Feeling overwhelmed? 5 ways to get through your to-do list
From home improvements to paperwork and decluttering, Anna Richardson shares practical tips for ticking off the jobs you keep putting off.
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From home improvements to paperwork and decluttering, Anna Richardson shares practical tips for ticking off the jobs you keep putting off.
We’ve all got that list of things to do. The pile of paperwork on the dining table. The cupboard that needs sorting. The home improvement job we’ve been meaning to tackle for months. Sometimes it feels like our list just keeps getting longer and longer.
Now new research has shown that six in ten of us have put off making improvements to our homes, careers and lives because we feel the “effort just isn’t worth it”.
From delaying getting active to decluttering and making home improvements, we can all be guilty of procrastination. There can be many reasons for this including feeling overwhelmed, not having the time or being influenced by the opinions of friends and family.
But when people eventually take the plunge, 70% said they experienced benefits beyond what they initially expected, while 64% wished they had acted sooner.
Clinical hypnotherapist and TV presenter Anna Richardson says procrastination is often about feeling overwhelmed rather than lazy.
Anna, who is backing the research by Smart Energy GB, says: “We’ve all done it, decided something’s going to be a faff before we’ve even given it a go, then let it drag on for months, sometimes years.
“But honestly, more often than not, once you’ve taken that first step it’s much easier and more rewarding than you’d imagined. You get your time back, stop carrying that nagging thought around with you, and often find yourself wishing you’d done it sooner.”
Anna, 55, shares her expert advice on how to manage your to-do list – whether it’s full of everyday tasks or something much bigger – and how it’s not actually as difficult as you think.
Anna believes that rather than thinking about how big the task is, you should just set a timer for five minutes and start. Whatever it is you need to do won’t feel too overwhelming if you’re only committing to doing it for five minutes.
“If you set either your phone or your watch or your old-fashioned alarm clock, whatever you prefer to use, on a five-minute timer and then start your task, I guarantee by the time that timer has finished, you are going to want to carry on with that task and complete it,” she says.
“I just think it’s a really useful tool to get over the mental block of starting something by thinking ‘We’ve only got five minutes so we can start decluttering the cupboard under the stairs.’
“And then once you start, the likelihood is you’re not going to want to stop, you’re just going to want to get the task out of the way. Often, it’s getting started that’s the hard bit, not the doing.”
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“Eat the elephant one bite at a time.” This is a phrase Anna likes to use to encourage people to not see a to-do list as a whole mountain and instead to break it down into manageable bits.
“We build these jobs up into Everest in our heads, when really, it’s more like a series of little hills,” she says. “Break tasks into small chunks – one drawer, one shelf, one lightbulb at a time – and it stops feeling like such a faff.
“I use this phrase a lot with clients that I treat as well because I’m a clinical hypnotherapist as well as a broadcaster. So eat the elephant one bite at a time.
“I think there is something about recognising that if we picture the mountain in front of us, it’s overwhelming and it’s too difficult to overcome. So this is about taking your task down into a series of small chunks and small manageable chunks, particularly if you’re older and it feels like too much.”
“Half the battle is the palaver of starting cold,” Anna says. “If you’re already in the kitchen or already up a ladder, that’s your cue: piggyback the job onto something you’re doing anyway, and it feels like less of a chore.”
To make the job seem less monotonous or hard, Anna suggests listening to your favourite podcast or watching a TV show to distract you from the actual task in hand.
“Being distracted is really good, so putting something on at the same time, either your Netflix or some music or a podcast while you’re doing it, gives your brain something else to think about while you’re doing a boring task,” she says.
“Our brains don’t like to be bored so there is distracted something around being distracted. So do something else at the same time or put something else on to distract your brain. The next thing you realise is you’ve got through it and it’s all done.”
We all know that feeling of having completed something – especially if you’ve been putting it off for a while – when you can sit down and relax with a cup of tea. Anna says it’s a feeling we should always aim for.
“I can’t think of many times I’ve finished one of those jobs I’d been putting off and regretted it,” she explains. Usually you just feel relieved – and a little bit smug. Hold on to that feeling of relief from last time, it’s usually enough to get you over the line this time.
“It almost seems like a bit of a pleasure,” Anna explains. “And once you’ve done it, you get the smugness – it’s great. Once you’ve ticked that thing off your list, you get the dopamine hit in your brain of having achieved something for the day. It makes you feel good.”
While Anna is still a fan of writing down a list of things to do – “There’s nothing more satisfying than crossing off a task” – she says it’s also important to embrace technology and apps as they can help save you money.
“When it comes to everyday tasks, writing it all down on a piece of paper can be enough but when it comes to things like your energy bills and trying to get a better deal, let technology help you,” she advises.
“Talk to your family about the apps that are out there, the technology that is out there, that’s there to help you make your life easier.
“Some things, like keeping an eye on your energy use, don’t need willpower at all once you’ve got the right tech. For example, if you have a smart meter installed, you no longer have to worry about making manual meter readings as it will do it for you, so it’s one less thing on your mental to-do list.”
Anna Richardson is working with Smart Energy GB to highlight how new technology, rules and regulations are improving the smart meter rollout.
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