Imagine the end of your most productive blogging day ever. You’ve checked everything off your list that you set out to do for the day, and you lay your head on the pillow at night relaxed and ready for another productive day of blogging.
Hahaha. Who am I kidding?! Blogging is crazy big job with lots of irons to keep in the fire. There are so many blogging tasks to juggle it can get overwhelming pretty quickly. And the to-do list can easily start to feel like it’s burying you alive.
I know. I’ve been there! But I’m going to tell you the secret to staying productive as a work at home mom. Or maybe it’s a secret to staying productive period.
It’s so simple.
It’s checkboxes.
Yep, that’s right. Just checkboxes.
In college, I learned that you’re more productive when you physically write things down on paper (there’s a chemical reaction that happens in your brain with pen to paper that doesn’t happen when you type on a keyboard).
And I don’t know about you, but when I have a lot to get done, I just do a brain dump straight out into a list. It gets messy.
And then, to mark the items off as a get them finished, I scribble them out. Bad idea.
Why? Because when you scribble out your progress, you can’t look back to see how much you accomplished.
Instead, you should use checkboxes. They will keep your list tidy and help you be a more productive work at home mom. They will keep your list neat and orderly, help you remember what you’ve accomplished, and you’ll get to feel the accomplishment of ticking that little checkbox.
I don’t know about you, but that little checkbox is my favorite part. It’s like adding the cherry to the ice cream of my productivity sundae. Of course, I did the work, but it’s still missing something (the sweet little bonus at the end) until it gets a checkmark.
Let’s try this. Pretend like you’ve got lots of work to do, and imagine all those tasks on the lines below. And pretend like you just accomplished all of them.
Now, check them off.
How did that feel? Pretty great, huh? See.
I have a guilty confession to make. Sometimes, when I’m really overwhelmed and feeling stuck, I add extra (read: extra small jobs) items to my list, just so I can check them off.
Do you know what that does? It gets the ball rolling. I get all that info out of my head and onto paper so I can work freely without worrying about the tiny details. Plus, I start to feel the sense of accomplishment that comes with checking off those boxes.
Does your planner have lots of checkboxes? No? Oh no! It’s going to take you a lot of time (that I’m guessing you don’t have) to draw all those checkboxes for the next year. Yikes.
This picture is pretty, but guess what that planner is missing? You guessed it! Checkboxes.
Too bad there’s not a planner made just for you (bloggers, Etsy sellers, freelancers, I’m looking at you!) with tons and tons of checkboxes. Wait, what? There is?
Oh, right! Yes, this is your day! I have just the thing you need. Do you know how I know you needed it? Because I needed it, too. And I talked to lots of work-at-home moms about their needs to stay on course throughout the day/week/month/year.
And since there wasn’t anything out there to actually help us get stuff done (I know I was sick of hand-drawing all kinds of page layouts to record the information I needed), I graciously took it upon myself to create something just for us work at home moms that need an extra productivity boost.
This productivity planner is going to help us all to skyrocket towards our goals. It’s got a powerful goal setting planner (to help you turn ideas into action items that you can……check off!), an area to plan projects with a checklist for blog posts, a section to track your stats, manage special projects with a checklist area for tasks. And yes, it even has an entire page full of 3 columns of checklists with check boxes. I know. Plus there are some other cool things like a mind map and brainstorming sheet.
And yes, it even has an entire page full of 3 columns of checklists with check boxes. I know. Plus there are some other cool things like a mind map and brainstorming sheet.
I’m telling you, this printable planner for work at home moms is just what we have been needing to stay productive working at home. Your productivity is going to go through the roof!
You’ll find yourself making traction towards your goals instead of just spinning your wheels every day. And you’ll probably sleep better at night knowing you’ve got those boxes checked off.
Because checkboxes are my favorite thing for making real progress and staying productive.
And if you aren’t sure what to put on your checkbox list, you want to head on over here and read all about some awesome advice from one newbie blogger to another.