Ticking off your Accomplishments

I don’t know about you, but I’m a to-do list nerd. I love a good to-do list. Part of it for me is that I have the ability to see everything that I have to do on a specific project. The rest is, if I’m being honest, the fact that I get to cross things off my list. It gives me a great sense of accomplishment knowing that of the, say, for example, 30 tasks on my list, I only have 29 to go. The further down my list I go, the better I feel.

If you’re not into to-do lists, I do in fact get that too. I used to not rely on lists the way that I do now. Before I used to be able to keep everything organized in my head, or at least I thought I was keeping it all organized in my head. Once I started using lists to figure out what I needed to get done I became almost instantly hooked. It was incredible. My very first list actually scared me a little because of how many things were on it, so I gave it up. After going back to it with a fresh set of eyes I realized that I had two lists, so I separated them out, and got to work on one of them. once I started ticking off my accomplishments I realized how good I felt when I got things done.

Ticking off your own accomplishments will feel very much the same. I know what it’s like being at the start of a big project like the one you are very likely working on (or considering working on) but that is why the first step in the 7 step process is Setting your destination. Ticking off your accomplishments is a confidence builder in showing to yourself that you have achieved a part of your goal. I have three reasons why ticking off your accomplishments is so important to the organizational process;

1) Having a sense of Accomplishment – You may be scratching your head on this one thinking it’s rather obvious, but believe me, It’s more crucial than you think. If you simply do tasks one after the other without stopping to reflect on the fact that you have accomplished anything, you will be halfway down the process and you will get hit with a combination of wondering why you’re doing the project and what the point in continuing is. Being able to look back at what you did so far in your project gives that feeling that not only have you actually moved the needle, but you’re closer and closer to completing the entire project.

2) Building your confidence – Remember back at the beginning of your project when you were Listing your Tasks and the list seemed daunting and never ending? Now that you’re part way through the process don’t you feel better about how you’re doing? When you tick off your first accomplishments you gain confidence in yourself to continue on to the next accomplishments.

3) Gaining and maintaining momentum – As I mentioned at the top, I’m a to-do list junkie, so perhaps this is more for the To-do listers than others, but certainly when I complete a task I feel a level of compulsion to go onto completing the next one. When I get a few tasks in I like keeping that momentum up. I find that if you leave anything alone for too long you either loose interest, loose the ability to perform the tasks, or loose where you were in the project. In any of these cases it’s a loose, loose, loose situation. If you have the momentum and can keep the momentum going, my advice would be to do so.

You think your list is daunting? Great! Use that feeling as fuel to get the first few tasks done and ticked off your list. When you set your dates (Hyperlink) you looked for the low hanging fruit for just this reason. It’s to get the simple stuff out of the way so that when you have to deal with the chunkier tasks you can look at the completed side of your to-do list and say to yourself “I was able to do all that other stuff, I got this! Bring it on!”

There will be times where you will look at your to-do list and it may not look any smaller than the week, month or year before. That’s OK when this happens. When I get that, I look over what I’ve accomplished on my todo list and do my very best to get my confidence back. Sometimes it works, sometimes (if I’m honest) it takes a couple of looks through, but I do eventually get my confidence in myself back and am able to tackle the rest of my project.

The reason for taking the time to tick off your accomplishments is more than just getting things from your to do list. Taking the time to recognize your accomplishments, give yourself more confidence and build your momentum are all things that you will need to ensure that you complete a project.

 

How do you tick off your accomplishments?

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