Dawn makes a good point about breaking big jobs into small ones. My husband does the dishes after dinner, a chore that takes about 30 to 45 minutes (no dishwasher, everything by hand). I wanted to use that time productively, too, but everything on my list felt like it required an hour or more – put away Christmas decorations and gifts (we traveled over the holidays), clean the bathroom, wash all the rugs (hardwood floors = a lot of rugs!), purge my and my son’s clothing and store/donate what doesn’t fit any more, etc.

I broke the jobs down into tasks that felt like they could be completed in 15 minutes – purge one drawer of my son’s dresser, purge one of my drawers, clean the toilet and sink, clean the shower, put away the purged clothing I decided to keep, box the purged clothing I decided to donate, etc.

To my surprise, many of the tasks I thought would take 15 minutes took less than 5. A few took a full half-hour, and some will just have to wait for the weekend (washing and drying rugs just takes at least 2 hours). However, during the time my husband has spent washing dishes each night, I have managed to complete at least two of my “small tasks”, which means that this weekend, maybe we’ll be able to knock of some of the larger ones since we’ve taken care of a good chunk of our household to-do list now!

Audiobooks have their place, but my guess is that someone with “Read more classical literature” on their list is looking for the experience of reading them. If it’s just to say you know what the story is, you can save a lot more time by reading (or listening to) a summary.

However, something I have stumbled upon is that it is SOMETIMES OK TO PROCRASTINATE. I have a constant list – and it seems that a lot of what I put off – does seem to magically work out at the right time. So – I have learned to prioritize AND trust that the secret (or power of intention) or whatever you want to call it – somehow works it out for me – when it’s the right time.

Usually the answer is that it is something that I need to do but am procrastinating, or that it is not important. Not important gets dropped, procrastinating is a signal that I have to highlight it as a “top 3″ priority list for the next day.

By the way, I don’t know if it was at Simple Dollar that I read about creating a list of the top 3 priorities for the day, but that one has really helped me manage my to do list, so thanks Trent!

When I tell my friends about how much reading I do they try telling me that I have no life. My comeback to this is what kind of life do you have watching tv all the time? I still go out on the weekends and live the same life I normally would live. The only difference is that Monday to Friday I watch maybe 2-3 hours of tv.

December tends to be a slow time for me at work, so I used that month to define my priorities. Delegating tasks to our department assistant at work made the list. I found that delegating assignments to her, with clear instructions, due dates and expectations, freed me up to focus on other tasks I wanted and needed to complete.

I’m a month into this new way of working, and so far, so good. She’s doing a great job, work is getting done and I’m no longer feeling overwhelmed or uninspired.

Someday I’ll manage some people and have to delegate. That’s going to be the toughest thing for me. I’m a “if you want it done right do it yourself” kind of guy.