Now I wouldn’t call myself the most productive person I know, but from time to time I go have spurts of productivity and am able to do a large amount of tasks in a small time frame. I have become better over the last few years at managing my time and getting things done. I figured I would share how I get things done in order to better help some of the less organized out there.

One good way of getting more productive is to make yourself a list.

Now I know some people poo-poo this idea because it sets a goal that you can not reach. Your to do list might be really huge, and looking at it might discourage you from moving forward. For me though, a list is a good way to help me remember what my daily tasks should be and what my weekly tasks should be.

You shouldn’t put things on your list like “brush your teeth” or “take a bath”. Hopefully those are given tasks that you know that you will do by the time the day is over with. Things marked on the lists should not be everyday goals you set out to do. They should be the odd little things that take up your free time.

I want you to create two notes to yourself. One should be what you want to get done in a day (normal day to day tasks that you need to make note of). The other should be things you need to get done by the time the week is over with (these can be bigger tasks or jobs that you do not need to do every single day).

For example, if I know I have to write five articles, I could try to write them all in one day – but then they would probably be a little suckstatic in their quality. Instead, I have five days in the work week, so I can write down on my daily to do list – write an article. This way one job that would take several hours can now be spread out through the week and take only a few minutes.

Now what is a good way to write these notes to yourself? Here are a couple of program that should help you out in that department. Both allow you to put little sticky notes on your desktop to write things down on.

+ StickyPad
+ ATnotes
+ Stickies

The great lesson to be learned is to not overwork yourself. Instead of doing one big job today, make it into several little jobs you can spread out through the week. This way you can have more hours of your day to do other things you need to do.