Thankfully, I have found a few things that work for me.

So, are you ready to find out how to have a productive day? I’m going to share my best tips with you!

How to Have A Productive Day

Plan A Week In Advance

I used to plan my day the night before but I have found that I do better when I plan my entire week at once. This allows me to space things out and determine what items need to be done sooner in the week. I use the Productivity Planner to plan out my week. You can read all about how I use this planner here. You can also purchase your own Productivity Planner by clicking here.

Complete the Most Important Task First

For the longest time, I’d create a detailed list full of stuff I wanted to accomplish, then I’d look at my list and do the easiest tasks first. By the end of the day, my list had all the easy stuff checked off but not a lot of the important tasks checked off. After reading this book, I realized that I had to get the most important items done first, even if that meant I didn’t do anything else.

Time Block

Time blocking doesn’t work as well for me at this stage of my life since I have an unpredictable 10-month-old. However, there was a time when all the kids were in school and I could time block my day. Time blocking allowed me to always know what I should be working on at any given moment. If you want to read up more on time blocking, check out this awesome book!

Batch Your Work

There are some tasks that I love to work on and others that I’m not a big fan of. I have found that by batching my work, I can knock out a lot at one time. For example, I hate doing laundry so doing it every day would just be torture. Now, I spend one day a week doing all of the laundries and I’m done for the week. I love that once I’m done, I don’t have to think about it for at least another week. You can batch just about any task you have on your list.

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What are your tips for having a productive day? I’d love to hear about them!

If you enjoyed this post, make sure to check out some of my other popular posts!

5 Tools to Increase Productivity

5 Blogging Hacks

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How To Organize A Small Bathroom

Store Vertically

Counter space is a luxury in small bathrooms. While it might be a nice idea to spread all your things out over the counters, the best thing to do is to store your things up instead of out. Buy a few storage towers, some for your counters and maybe a few for the corners of the bathroom. You can put smaller things in these spaces, like clips, hair ribbons, etc. And, you’ll be taking up minimal space.

Utilize the Cupboards

No bathroom has enough drawer space. And while that big cupboard is great for a single layer of things, if you have more items than space, you’ll want to at least double that space. You can install slide out drawers, the kind that are used in kitchens, to add layers to your cupboard. Or, if you want several layers, try a lazy Susan tower. This will give you more space, plus the fact that it turns will help you get to your things easier.

Use the Walls and Door

If you’re renting, you should check with the landlord before attempting this. But, walls and doors are often unused space in a bathroom, perfect potential for extra storage. You can hang extra towel roads that can be used for hanging storage containers, like mason jars or baskets. There are several options for hanging storage solutions online. If you have empty walls or a door without a towel rack, you can add as many as you like!

Handle Your Towels

Towels are a necessary evil in a bathroom. You need them, but they tend to take up a lot of space. For the towels you’re using, try adding coat hooks to the wall or behind the door. It will allow you to hang several towels, since towel rods tend to get full extremely fast, and it looks super classy. If you keep your extra towels in your bathroom, you can add a shelf along an empty wall or even above the door to store stacks of towels. If you have a little extra counter space, try rolling the towels and placing them in a basket, which works especially well with hand towels.

Don’t Forget the Toilet

Not in the toilet, but behind and above the toilet there’s usually a lot of unused space. You can hang up shelves or baskets above the toilet to store things you don’t use as often. You can also find towers that will slide right around your toilet, giving you a great place to store extra toilet paper and cleaning supplies.

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How to Make an Effective To-Do List

Be Realistic

This is a hard one and will definitely take some time to tweak, but in order for your list to be effective, you need to write down realistic goals. Take into account how much time you have and how important the items are before you put them down. If it helps, make two lists: One for things that need to be done immediately and more general ones for the future.

Be Specific

When you start writing your list of realistic things that you need to get done, be as specific as possible. This will help you focus when it comes time to do the things on your list. So, instead of saying “Clean the Kitchen”, write down “wipe the counters”, “empty out the fridge”, or “fill the dishwasher”. Having these smaller, step-by-step tasks will make the concept of ‘cleaning the kitchen’ much more doable.

Stay Focused

Having things to do is one thing, but being overwhelmed by them is a completely different matter. However, if instead of looking at everything you have to do and worrying about that, you focus on one thing at a time, you’ll find yourself much less stressed. That’s why descriptive to-do lists work so well. You have these small things to do, which will snowball into the bigger things you want to accomplish. And, since you can do these smaller things easier, it will keep you from being stressed because you’re actually doing something.

Prioritize

This is kind of a continuation of #3. Put your most important things at the top of the list, so that you get those done first. You’ll be surprised at the weight that falls off your shoulders when you get to check something off that has been pressing on you. And, by putting these things first and completing them, you’ll definitely be able to look back on your day and say you’ve accomplished things.

Keep it Short

As mentioned in #1, you can have multiple to-do lists. One might be for the day, the other for the week, and another that’s more general. Breaking these activities into bit sized lists will help you focus. It’s a well-known fact that when the mind feels too stressed, it starts to shut down. So, having a list of 5-10 specific and realistic items to do will keep you motivated without the stress that comes with seeing a never-ending list of things to do.

Additional Resources (Affiliate Links)

• Eat That Frog – Time Management Book (Free with your Amazon Audible Trial)
• Epic Blog Planner
• Moms Ultimate Family Organizer
• Tell Your Time
• 21 Days to A More Disciplined Life

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