If you’re anything like me, as a small business owner, and a mom I walk around life with a lot of “things” that live in my head. Tasks I have to do each day, tasks my kids need to do. Food that needs to be bought. I’m constantly afraid that I’m going to forgot to do something. To-do lists and brain dumps can help lesson that mental load, at least for your business.
To-Do Lists: How to do it
To do a to-do list, you take a clean piece of paper, write down all of the thoughts you carry in your head: personal and business. Get it on paper so its not living rent free in your head anymore.
Once you have it all on paper, that’s when you take a good look at it, and start putting those to-dos in their proper place. Any dates need to get put on the proper date in your calendar, if you have a pre-existing time management system, you can sort your tasks into the way you tackle your to-do list.
If you do not have another time management system, look at your tasks that you have written down and start organizing them by importance. Are there things written down that have a deadline, a “it needs to get done or someone will be mad”? Those are the things you do first. Once those task are done, move on to the next set of tasks.
Keep going down your list until your day is done, or you have no more tasks.
…And How They Help
If you’re anything like me, walking around with all these “things” that you need to do is 1) stressful, 2) you end up worrying you’re going to forget something. The biggest lie anyone ever tells themselves is “I don’t have to write that down, I’ll remember it”. You might remember it, but how much stressing about forgetting it are you going to do.
Doing a giant brain dump of everything in your head to a piece (or several pieces) of paper can really help you not worry about forgetting something. Double check to make sure you’ve written everything down from your brain dump, but then everything is written down and prioritized by urgency, and deadlines on a single piece of paper and/or a calendar.
Having everything in one place makes figuring out what your next step is easier, and you’ll make your way through your to-do list faster.
I do a big big brain dump at least once a week. There will be lots of things floating in my head, and I *have* to write them down or I will forget. I write down everything I have to do for client work, or my own work. I double check my lists, and start putting the tasks into the days that make the most sense.