Get sh*t done!

The ONE thing you need to smash through your ‘to do’ list

How long is your ‘to do’ list? Have you even managed to get it all on one page? Maybe you just don’t know where to start? Is it completely overwhelming? Never ending? Relentless?

Thinking about everything you must juggle can be overwhelming: work, home, kids, pets, life admin, socialising (now that it’s back a bit more in our lives), exercise, shopping, food prep, cleaning, washing and ironing… the list goes on. I feel harassed just thinking about writing the list of what could be on the actual list…

Feeling overwhelmed, out of control and not on top of things can make you anxious, like you can’t cope. It can cloud your mind, meaning its harder to think clearly and logically which in turn makes it harder to get things done (vicious circle, anyone?). It hampers our problem-solving ability. It can cause anxiety, forgetfulness, and mental slowness. It’s, frankly, knackering and confidence sapping.

Worried woman

Firstly, know you’re not alone. In 2018, the Mental Health Foundation ran a survey, commissioned by YouGov and found:

  • 74% of UK adults have felt so stressed at some point over the last year they felt overwhelmed or unable to cope. When you break it down,81% of women said this compared to 67 percent of men.

And let’s face it, that was pre-pandemic. The world has tilted on its axis, so it’s likely that 74% is now an understated estimate.

So, whilst it’s not nice knowing ¾ of the UK population feels overwhelmed, it’s clear to see that you’re not the only one. But what can you do about it? How do you change it?

The power of prioritisation

Stone age man asking other men about adding wheels to cart

That ‘to do’ list we referred to earlier is never ending, and it feels like a brick wall heading towards you at speed because it all needs to be done NOW. You can’t see the wood for the trees. You can’t work out what order to do things in because you JUST NEED TO START.

Tailspin anyone?

Sometimes we’re so busy “doing”, we don’t lift our heads and take stock. Taking stock could be the chance for us to reassess and find a more effective way.

Be honest… how much have you prioritised your list? What really needs to be done? What can be crossed off or delegated? What can be done in a different, more efficient way?

Introducing your prioritisation game changer…

I’d like to introduce you to something that is going to change the way you look at to do lists forever. (You can thank me later 😉).

The Eisenhower Matrix was created by Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th US President, and is a tool to help you to prioritise your tasks by their comparative levels of urgency and importance. By determining your priorities in this way, you can relieve the overwhelm, and it’ll clear your mind to focus on making inroads and getting sh*t done. (If it’s good enough for an American President, surely we’ll work with that?)

How does it work?

There are two axes- importance and urgency. Not important important. Urgent not urgent, as shown in the diagram below.

Importance and urgency report

This creates quadrants:

If something is both IMPORTANT and URGENT: (Top Left): this is ‘the house is on fire’ moment- it needs dealing with NOW! Prioritise these tasks and start here. This is a JFDI moment (just f* do it).

IMPORTANT and NOT URGENT: (Top Right): The trick here is to schedule some time for when you’re going to do it and stick to this time. This helps you to plan your diary and protects your thinking time to get the task done with a clear mind. By scheduling the time, it takes the panic away from the overwhelming list because you know that you’ll get it done. The ambition is to get as many important tasks as possible into this quadrant, taking away that pressure of urgency.

NOT IMPORTANT and URGENT: (Bottom Left): This doesn’t mean that it’s not important in general, but maybe just not as important to you as it is to other people. This is normally when there is someone who could be better placed to help out- someone who can do the task more efficiently or has a more specialised knowledge that they can apply. In this case, the trick is to delegate this to someone else. So it still gets done in the timeframe required, just not necessarily by you.

NOT IMPORTANT and NOT URGENT. (Bottom Right): This one takes really very little thought, in theory. But it may mean you have to be more ruthless in practice. By definition, these tasks deserve none of your time or energy. It might sound brutal, but there will be some tasks you do that you probably don’t need to. To work out which those are, think: is this making the boat go faster, is this helping to deliver the goals I’ve set out for myself? If it’s not, it needs to go. Losing 30mins on Instagram could be an example of this!!

Now what?

So, you’ve got your task list. You’ve got your quadrants. You’re set!

Take a moment at the start of a week to plot out your tasks on the matrix. Start with the top left quadrant and get them done!

Take the top right box and plan out time to do these tasks- blocking your calendar can be a useful way of doing this.

For the bottom left box, consider who is best placed to complete those tasks. And delegate. (I cover great delegation in another blog.)

As you go through the week, add tasks to your matrix as they arise. But be strict- make sure you’re putting them in the right quadrant based on your priorities and timeframes.

Don’t forget to cross them off as you go… that’s the fun part and will give you such a sense of achievement!!

Enjoy the renewed sense of perspective and control! You’ve earned it!

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Jo Jackson

Jo Jackson Executive Coach

Jo Jackson is an ILM Level 7 Qualified Executive Coach, Founder of Pivotal Moments and an EMCC (European Mentoring and Coaching Council) Accredited Coach at Senior Practitioner Level.