It is Monday morning again and you are looking forward to the new week. There are so many things that you should do. The total load of activities that you have to complete during the week makes you feel really stressed. You have written down a few of them, but not all. The worst part, though, is that most weeks you don’t feel that you have completed half of the things that you were supposed to.

This is a very common situation for most people; not only in their work situation, but also in their private life. So, how can we get this situation under control? Is it really possible to live a more controlled life with less stress and even accomplish more?

This is absolutely possible with a few changes in life.

So, let us first look how you can do this in a work situation.

At a work place it is great if you can use some sort of system to track what you have on to do. This can be Task Management Software, but there are also other tools that can be used for the same purpose, that also includes other functionalities.

The most important thing is that you should always start the day by reflecting on what should be accomplished during the day. This is an attitude that you should bring wherever you go and in any situation in life.

So, start your morning at work doing this:

1. If you have a notebook where you have written down thoughts, put them into the system. A notebook is a great way to transfer your thoughts from your brain. If you don’t have the thoughts in a notebook, I bet there are a few in your brain that you should write down.

Add the thoughts into the system and try to plan which day they should be accomplished.

Sometimes one task can be divided into sub-tasks and you are able to plan one sub-task one day and another some other day.

2. Thoughts that are about already created tasks come up because you haven’t thought through them enough. These thoughts are also important to add to the system. They complement the information that is already there. It could be ideas of how to perform the task, who could help you, etc.

3. Do a few of the tasks so that you feel that you have gotten started.

During the day, most people have a few moments when you don’t really know what to do. Before you had a Task Management Software, you felt that there was no idea to start something new and anyway, if you had the thought that you could, you just couldn’t make your mind up on what you wanted to do.

During these moments you perform the smaller tasks and tick them off to show that they are done.

The bigger tasks need to be planned. You should make a habit of putting off time at the same time every day to perform these. This is, of course, naïve to believe that you will be able to do every day. But, most days are actually quite possible to do that way. If you, for example, normally work between 8am – 5pm, you can probably spend until 8.30-9am to perform your tasks. Another really good time is just before you go to lunch and just after lunch.

At the end of the work day, just before leaving from work, sit down for a few minutes and write down your thoughts on the tasks that have not yet been accomplished. This will help you get them from your brain and let you stress down.

It is important to prioritize your tasks and understand that you need to be disciplined in performing them. It is also extremely important to take your time to write down what you need to do. The best thing is absolutely to have a notebook and pen that you bring everywhere you go. Every time that you get reminded of things that you need to do, write them down and you will easier be able to release this thought from your brain. Most people who start doing this feel that they become much less stressed. They also feel much better about themselves since they accomplish much more and even release time to relax.