Create A Stop Doing List

As Professional Organizers, we are dedicated to boosting your productivity and a great tool for doing this is to eliminate the tasks, events or activities that are not important to you, your family, your career, your business and your health.

We recommend creating a “STOP DOING” list. According to Time Management coach, Bill Zipp, a stop doing list is a list of all activities, tasks or events that are not important.  We tend to fill our time with lots of actions and we feel like we are accomplishing a lot because we are so busy.  What this busyness really creates is a guise for avoiding the few very important action we must complete.

Instead of the “results by volume” approach, eliminate the items that do not add value to your life or career. Thinking about it for a minute, I bet you can think of three things you could stop doing this week to free up some time for something more important.

Looking at your list of To Do’s; develop a stop doing list and completely eliminate them from your calendar.  And, one more thing, no need to feel guilty about.  Studies show the most successful people know how to say no, without feeling guilty.

In addition to creating a stop doing list, here are some other habits to embrace in increase productivity. 

• Devote 30 minutes each week to assess the past week and plan the next. It's no wonder our weeks fly by and we have no idea what we accomplished or what we missed.  Take a few minutes each week to plan and map out what you're going to do this week.  Select they key personal and professional areas of your life that are your highest priorities and get those important "rocks" on the calendar.  According to Bill Zipp, Time Management expert, "Get the rocks on the calendar and the sand will filter through."   
• Understand that FOCUS is more important than efficiency.  It does not matter if you get 20 things done if they were the wrong things.  Focus, focus, focus.
• Close Your Email:  Email, or the greatest man made distraction ever, is a pitfall to avoid.  Now I know this is a touchy subject, but the facts are the facts and productivity is greatly decreased by email because we are dealing with constant distractions. Email creates a reactionary work environment and you can greatly increase your effectiveness if you set aside specific times each day. Additionally, when you only respond at certain times it sets a precedent that you are not just sitting at your desk waiting to deal with someone’s email.
• Get Help When You Need It:  There is a fantastic book called The Organizing Sourcebook by Kathy Waddill.  In that book she talks about the 9 Strategies for Simplifying your Life. One of those strategies is Get Help When You Need It. Kathy says, “Just because something is on your To Do list, doesn’t mean you have to do it.”  
• Get Out Your Own Way:  We work with a lot of people and have found most often the person standing in your way is you.  Open your mind to change, new ideas and be positive.  You can get more of the right things done, but you may have to adjust some of your old habits to get there. 

We all only have 24 hours each day.  Make sure you are using them wisely.  Make it a great day!