There’s a ton to be said for how much more you can get accomplished with lists and how much more manageable they can make your life. (How Making Lists Can Quell Anxiety and Breed Creativity) Now that’s all fine and dandy, but what about making your list jive with your personality? That is where we can work to optimize something that will already make you more productive. Endgame: Smash your daily task production and this will lead to crushing big life goals!

Here are three different strategies for organizing your to-do list. We’ve put in some suggestions for matching to you personality type, but just like everything with the Gym Gypsy method, track and see what works for you!

The Procrastinator:

Do you like to leave the worst for last? Will you find a million random things to do, just to put off the one thing that you know you probably should handle, but won’t? This is probably the first strategy you should try if you find yourself consistently waiting until for the last possible minute to handle things or if you know you’re bad about dodging things you don’t like. In this strategy we stack the things that we want to do the least, first. We also deliberately set the things that you desire at the end of the list. This will help you push through the undesirable crap because you’ve got a reward in sight. Plus there’s some pretty good stuff to be said about learning the skill of being okay with delayed gratification. (The Power Of Delaying Gratification)

The Achievement Hunter:

 

Try doing the easy stuff first to gain a quick sense of accomplishment![/caption]

Are you at your best and feeling on top of the world when you get something done? Does crossing something off your list give you a sense of accomplishment and winning? If that’s the case take all of the easy stuff and start there and build to the more difficult tasks. This will let you fly through the first handful of responsibilities and create solid momentum. Since you’ll be fired up and riding a wave of success, you’ll be able to tackle the hard things more aggressively and more confidently. This might also be a good strategy to try if you struggle with self imposed limitations and your fears and doubts tend to hold you back. Lots of positive reinforcement!

The Swiss Watch:

Are you all about timing, precision, and efficiency? Does wasted time and effort absolutely drive you nuts? With this strategy we layout a day plan first with items and appointments that already have defined timeframes: staff meetings, picking up kids, hair, etc. Then we build the order of the items in the to-do list into the time windows that fit into our defined schedule. You can also segment longer or more arduous tasks into different working windows so that it’s not so daunting and you get a break. The goal with this is to make hard pushes to finish tasks under their allotted time. By being under the time limit you can either have some free time then or you can get a head start on your next task and work to build a bigger window of free time into the end of your day!

 

Author: Charles Bennington  Co-Creator of Gym Gypsy (He came up with the name!) CrossFit Gymnastics Director and Lead Coach Co-Owner of Seaward CrossFit World's Best Husband (I awarded him that honor-VB)