You’re hopeful that you’ll tick all the boxes by the end of the day. 

The problem is you end up neglecting some important tasks, causing inconvenience or unnecessary stress later on down the road.

Without priorities, you find that your busyness isn’t reflecting in your productivity. How do you prevent this from happening?

You wonder how high performers do it. There’s no magic trick, but it will take a little know-how and some habit-forming.

Set Daily Goals

Setting a clearly defined goal is the first step to achieve it. If you want to start achieving your goals, especially long-term goals, start by setting a SMART goal. 

For example, if you want to get into better shape, set goals for how much weight you want to lose, how long you walk around your neighborhood, or how many push-ups you want to do every day. This will help keep you motivated and on the path to achieving your goal.

However, this doesn’t mean that achieving goals is an easy task. This is because we are constantly faced with obstacles that prevent us from achieving our goals. 

The process to achieving any goal involves setting a SMART goal, planning, and evaluating your progress.

You can plan your day according to your overall goal using a template for a daily planner. Think about the top 3 things you want to accomplish for the day. Make those the priority.

Productivity Starts With You: Understand How You Operate

First things first. Take some time to think about your personality, the kind of person you are, the times of the day you’re most productive and the times you’re more active than passive. 

This will help you create a feasible list so that when the time comes you can tackle your daily tasks at optimal times of the day. For example, schedule intensive tasks when your energy is the highest and you’re the most attentive.

It’s important to prioritize not only your tasks but also your tasks for specific times of day.

A great way to figure this out is to note the tasks and activities you engage in regularly and how you feel while doing them. Write down the time of the day or moments when you consciously or otherwise give in to multitasking or other unproductive habits.

Are you most productive in the early hours of the day or are you a night owl? Do you feel the need to multitask in a bid to accomplish more in less time? Are you always carrying over tasks to the next day, week, month and year? 

Write down your answers. You’ll need it when creating a smart to-do list.

Once you understand how you operate, you can move on to things like creating a productivity system to using a template for a daily planner to work toward your daily goals. 

How to Prioritize Your Day for Maximum Productivity & Stick With It

It is hard to stick with your day-to-day schedule and stick to the plan you’ve set for yourself. But it’s worth the effort because it will make you more organized, less stressed, and more productive.

The first step in prioritizing your day is to use a template for a daily planner. It should include a list of what you need to do. That include your top priorities as well as a list of things that are not urgent but still need to be done. 

The second step is finding a productivity system that works best for you. 

The third step is making sure that you always follow this system, even on days when it doesn’t seem like much work needs to be done. 

This is where habit-forming comes into play. The more you start to build a habit of something, the easier it will become for you to wake up every day and do it. 

A key tool to all of this is using a template for a daily planner. You need to be able to prioritize your day and your tasks and then stick to them.

Create an Effective Task List for Your Daily Goals

Creating a task list with a template for a daily planner is the basis for your productivity system. It helps you note the tasks you need to follow through with, prioritize what you need to accomplish, and align to your goals for each day. Your to-do list is the plan you work with throughout the course of the day.

Consolidate Your Task List

Your to-do list is sure to come from various sources. You receive a multitude of emails from team members or clients. You have action items from the meeting minutes. Your team members send you a request via instant message. 

In order to efficiently prioritize your day, you need a master list that contains all of those tasks. Choose a single location to organize your master list. It could be a notepad, a notebook, sticky notes, an app or email inbox. 

The most important thing is that your master list contains all of your tasks so you can determine how to prioritize them.

Analyze Your Task List

If you’re like a lot of people, you’ll carry on your day moving from task to task so you can accomplish as much as possible. 

How often do you take a break from your busy schedule to intentionally think through the tasks you have to accomplish? Or the implications on the goal you’re working towards?

Once you have your master list, you can review each task to assign priority levels. Here, you can use the 4-D rule to fit each task into one of the four categories:

• Do: Complete the task now
• Defer: Complete the task later
• Delegate: Assign the task to someone else
• Delete: Remove the task from your list

The next step is to quickly finish important tasks that can be completed within five minutes. Afterward, you can delegate certain tasks to others and take them off your list. This includes tasks for which you’re waiting on others. 

You can set a reminder to add it to a shared project file or on your calendar so you can follow up on it later. You will be free from the burden of seeing it on your list all day.

Then, remove tasks you don’t really have to do or tasks that have been on your list forever. These might be items that have little or no value compared to the effort required.

This leaves you with the tasks you deferred. These are tasks that would be nice to complete, but if you didn’t, then the day could still be a success. 

If a new task comes up, the proper thing to do is create a place for it on your list and follow that order.

As you tick each task, you will feel more effective and in control of your time. That’s a step closer to becoming a high performer.

When to Create Your Task List

If you choose to create your task list from your template for a daily planner the night before, set it aside after you finish, away from your bed and out of your mind. Realize that you’ll take care of everything the next day.

Don’t worry about it as you try to fall asleep so you can receive an adequate amount of rest. That way you’ll have the energy to accomplish those tasks.

Or you can create your task list first thing in the morning before you start anything so that you know exactly what needs to be done during the day. This will save you from wasting any time.

Schedule Your Priorities

Once you know who you are and the best times of the day to get certain tasks, it’s important to organize and schedule your tasks according to their priority levels. This will be sourced from what you fill out using your template for a daily planner.

Are there tasks that prevent other things from further progressing? For example, do you need to research a topic or analyze data before you can send material for another team member to put together a deliverable?

Prioritizing your day is an important skill to master. The key is to plan ahead and set goals for the day with a template for a daily planner. 

You can include all of the necessary components such as your:

• morning routine
• morning tasks
• evening routine
• evening tasks
• daily tasks

It’s also important to set boundaries so that you don’t overload yourself, which can lead to stress and anxiety.

Scheduling your priorities will help you step out of the shadow of being busy so that you can actually deliver value for the resources you put into a task and become a high performer.

Know When to Move On

You may not always tick every box but over time you will be able to create a productivity system that works. One that allows you to work on the most important things every day. 

If you make mistakes at any point or something doesn’t go as planned, don’t use it as an excuse to give up. Let it end with the day. Don’t carry over the mistakes or failures of the previous day into a new day. 

Make a conscious effort to learn from your experiences and then move on productively. What you need to do is follow the plan for the new day. If something important did not work yesterday, find a way to make it work today.

Conclusion

Apply this to your short-term and long-term goals. Live out your goals by taking baby steps in the right direction daily. 

Be flexible and remember, when you start feeling overwhelmed by the pressure to deliver, pause and breathe. Look at your master task list where everything is laid out and prioritized for you. Follow that list as your plan of attack.

Eventually, you’ll realize that your time will shift from mere busyness to productivity. You won’t be consumed with the burden of everything on your plate on a given day, but you’ll possess the focus to tick the boxes that matter.

In the midst of all of this, be sure to stay true to your values and goals, and don’t hesitate to ask for help when you need it.

Doing things this way will ensure that you are completing the tasks that are necessary for a successful day.