After I have learned from many top income earners, I realized their secret is to make the most of the time they have. 

Here are some simple steps to get the most out of your day.

8 Productivity Tips

Tip #1: Plan your day the night before

At the end of each day, write down all the things you need to do the following day to achieve your goals. Pull together all the information you’ll need, phone numbers and relevant paperwork. Personally, I use Trello for all the to-do-list planning before I sleep.  

Tip #2: Prioritize the list

Put your to-do-list into these four categories:

• Important and urgent
• Important but not urgent 
• Urgent but not important
• Not urgent and not important

Refer to the chart below for more details.

Tip #3: Stick to your list

Focus on your to-do-list and check off each item once you are done. This will motivate you to complete your lists as much as possible. 

Sometimes, things pop up in your days that make you unable to complete some of the tasks. That’s ok, don’t beat yourself for that. Move the uncompleted tasks to the next day or week based on its urgency and priority.

Tips #4: Focus only on 2-3 major tasks

Yes, I know it’s so tempting to finish more than three major tasks. But you probably already have so many things to do on your plate, especially if you are a busy mom. 

There are so many unplanned incidents that could happen, such as a call from the school, your kids need some help for their homework, etc. If you can’t complete two to three major tasks, then focus on one instead.

Tips #5: Don’t let yourself get distracted

The temptation is to handle the phone calls, emails and social media notifications as they come in. 

When you are working, put your mobile phones and notification into silent or airplane mode. Schedule in the time to check your messages and social media notifications instead and stick with it. 

Tip #6: Don’t procrastinate

Procrastination really is the “Thief of Time”. It’s so easy to put things off till another time or till “I’ve had time to think about it.” 

Refer back to Tip #2 above, look at the urgency and the importance level, if it needs to get done as soon, please do so. The more you procrastinate, the more tasks will be accumulated until it overwhelms and paralyzes you. 

Tip #7: Plan your leisure time

---