Your to do list is exactly that – Yours. You need to be evaluating your list on a regular basis to make sure it fits what you can actually achieve and to account for any slippages or unexpected events/meetings that crop up that need adding to your time.

Your to-do list is not your master, it is not your foe or jailer that keeps you trapped until it is killed – but it is easy to allow your list to let you feel like this. All your list is, is a tool, a useful tool that YOU control. YOU are the master. If you were planting some lovely flowers in the garden ready for summer and the fork you were using wasn’t suitable, you would replace it with something that was – and your list is exactly the same!

Your to-do list should always reflect what you can do, not what you need to do and it is good to build some leeway into it. If you are anything like me, you will consistently underestimate the amount of time needed to get something done. I am a spectacular under-estimater and achiever of panic if I allow myself to be! To get around this I always double the amount of time i think i will need for a task. If my original estimation was correct, fantastic, I have time for a quick coffee before the next task, or I can dive straight into it. If I do this throughout the day, I may even manage to get started on a task from tomorrows list and whoo-hooo – what a feeling that is.

More often than not however, I usually manage to complete the tasks that I have set for the day because somewhere down the line, I underestimated something, or something cropped up and I need to reschedule one or two tasks onto another day because of that. But that is the key – that wonderful buzz word that is floating around everywhere now – Pivot! If you have a flexible approach to your to-do list, don’t panic over that unexpected car emergency, meeting your boss has thrown in your diary or even the recent phone call that “little Mazie has started throwing up all over the nursery staff and can you come collect her please?”

Don’t panic, pivot.

Practice those ballerina moves darling and move your priorities without getting stressed over a change of plan.

Keep that rolling to-do list active and relevent. Keep the momentum going.

Is there a task that you need to do on your list that you CAN do while you clean baby sick up from the carpet for the 5th time this hour? is there a phone call you can make while you do it? What about that audiobook you wanted to devote time to – that now you can do while you wait in the traffic jam – or for the RAC to come fix your flat tire?

As far as the boss goes? If you really like the company, feeding laxatives into the coffee may not be the optimal solution to getting the other important tasks done, but maybe saying hi and asking what he feels the work priorities should be (because you can’t fit it all in) might be a better solution?

Keeping your list manageable and reviewing it regularly to make sure it stays that way really drives your momentum forward and helps increase your motivation to meet the next day head on instead of spending half the day catching up on yesterdays uncompleted failures.