How to be Productive When You Feel Stuck

Have you ever had a bunch of time on your hands (kids went away for a week with their grandparents, you took a week off from work and had a quiet house to yourself) where there were little to no interruptions? Or maybe you are reading this and thinking that you’ll never get that much time to yourself. I’m hoping that’s not the case for you.

It happens so many times. We’re handed time for ourselves but we spend that time spinning our wheels and not accomplishing everything we had hoped?

Being productive when we have time to get things done is challenging. We try to get things done but end up looking back on our day and wonder what we really got done.

My Setbacks

I’ve done this. Guilty on all counts. Last summer, my kids spent an entire week with their grandparents. I planned on getting so much done while they were gone, but that didn’t happen. I felt disappointed in myself when they came home and I hadn’t accomplished half of what I had hoped for. It was very discouraging.

Then, school started. My youngest was starting 1st grade and that meant 6 hours of uninterrupted time I would have each school day. But yet, I spent the first few months wasting so much time and when my husband would come home from work and ask what I did that day, I had nothing to tell him. I spent so much of those days spinning my wheels and accomplishing so little.

My Inspiration

Frustrated by my own setbacks, I went to the library to find some books on how to get more things done in a day. Here’s what I found out.

Something so simple, so easy to do every day but I never thought about it. It’s making a plan EVERY DAY of what needs to get done. That’s it. Just writing down what I need to do.

This worked for me. I finished my tasks each day. Each evening, I wrote down up to 5 things I had to get done the next day. These tasks had to get done before anything else could get started. Then I made another list of up to 5 tasks to tackle once the first list was finished. But, for me, if I didn’t get to these tasks, I was okay with that as long as I stayed focused on getting my top tasks finished.

Prioritizing Tasks

I prioritized my tasks and got more done each day. This worked for me because of writing things down and not trying to remember everything in my head. It also worked by doing this every night. I can write a big to-do list at the beginning of the week, but I feel so defeated before I even start looking at this huge list. By breaking up my tasks into the top 3-5 tasks I need to do each day first, I know exactly what work I need to do and there is no guessing or feeling frustrated.

Time Blocking

I also started time blocking so I could stay on a schedule. This ensured I didn’t spend more time than I should on any one task. Time blocking is essentially blocking out time for each task. For example, if one of your tasks was to clean the bathrooms, you would choose a certain amount of time to do this. Once your time is up, you move to the next time blocked task whether you finished cleaning the bathroom or not.

Time to Start

By prioritizing your tasks and breaking them down into manageable tasks, will help you get things done. By time blocking, you’re ensuring you aren’t spending more time than needed on any task and wasting any time.

Next time you have some free time, (and I hope you’ll get some) don’t spend it spinning your wheels. Prioritize your to-do list and time block your must-do task list (your most important tasks) as your roadmap to get everything done.

Every day, I’m finishing my top tasks and it feels great. Now it’s time for you to start. Feel good about your days, knowing you’ll have the right plan to getting everything done in a day.

How do you tackle your to-do list? Please share your comments below, I’d love to hear from you!