I want to help you get started on your next chapter – 2024. Really getting you ready for whatever you have going and what you want to achieve or prioritize.

Therefore I will share some of my best tips to time-management and to reach my own goals. December is the month for wishes to come true and to set intentions for the coming year.

Remember, it’s never to early or too late to get your intentions back on track.

I am cheering for you. Love //Anna 🖤

12 steps to start 2024 on a high note:

1. WRITE IT DOWN // I find that tasks have a greater probability to get done if I write it down, on paper with a pen. And then write everything down, that you need to take action on and try to be as specific as possible. The more specific the higher the probability for you to actually get it done. I think that we typically put things off due to not knowing where to start, often because the task at hand is too big or too unspecified. So 1) Write it down 2) Be overly specific and 3) always take action.
   
   
2. ALWAYS TAKE ACTION // For the writing down the task to work, you actually have to take action - ALWAYS. Don’t let a task drift by unattended. This means that you should not turn the page if there are open boxes that have not been attended to yet. Remember that putting an action to a task can be to scratch it off or reschedule to another day.
   
   
3. ONE FOCUS // “If I could only finish one task today, that is really important to my project, business, exam, what would it be?” ✔️🏆 This task should take up to 1-1,5 hour. It takes a little while to really get into focus-mode, and we are always busy trying to do more things at the same time, but never really know how to get it all done because everything is “ “ equally important. So within 5 days, we have achieved nothing. Putting a focus on each day, you can find yourself getting five times more done of the important things.
   
   
4. BULK TASKS // shifting focus is not productive whatsoever. When writing down tasks, try to bulk similar tasks together. Like paying bills one day each week, or only checking emails 3 times a day, instead of every minute of every day. You’ll find it much more productive. Like the calls section in the planner - bulk your calls together
   
   
5. SET BOUNDARIES // You don’t necessarily need to be available every minute on every channel every day. Set some boundaries to when you are available for that meeting and what channels you’d like to be contacted on. Remember that free space in your calendar doesn’t necessarily mean that you have free time or capacity.
   
   Don’t let other people control your time.
   
   
6. LOG OFF // These days we constantly ON - thinking that we are productive, thinking that we are actually getting things done. In reality it is quite the opposite - when we are constantly ON, we are less productive, less present in the moment. If you log off after work or have time during your day you log off, if that’s during studying, in a meeting, with family, over dinner or when you need some time off.
   
   Log off, turn off notifications and be fully present it what you do now!
   
   
7. Write EVERYTHING down // This is one of my best tips – If you ever feel overwhelmed by all the things you have to do and not really have an overview or control – Try to write everything down! All of it. Whatever is on your mind: work-wise, personally, just about anything you have on your mind that you feel like you have to do. You will feel a lot more relaxed, just to have gotten it out of your head.
   
   For bigger, less specific tasks, separate them into smaller, more actionable tasks.
   
   
8. HOW MUCH TIME // after jotting all your ToDos down in the step above, now next to them, write in minutes how long you think each task takes. Usually, after I do this, I separate them into smaller (0-5 minutes), medium (5-30 minutes) and bigger tasks 30-90 minutes), prioritized. Then I typically take the bigger tasks, and write them into one of the project sections in the planner, so that I don’t forget about them, as they usually are quite important to move things ahead. These will be your focus tasks, that fits well with number 3 - just focus on one bigger task each day.
   
   
9. SCRATCH IT OFF THE LIST // If you did number 8, you now have two lists of tasks – smaller and medium tasks. I have found that, after I have written everything down, of things that I believe that I have to do, I get to the realization that some of the tasks simply are neither urgent nor important so I can simply scratch them off my list.
   
   Having written them down, and physically scratched them off, my mind can feel completion after all. Sometimes we think that we have more to do, than we actually have to do, so this is a good realization to come to. If you have difficulties dividing what tasks are worth keeping or scratching, I recommend using this matrix: urgent, important, etc.
   
   
10. THEN SCHEDULE // You now have your lists of the things that you need to get done, and you have scratched off all unimportant, not urgent tasks. You now only have the tasks that you really need to do, in front of you. Then you should schedule these. I think of my daily todo list like this, when I schedule ahead of time:
    
    1) One focus tasks that takes 30-90 minutes.
    2) 2-3 medium tasks
    3) a few <5 minutes tasks and calls.
    
    Try to schedule all your medium tasks right away, on a specific day (or week if you prefer that). Keep in mind the prioritized list you made earlier. I say only 2-3 medium tasks because thing pop up; meetings, emails, projects, calls etc. I schedule calls and keep the list of the smaller tasks on a separate paper in the back of my planner, as a dynamic paper that gets updated. Things that do not necessarily have a due date, but still needs to get done.
    
    I use this when I have completed my focus and medium tasks, or maybe in the little spare time before a meeting, or at the end of the day, or when you are tight in time - you can always do a smaller task and get that checked off. This makes your day a whole lot easier and to make you feel less overwhelmed and in control, so you can trust that you’ll get everything done that’s important.
    
    
11. GET STARTED // because, life goes on - so get started on your list right away. Use the reflections each week/month to track your progression. Does this system work for you? This system should help you more than you need to organize it. Then when new tasks come along, write it down and schedule them right away.
    
    
12. TELL PEOPLE // If you did these things because of a project you have or a dream you want to come true, tell people about it. Tell them what you are working on. It’ll give you a lot more motivation, as they might ask you how it’s going the next time you see them, and you’d like to have som updates don’t you?