Everyday my to do lists are miles long and I just want to accomplish so much in a short twenty-four-hour period. At the end of the day when I haven’t finished that long list of things, I used to get frustrated and very annoyed with myself. I wanted things to be done and immediately in the most efficient way possible, but you know what ended up happening? I got a few things done, but ultimately, I didn’t get “enough” done, I always wanted more to be done. I was always looking for more time, more hours in a day. I have so many ideas and projects I would like to start but again never seem to have time for. I felt like I was running in circles always having a never ending to do list and getting the minimal done.

                It got to the point where I was overwhelmed, feeling discouraged and couldn’t wrap my head around how I couldn’t get my shit done. I had to re-evaluate what I was doing. I had these long lists of things I wanted to accomplish but instead of checking them off I was mostly just adding to it. Nothing was really being crossed off. I had to sit down with myself and look at what I was doing with my time. I took five days and recorded what I was doing with my time. I needed to figure out why I was always so busy that I couldn’t get my stuff done. After the five days here’s what I found, I was spending time distracted on my phone, scrolling through Facebook and Instagram. I spent about 2 hours total daily on my phone which was crazy, 2 whole hours everyday wasted on my phone. I was surprised at myself because I did not really think of myself of someone who was attached to my phone but there, I was spending lots of time scrolling. That was something that I could change though and put that time that I was on my phone to more productive things like working on these projects that I wanted to get done.

The next thing I noticed I was spending my time doing was watching tv. I was watching reruns of different shows when I came home from work. I would come home do a little tidying and then I would just sit on the couch and watch some tv. I would usually get home from work anywhere between 4:30pm- 5:30pm depending on what I had to do after work and was either on my phone or in front of the tv for the rest of the day. So, between the phone and the tv I was looking at approximately 5 hours of wasted time. How could I let this happen? I couldn’t get motivated, the next thing I looked at was at the list itself. I had said to myself that I wouldn’t spend so much time in front of the tv on my phone so now, the list.

The list of things that I wanted to do was quite hectic, it had on it anything from doing laundry and dishes to working on my blog to practicing my yoga. Even with finding the time to work on my list, it was still never ending. So what was I going to do? I had to stop adding more things and instead take my existing list and prioritize. I ended up making two different lists one that were for house chores and the other for personal projects. Then I went through them and did my house chores and just got them out of the way that day. I took my list of my personal projects, I went through and prioritized which ones I wanted to get done, this week, this month, the next 6 months and this year. This helped me make like a ladder, like I was taking one step at a time. This way I was limiting the overwhelming whole of the list and breaking it down to day by day mini goals that were still important, and I could scratch things off my to do list.

In breaking down my list I could get focused and clear on what my goals were and how to tackle them. It allowed me to take action on these things. If you are finding that you are not getting the things done that you want to, I invite you to evaluate what you are doing in a day and how long you are taking to do it. See if you can cut some excess time off an activity that is not serving you and you can use that time towards things you’d like to complete. Then if your list is longer that the piece of paper its on, separate it into categories and then prioritize. Set mini goals for each day, not a lot of them but a few that are manageable. If there is a big project you want to work on break down over the course of a month or many months and allow your self time to do it. It seems simple but we can get caught up in simple things each day like a tv show or just our own social media accounts. The bottom line is we all have the same 24 hours a day and we can say we have no time, that we are busy and all these excuses. But if we look at what we are doing in the day we may not be that “busy” and may find time to get things accomplished.

I invite you to look at your day to day routine and see if you can’t find some time where you can work in those projects, or self care time, or workout. Feel free to comment on my latest Instagram post or on our Facebook page DefyingLee Fit with where you found more time to work on the things you want.

Xo Kristy