You know those days when you know in the morning that today’s To Do list is going to be longer than you could capture on a single list?
On those days I tend to either write everything down on random sticky notes and spread them somewhere on my desk or try to keep everything in my head. The latter, however, often ends up with me forgetting little things or my day somehow never ending because I keep remembering of more things I need to do. Please tell me I’m not the only one.
For days like this, I have two quick bullet journal layouts for you today that will hopefully help you keep track of all your to-dos, appointments and other notes.
Option 1: Many meetings and a long To Do List
On days when there are many meetings and a lot to do at the same time, it is always particularly important to set the right priorities. Your time is precious – and limited – so you should use it for the really important things and put everything that could possibly wait until tomorrow on the back burner.
For the layout of this daily overview, I strongly recommend having a place for your top 3 priorities. This is where you write down the 3 most important tasks that you absolutely have to accomplish today. And if you only manage these 3, but no other task, your day was successful! Underneath, you can list all the other tasks that still need to be done today. No matter how big or small these tasks are, write them down before you forget something.
My tip: The more meetings you have in a day, the less space you should plan for to-do’s. It is unrealistic to assume that you can work productively if you have to attend meetings all the time. Write to-do’s that can wait directly into the next day and banish them from your mind for today.
Depending on what kind of meetings you have and how you take notes, it is always handy to have space for notes directly on the daily overview. Here you can write down everything you want to remember. It doesn’t matter how useful these notes are. At this point, the following applies: on the page is off the mind! This way you can focus on the most important things today.
Option 2: To Do List for your best possible productivity
For those days when there are fewer meetings but super much to get done, this overview is just the thing.
On the right side you have plenty of space for all your to-dos. No matter how big or small the task, you can write everything down here. I actually recommend packing the tasks as small as possible. This way you will feel a sense of achievement more quickly and at the end of the day you will see better how much you have really achieved.
On the left side, I like to use a daily planner to block out time for the few meetings I have coming up. This helps me not to miss these meetings.
You can also use this schedule to block out time within your day for specific tasks. For example, if you have a lot of small tasks that you can work on one after the other, you could set a blocker of 1 to 2 hours in which you only concentrate on these tasks. I strongly recommend that you put these blockers in your work calendar so that your colleagues can see that you are busy during this time.
Optional: You can leave space for notes at the bottom of the page. Maybe you have thoughts about the day that you don’t want to forget, conversations where you get important information or just a great idea what you could cook for dinner. This would be the perfect place to write it down.
Not in the mood or no time to create an extra Bullet Journal?
In case you are really stressed out, I have something great for you. I recently opened my little Etsy shop and there you can find two daily planners for download*. So if you need a quick fix, you can just buy my Daily Planners and either print them out or use them as a digital file on a tablet.
In general, I hope you don’t have many stressful days when you can’t keep track of all the tasks and meetings. I hope I could offer you a little help for such days. Xo – L.
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