weren't under a tight deadline? Information technology's entirely possible!
This post is role of the series "From Overwhelmed to Organized: Making Time For All The Stuff." We're talking smart time management strategies all month long! All of the blog posts in the series will be added to the bottom of this post as they are published.
This post contains affiliate links for your convenience. Run across my disclosure hither.
The secret to attacking your most dreadful tasks is to practice them First. You know which tasks they are, so don't let them loom over your caput and weigh you lot down all calendar week long. Ditch the stress and just get the hard things over with right away. You tin do this past front end loading your schedule, which means making time for your worst tasks and most important projects at the beginning of the week and first matter in the morning.
Mark Twain famously said, "Eat a alive frog first thing in the morning time and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the mean solar day." What he meant is that if yous do your worst task–a live frog–showtime thing in the morning time, you will be able to get on with your day knowing the most painful part is already behind you. It'south all downhill from there. Author Brian Tracy wrote an awesome book all about this concept if you desire to acquire more than. Information technology's called Eat That Frog!: 21 Dandy Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time.
Forepart loading your schedule is a smart work habit to have. While everyone else has a example of the Mondays, you'll be getting your near daunting tasks out of the style and so you can declension into the weekend rather than take to scramble to finish up those pesky things on your list on Friday afternoon.
Our willpower and energy are highest in the mornings and on the first couple days of the work calendar week, so it's best to focus on the biggest things first. Get your live frogs out of the way correct away, and so movement onto the most of import priorities. This is why then many people advocate for exercising beginning thing in the forenoon–because the afterward in the day you lot get, the more probable you will exist to put it off.
It's things similar exercise and dreaded telephone calls that oftentimes don't take up a lot of fourth dimension, only they tin drain your mental free energy speedily if you continue to procrastinate them. Earlier you know it, yous've managed to push them off for days. Focus on attacking those dreadful tasks early in your schedule and then you don't accept to stress about them all solar day or week long.
To implement this strategy, schedule time to work on your most important priorities on Mon and Tuesday. Your goal is to power through those tasks early on in the week so you can get ahead of the game. If there are dreadful tasks that need to be done, exercise them showtime affair. If yous have a tough time deciding what is the largest priority and therefore don't know what to do outset, check out the priority matrix I shared in concluding week's post.
For instance, if you have something due on Fri, start working on information technology on Monday and Tuesday. That way you get those time-sensitive projects washed before in the week and aren't stressed out Friday morn when y'all accept less energy.
Forepart loading your schedule gives yous the ability to maximize the time when yous are most focused and disciplined, which enables you to crank out all sorts of work. I effort to front load both my mean solar day and my week.
I dear the feeling of getting my most urgent, important and dreaded tasks all knocked out before lunchtime. And information technology's also really relaxing to know if I'yard feeling worn out by Fri, that'southward okay considering there's nothing left on my list that needs to exist wrapped upwardly earlier the weekend. I try to put fun and ongoing projects on Fridays, things that I can brand progress on but don't need to exist completed that mean solar day.
Why Forepart Loading Your Schedule Works And then Well
Yous Brand Progress On What Matters Most
By intentionally planning my schedule with my most important tasks get-go, I ensure that I'g always making progress on my priorities. Since I work on those things early in my workweek and workday, there's no chance for them to go pushed off and ignored. Brand progress on what'due south well-nigh important to yous by prioritizing it at the showtime of your schedule.
You Stay Alee Of Deadlines
Working on important projects with looming deadlines before in the week is a peachy fashion to reduce the stressful feeling of working upwards until the very last minute. Look alee at whatsoever upcoming deadlines and programme time to piece of work on those tasks at least a few days earlier. It never hurts to go ahead!
Y'all Won't Accept To Dread A Job All Day Long
Getting the "frogs" out of the way first matter in the morn frees upward and so much mental energy! Those dreadful tasks tin weigh on my mind for days, merely many of them take less than an hour to practice. And so getting them knocked out correct away means I won't waste any more energy worrying most them.
You Have The Most Energy & Focus
When you get to work on Monday morning time, you lot mind is articulate and rested from the weekend (that's the goal anyway!). You haven't gotten bogged downward with a one thousand thousand different things even so. Spend those kickoff few hours on Monday getting something important done before you start answering phone calls and checking emails. Some people like to schedule 60-90 minutes every morn as their power hour, where they piece of work on projects and block out distractions.
You lot Gain Momentum
If you tin go into the habit of finishing a project right away in the morning or early on in the week, you'll proceeds momentum that volition motivate you to accomplish even more. When it comes to productivity, half the boxing is just getting started. Simply once that momentum gets rolling, everything else will seem easier. I try to remind myself to just become started, even if only for a few minutes, and I'k ordinarily surprised that once the time is up I want to continue working. That momentum is a powerful thing and central to getting things washed.
Y'all Leave Time For Emergencies
By focusing on the virtually urgent and of import tasks early on, yous gratuitous upwardly your afternoons and the end of your weeks for emergencies and interruptions. Distractions volition no doubt pitter-patter in, so get those important tasks out of the fashion then you accept buffer time for the things that come later on.
Y'all'll Feel A Crazy Sense Of Achievement
Taking a lunch break and realizing yous've already accomplished your goal for the mean solar day is incredibly rewarding and energizing! That sense of accomplishment will brand you lot happy knowing that if you get nothing else done for the 24-hour interval, yous've still finished something important. Simply since you have so much momentum at that bespeak, you'll probably feel motivated to run into what else you can get washed that afternoon.
You Can Coast Into The Weekend
Front loading your schedule as well means that you can declension into the weekend, because you've already achieved all the well-nigh important things earlier you fifty-fifty become to Fri. Then while others are racing against the clock on Friday afternoon, you can take it a niggling easier if you want. It's a groovy feeling to know you won't be sitting at your desk at 5:00 on a Friday nevertheless trying to get that project wrapped upward so you can go dwelling.
Practice you front load your schedule? What strategies do you use to get those dreadful tasks off your plate? I'd love to hear your tips in the comments!
If y'all are feeling overwhelmed by the number of things you have on your plate, I highly recommend creating a weekly schedule then you can exist more than intentional with your time. I'll walk y'all through the entire process in Shell Your Week, a short five-day e-mail course designed to aid yous get control of your time.
More From The "Overwhelmed To Organized: Making Fourth dimension For All The Stuff" Series
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