💫Drowning in To-Dos? 5 Simple Hacks to Reclaim Your Day
Beat your over-critic inner voice + 13 actionable steps to help you make changes TODAY.
Is this your inner voice, too?
You didn’t do enough.
You’re a failure.
Where did your day go?
We’ve all been there sometimes: days when you feel perpetually overburdened with all your personal and business chores, goals, and “to-do” tasks without any long-term and effective system to organise them and conquer your day.
Lately, I feel overwhelmed and exhausted, trying to serve everyone’s needs, from my 9 to 5 work, kids, house chores, building a house, and building a side - hustle.
That means it’s time to go a step behind and look at how I can do better, not more.
Working harder is not a solution
Instead of taking a step back and trying to find a way to work smarter and come up with a new way to work, our typical response is to work harder and longer hours, sleep less and find ourselves exhausted and overwhelmed.
I’ve been that person (I still am, sometimes).
Years of trial and error were required to improve my productivity skills. It took me even more time to use them actively and consistently.
Here are some of the most important lessons I’ve learned over the years that have helped me use my days more productively:
1. Baby steps to better routines
Unless you're an organizing genius, you can't incorporate too many steps into your productivity at once. If you try to do that, you’ll set yourself up for failure.
As James Clear pointed out: habits are created based on repetition and frequency, not by the clock ticking. Consistency is the most important thing for each habit you want to add to your routine. After you succeed with one small change, the rest is easy — repeat and conquer.
To me, the challenge is to get back to my morning routine and productive hour - after months of obsessively following what’s happening in Serbia (the biggest protests in Europe, fighting against dictator Vucic) ruined my mental piece, my morning routine and led me to grab my phone as soon as I wake up.
So, the first step: no phone and a simple, productive routine instead of wasting time scrolling and crying (everything that happens in Serbia has deep emotional impact on me, as I left the country I love because of dictatorship and corruption).
2. Get early and use that time smart
Many successful people swear by their morning routine as the key to their productivity. How you spend the first couple hours of your morning usually sets the tone for the rest of your day.
As Hal Elrod, author of “The Miracle Morning”, says:
“Focused, productive, successful mornings generate focused, productive, successful days–which inevitably create a successful life.”
There’s something truly magical about getting up early and doing some chores before your first cup of coffee. To me, silence before my three kids make our house messy and loud is an additional bonus.
3. Get up and get moving!
I won’t try to convince you to get up at 5 AM as Robin Sharma does (although I get up at 4.30, and it works well for me; it doesn’t have to be your story). For some of you, 5 AM can be 7 AM or even 10 AM, as long as you have established a productive morning routine that helps you get things done instead of wasting your time.
For me, getting up early is a perfect start to the day, and when I go for a walk, it becomes a powerful fuel for my day. You’ll notice a significant increase in energy after getting enough sun and vitamin D. Then; you can start your “golden hour”, the most productive time of the day, when you work on a plan for what you want to accomplish that day.
If I start with the win — getting my steps done, I feel like a winner already.
4. Use time blocking
Ordinary to-do lists won’t help with overwhelming tasks and priorities. Plan your day ahead with a time-blocking technique. This approach helped me understand how much time it takes to finish every task, no matter how small.
When you divide your days into blocks, you’ll prevent overtasking, an error many ambitious productivity seekers often make. Some of the most successful people on the planet use time-blocking religiously.
To me, days with and without time blocking can’t even be compared.
If you want to try it, I have this free time-blocking daily template (printable) to help you nail your days.
5. Never miss twice
This is a golden piece of advice from James Clear’s Atomic Habits.
Our productivity (or building habits, or any self-improvement) journey often falls into a trap — all or nothing. That approach often prevents us from making progress, and we ultimately fall back to old patterns or bad habits. We’re not perfect, so occasional slips are inevitable.
But not letting them become an excuse for not putting your best self into every day.
As James Clear says in his excellent book Atomic Habits, the best way to stick to your habits or perform your routine is not to make a second mistake.
If you skip your gym or morning walk once, it’s ok. If you break your diet or sleep in one morning, it’s not a big deal. Errors are part of the process and sometimes help us grow.
But make sure not to do it twice in a row. Two mistakes are a pathway to an unwanted pattern.
What if you have to battle procrastination?
If you have problems even starting things you want to incorporate into your routine, use the 2-minute rule, coined by David Allen in Getting Things Done:
“If an action takes less than two minutes, it should be done at the moment it’s defined.”
Using this rule is the best way to escape the trap of procrastination—by avoiding it. Put on your athletic shoes and head to the gym. Start the first sentence of your article, and clean just one corner of your desk. Once you start, it will become much easier to stick with it.
How to apply these rules in your business and your days?
✅Actionable To-Do #1: Acknowledge Your Overwhelm. Take 5 minutes right now to jot down 1-3 things that make you feel most overwhelmed in your small business and marketing efforts.
Simply acknowledging them is the first step to taking control.
Here are some small things I’ve tried and tested through the years. You can start doing them TODAY.
1. Baby Steps to Better Routines:
✅ Actionable To-Do #2: Pick ONE Small Routine. Identify ONE tiny habit you want to incorporate into your daily routine that could boost your productivity (e.g., spending 5 minutes planning your top 3 tasks, writing one sentence for a blog post, opening your email only twice a day).
✅ Actionable To-Do #3: Commit to Consistency. For the next week, focus only on doing that one small routine consistently, even if it's just for 2 minutes. Track whether you did it each day with a simple checkmark.
2. Get Early and Use That Time Smart:
✅ Actionable To-Do #4: Experiment with 15 Minutes Earlier. Tomorrow, try waking up just 15 minutes earlier than usual. Use this extra time for ONE focused task related to your business or marketing before checking emails or social media.
✅ Actionable To-Do #5: Define Your "Productive Hour" Intention. Decide what ONE key business or marketing task you will focus on during your first productive hour each day. Write it down tonight.
3. Get Up and Get Moving!
✅ Actionable To-Do #6: Schedule a 10-Minute Movement Break. Today, block out 10 minutes in your calendar for a walk, stretching, or any form of movement, ideally immediately after a meal. Notice how you feel afterwards.
✅ Actionable To-Do #7: Start with a "Win." Before you start working on your business tomorrow morning, commit to one small physical activity (even a quick walk around the block). Observe if this "win" sets a positive tone for your day.
4. Use Time Blocking:
✅ Actionable To-Do #8: Block Out Tomorrow's Top 3. Identify your top 3 most important business or marketing tasks for tomorrow tonight. Then, block out specific time slots in your calendar to work on each. Be realistic with your time estimates ( I know it’s difficult)
✅ Actionable To-Do #9: Review Your Time Blocks. At the end of tomorrow, take 5 minutes to review how well you stuck to your time blocks and what you learned about how long tasks actually take.
5. Never Miss Twice:
✅ Actionable To-Do #10: Reflect on a "Miss." Track your important things - exercise, habits, and regular work commitments. Think about a time recently when you skipped a productive habit or task. Remember that one slip-up is okay, but commit to getting back on track with that habit/task tomorrow.
✅ Actionable To-Do #11: Implement the "Never Miss Twice" Rule. If you happen to skip a planned productivity task this week, make a conscious effort to ensure you don't skip it again the following day.
Battling Procrastination (Applying the 2-Minute Rule):
✅ Actionable To-Do #12: Identify a "2-Minute Task." Think of one small business or marketing task you've been putting off that would take less than two minutes to start (e.g., drafting an email subject line, scheduling a social media post, tidying your workspace).
✅ Actionable To-Do #13: Do It NOW! Immediately after reading this, take two minutes and complete that small task. Notice the momentum you create.
Am I missing the point?
I know we are all sick of “how to” content. We often know what to do, we don’t know how to do it. How do we find the time, energy, and commitment to finish things we have started?
This article is part of that effort - to be your accountability partner and help you thrive, even when the reality is harsh or we slip from our usual path. Let me know if you’d like more content like this. Please fill out this survey and help me get you know better. I won’t be able to create good content and products and services fit for you and your needs, unless I get to know you better ❣️
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