Struggling with overwhelm and procrastination? We may be a couple of months into the new year, but it's never too late to get back on track if you find yourself falling off the wagon. Here're some tried and tested steps that have worked for myself & others in keeping organised and getting things done!
1. LIST & BRAIN-DUMP
Jot down all pending to-dos, ideas or even shopping lists that might be weighing you down mentally. For heavier projects, it is advised to break them down into smaller, actionable steps so that they look less overwhelming and reduces your urge to procrastinate.
Penning down your mind clutter helps to free up mental space, and listing out your tasks provides better visual clarity when it comes to planning your time. This is also great for reminding yourself of little tasks and errands that may occur to you throughout the day, especially if you struggle with poor short-term memory.
To do this, you may use any digital note-taking apps or our daily notepads, whichever more convenient for consistency. If you’re a pen and paper person, we have several notepad options at the moment and you may refer to the following chart for a comparison.
From left to right: Winter Petals Daily Notepad, Spring Fields Daily Notepad, Sunset Hues Mini Notepad
2. SORT & PRIORITISE
Now that you have your list, it’s time to regroup!
Go through your notes and pick your priorities to focus on for the day or week. When it comes to priorities, less is more. It is recommended to keep to no more than 3 priorities at any time, for better performance and to avoid overwhelm. After all, it’s better to execute 1 important task successfully, than to juggle between a dozen incomplete ones. The remaining tasks can be placed on the back burner, and slotted in the remaining time between your most essential work.
A weekly planner is recommended to support this, as you can allocate your tasks to each day of the week at a glance, and repeated on a weekly basis. Choose between our Winter Petals Weekly Planner, a slim and fuss-free desktop planner with pages that can be torn off as you go, or our Spring Fields Weekly Planner, a ring-bound desktop planner in a larger format (A4) that includes ‘Priorities’ and ‘Notes’ columns.
From left to right: Winter Petals Weekly Planner, Spring Fields Weekly Planner
3. SCHEDULE
Monthly planners are useful for keeping an overview of your schedule and planning your days on a broader scale.
Our monthly planners are similar to a large format calendar but dateless so that you can start anytime. Whether you use pen & paper or a digital platform like Google calendar, monthly planners are more ideal for jotting down appointments, events, key deadlines and more, as some find the grids in a monthly view too restrictive for listing to-do lists within the boxes.
Our Winter Petals Monthly Planner and Spring Fields Monthly Planner may be similar in size (A4), but they vary slightly in their binding styles and layout as listed in the following comparison chart.
From left to right: Winter Petals Monthly Planner, Spring Fields Monthly Planner
BONUS TIP #1
To save space on your desks, our larger format desktop planners (A4) may double as mousepads.
Alternatively, you may consider getting a small easel to display your desktop planners vertically. This saves horizontal desk space, and is easier for viewing too! The easel pictured is from Daiso, but Shopee carries similar ones as well (30cm will suffice).
BONUS TIP #2
Business owners, here's an idea for you: Use a separate planner for planning your workflow, from scheduling of social media content to launch timelines. You may also use different coloured highlighters to colour code various categories (ie: Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms).
I personally love drafting plans in pencil, then transferring the information to a digital calendar once plans are fixed. Writing with a pen and paper gets the brain juice flowing more effortlessly!
That said, different people have different styles of working, and so your mileage may vary when it comes to adopting new steps and hacks that are recommended by others. If you prefer watching videos, we have also made the following reel below covering some of the tips mentioned, or head over to our Instagram page for more content like this.
Ultimately, it takes time and effort through trial and error to fine-tune your very own set of practices for optimal productivity, but most importantly, don’t forget to be patient and kind with yourself through the process!