I was thinking about all I have to do – home schooling my children, being a wife and mother, caring for my house, cooking, teaching piano, blogging, and designing.  This post was born out of my realization that, without a plan of action, I will not be able to complete the things I need to do.

Here are my 5 Steps for Successfully Finishing Any Task:

1. Be Selective – Don’t accept a task just because someone asks you to do it.
   Pastor Bill Wingard says some profound things, and one of my favorites is the following:

   “You can do just about anything in life that you want to do, but you can’t do everything.”

   I have found that to be absolutely true.  I want to help everybody, and I have a very hard time saying no to a request.  However, if I were to accept every job offered to me, I would be overwhelmed and would end up doing a poor job on every job.  If, instead, I carefully select which jobs I will accept, I will have time to give my best to each job.

2. Be Realistic – Allow yourself enough time to be able to complete a task without having to sacrifice quality to be able to finish that job on time.
   I am an optimist, and that is not a good thing when it comes to determining how much time it will take me to finish a job.  I always think I can finish a job sooner than I really can, and I end up stressed out when the time comes that the job is supposed to be finished and it isn’t.  I’m learning to give myself double the time I think I need to finish the task.
3. Be Organized – break a task into smaller portions and set goals for when you will complete each portion.
   When I work on a custom design package, I usually begin with the header and give myself 2 days to come up with 3-5 designs.  After a header is approved, I proceed to work on the background.  Then comes signatures, buttons, banners, and so on.  This keeps me motivated, because I can see the progress I have made when I check off another goal.
4. Be Accountable – tell someone what you have and have not accomplished for your task.
   There is nothing like having to tell someone what you haven’t done to motivate you to get moving!  For me, this step means keeping my clients up to date on the progress of their design, including having to tell them if I am behind schedule.  Having to tell them they will have to wait a bit longer for a design is not a good feeling, and it motivates me to stay on track and keep working.
5. Be Determined – don’t allow yourself to be sidetracked
   I have found that I accomplish more by only tackling one task at a time.  When I “multi-task,” all too often I waste valuable time trying to figure out where I had left off in each task.  Instead of multi-tasking, I need to focus on completing one task (or one goal for a task, like in step 3) before going on to something else.

When I follow these steps, I am able to completely finish my work (home, design, or otherwise) more quickly.

How about you?  What is your secret to gettings things done?