Guide to the compilation of lists and made

You would think that you all day twist like a squirrel in a cage, and you do not have time for something very important? For example, you do not have time to communicate with family and friends or to be creative. Or simply to realize plans that always pigeonhole.
If you constantly focus on the tasks to which you do not reach your hands, or that Today you once again nothing has been done, you can get into a vicious circle from which it is very difficult out. All of this will gradually lead to stress and emotional burnout. The picture will be quite sad: jobs in your to-do list will never end, but the work will only be added.
But there is a way to break out of this circle. If you stop for a minute, look at your list and acknowledge that made a lot of really good things, you will have enough motivation, willpower and determination to further work. You will see the direction in which you move on.
When you learn how to properly make to-do lists, you will work more efficiently and to carve out enough time on other important aspects of life, without losing the strength and inspiration.

Each of us was once list. This is a common method of increasing productivity. We draw up lists in an attempt to bring order to the chaotic lifetime. This is a purely human trait. However, the effect of making the list of cases is sometimes frustrating and frankly disappointing.
From the lists, iDoneThis applications created by users, 41% of the points had not been executed at all, 50% of completed items was carried out for one day, 18% of completed items - for an hour, 10% - of minute.

Lists are useful for organizing the current challenges. But their compilation is not obviate the problems associated with productivity. the feeling of satisfaction with cancellation of the points made quite fleeting: not so important how many tasks failed, because in front of waiting for new ones.
If you are considering doing things as a constant torment, you will always suffer from anxiety and undermine motivation.
When you are not paying enough attention to what you really succeed, you stop to see the prospects, give in guilt, you feel like a failure, and burns. It is different when you give yourself a break and pay more attention to their achievements, making a list of already made. For inspiration and motivation simply to record everything that you could do in a day, and do it regularly.

If you have done something that you consider useful for yourself, write it down in the list. At the end of the day will appreciate this list. Think about everything that you could catch, and praise yourself for it.
Making a list of to do, you will be able to pay tribute to all his achievements, not missing anything. This list includes the fact that you did not originally planned to do, and not included in the list.
Using the list made by you will be able to appreciate their efforts. If you find the time to his drawing, you get a charge of motivation and inspiration, which will improve your self-esteem. As found Harvard Business School professor Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, a psychologist, even small victories contribute to future progress.
When you write that done, you can easily track your progress. In addition, the focus of your attention is shifted from painful unfinished business on the real achievements. Motivation is much more useful than the useless emotions.
Lists did develop a reflection and raise awareness. With their help you understand how and why you got to where you are now, that gives you strength and patience to move forward.

Many productive people do not notice their productivity. Sometimes the trap of thinking works inversely: the more productive you are, the more likely it is that at the end of the day you will not be satisfied with its achievements. Ambitious people measure their success by how they approached their targets. So sometimes they may not appreciate the small daily victories.
In addition, the more you have time to do during the day, the more difficult to keep track of all the concrete classes. Long before he founded Netscape Communications, Marc Andreessen has made a significant leap forward in his career, but he did not escape this trap.

To deal with this pernicious trend, Mark decided to compile a list made, which he ironically called his antispiskom Affairs. Every time during the day he was able to do something useful, he wrote it in the list, which was located on the numbered cards.

Reach a large and distant goals is not easy. If you get tired too, so every day to evaluate your progress, you will sooner or later vpadote disheartening.
List made will give you the necessary energy. No need to wait for great things. Rejoice in small achievements, appreciate these tiny daily moments of triumph. May they become for you a source of inspiration and recuperation after a hard day's work.

Daily or once a week set aside time to reflect on the progress - this is a good life hacking to improve productivity. It would seem, so you spend more time at one job, but the achievements of the track will give you enough energy for the rest of the case.
Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer proved that even small achievements in the work, which means a lot to you, strongly motivated. Encourage yourself for daily progress - this is a positive inner work. People who do this kind of work, involved in what they do. Negative inner workings of a negative impact on productivity and sense of being in the present moment.
Maintain lists done and recording your observations and thoughts as you complete quests to raise awareness and help make progress.

Professor of psychology and behavioral economics Dan Ariely conducted a study proving how much people whose achievements were recognized, ahead of the rest in terms of productivity, even under the condition that their work was not very important.
Three groups of participants were to perform a simple task on a piece of paper and get a 55 cents. After each page covered with writing, they can continue the job in exchange for the next page 5 cents less, or stop him perform.
Participants in the group, which was to get recognition, write down their names on pieces of paper, before while leading to hand over their experiment that looked at them, nodded and folded in a special folder. Work group members ignore leading folded into the pile without any reaction. Members of this group have not written on slips of their names. The subjects of the third group and have not signed their works, which are placed directly in the leading shredder.
What was the outcome? The first group carried out a large amount of work and make more money than others. The productivity of the group ignored was very close to the productivity of the third group. This shows that the lack of recognition is almost equivalent to the destruction of the results of labor. It is therefore important to appreciate what you are doing.
The problem is that sometimes the progress is very difficult to track. Another study Ariely shows how planning workflow is important to note all of their achievements.
Students are paid for what they collected figurines of LEGO Bionicle designer. For each new figure of students received less money. The first group saw their creations dismantled immediately after they were built. Members of the other group put each toy on a separate table, before proceeding to the next. They were told that the figures disassemble after use. As a result, the second group has done more.
The ability to track your progress allowed the second group continue to do figures, despite the declining earnings and the prospect of their early removal.
You also can keep track of your progress. To do this, only to pause and assess their own achievements.

Group recognized the progress positive effect on teams and organizations. Group lists made up the whole system improve productivity, which is used by many successful companies ranging from Google and ending Buzzfeed.

When did the Google, Larry Schwimmer, one of the first developers of the company, discovered a simple but effective solution to the problem of productivity that is used to this day in the vast Silicon Valley.
Under this system, called Snippets workers receive weekly mail message. It contains a reminder that the staff have to record what they did last week, and they plan to do next. Responses were collected in a public place, and the next day is automatically allocated to the right department.
Snippets - a powerful solution to enhance productivity and tracking, it offers a variety of companies. This seemingly routine process helps employees estimate and sketch a plan for future action. At the same time, it requires a minimum investment of time and does not interfere with the work process.
Every week the staff Buzzfeed send messages to President and Chief Operating Officer John Steinberg. In these reports, they describe over what worked and what they need help. Any employee can also subscribe to someone else's snippets. As for John, he familiarize weekend with a selection of snippets, and then sends the sender of your questions and comments.
This system helps to see the big picture of what is happening in the company, and at the same time to assess the contribution of each employee in its development. It forces the employee to track your progress, to share it with all of his colleagues. Yes, sometimes the workers are happy with themselves, and sometimes they are disappointed in productivity, but it's even more motivating them to prioritize and allocate effort. Such transparency can show what really works, and that - no.

At work, we often distinguish little time for reflection and self-organization. We are afraid that it would look as if we do nothing. Maybe that's why people can not possibly take a healthy reflection a habit. However, this alleged idleness develops productivity and creativity.
As explained by Professor of Psychiatry Byram Karasu, it is necessary to relate the thoughts and feelings, to bring them in order to achieve harmony and consciousness. Reports to the team to help build communication, better plan their activities, enhance creativity and get enough inspiration to work.

Emotions strongly influence how we think and solve problems. How do you imagine his reaction, which ideally would affect your productivity? Most believe that in terms of performance the best emotions - it is their absence. All of us are advised to keep a cool head, think rationally and not let emotions control us. However, emotions have an impact on your level of productivity and motivation.
Parts of the brain that are responsible for emotions, are also associated with perception and cognition. It was believed that certain parts of the limbic system of the brain - a separate emotional centers. But in fact, they are also associated with the formation of memories, learning and concentration.
In the book "Descartes Error: emotion, reason and the human brain," neuroscientist Antonio Damasio describes his patient Elliott. He prefrontal cortex has been damaged, so he could not experience emotions. He also lost the ability to make decisions.
Our brain works in such a way that we can not prevent emotions affect our assessment of the situation. All these feelings are necessary for us to think and make decisions.

If you are experiencing negative emotions, your motivation can go on the decline. Fear, anxiety, sadness affect our productivity and creativity. They make us think in a limited and weaken our memory, the ability to planning and decision-making. In addition, the stress does not help to work better. Through research Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer have also shown that suffering does not help to achieve a better result.
Amabile and Kramer analyzed the diaries, in which about 12 000 employees recorded on its progress and setbacks in the work. These workers also describe what kind of emotions they experienced during the experiment. Scientists have correlated the levels of happiness or frustration with the data on the progress and regress. The results made them think.
It turned out, the negative impact of recourse to what is happening in your inner world, affects motivation is three times stronger than a positive force for progress. Probably because of their own experience, you know that bad events are remembered much easier and kept in mind for longer than joyful.
Why it happens? This is a natural mechanism that emerged in humans in the course of evolution. We continue to scan their surroundings for threats, it was necessary for his defense. In this regard, our brain works well in situations of short-term stress.
As for the long-term stress, it has a negative impact on the brain, reduces mental capacity and impairs cognitive function. This affects the speed of information processing, memory, attention, ability to learn languages ​​and to perform mathematical operations. At the same time begins to run negative emotional reinforcement, we become susceptible to fear.
Dr. Amy Ernst, professor of neurobiology at Yale University, called it a "reconfiguration of the brain to slow meaningful regulation on an unstable emotional reactions." In other words, from the sentient beings we become restless cats chasing laser pointer twinkle. You can not focus on the task you want to perform. You are easily distracted by the slightest stimuli, and anxiety interferes with concentration.
Stress that we experience because of the concentration on the failures and the constant pressure from the outside, kills in us the productivity, creativity and the ability to make sound decisions. Only the awareness of what is happening with our emotions that affects our motivation can help to get out of this vicious circle.

Positive emotions, on the contrary, have a positive impact on our mental abilities. They simplify the decision-making process, making the mind more flexible, improve motivation. In addition, positive emotions have a lasting effect.

When using the list to do, you focus on your achievements and pay enough attention to their inner As you notice patterns and find non-trivial solutions of problems arising in your professional and personal life. This allows you to not only more conscious approach to the work you are doing, but also to regulate their emotional state.

If your day went well, you will feel a surge of motivation. But what about the not the most successful days? How not to fall into the vicious circle in which we are driving the negative emotions? Setbacks and obstacles de-motivate and deprive the energy of even the most self-confident people. Especially if they do not get any positive feedback.
If you go to sleep with negative thoughts will probably wake up with them as you. So you are dooming themselves to a dead end. To avoid this, take a moment and focus on the positive. As a result, you will become more motivated, ready to work productively and to cope with all the difficulties.
Take time out to analyze their failures
Negative emotions are destructive to us, but that does not mean that we should by all means avoid bad thoughts and to wonder what went wrong. Think about your mistakes and failures, while not forgetting about their progress.
Errors - these are consequences of wrong decisions that you would change if you had a second chance. In addition, there are situations where the right decisions and constructive actions lead to disappointing results. In such cases, if you have been given a second chance, you would most likely do the same. But our brains are still appreciates these failures as errors.
If you fail, give yourself breathing space to cope with stress, and then focus on the positive.
Create positive reinforcement

You can benefit from their failures by changing their attitude towards him. So you create effective positive reinforcement.
Pay tribute to negative events that happen to you. Paid tribute to his mistakes, because they help you learn and move forward. After analyzing their causes in the future you will be able to achieve better results.
Be grateful for what happens in your life. You can every day to write the words of gratitude. It helps to feel happier, grow as a person and deal with life's adversities.
A study conducted by psychologist Martin Seligman found that those who daily for a week writing down three good things that happened to them during the day, we feel happier and experienced fewer negative emotions, even a month after the end of the experiment. And six months later the happiest were those who continued to use this method.
Creating a positive reinforcement, you also will develop the patience and ability to handle stress. Using lists to make, you can always look back and see that you have had worse days, and that you, however, have successfully gone through. And about memories of good days will give you inspiration and strength.
If you carry the failures of today, the next, you tighten yourself in a quagmire unproductive. So at the end of the day, make sure that you do not consider it well spent. Take time out to thank yourself for lessons learned that will help achieve more.

Often we pay little attention to the reflection. When we refleksiruem, it often appears as if we are no busy. However, it is necessary to do a good job with all the chores.
A study conducted by Mary Helen Immordino-Yang revealed that the state, when our consciousness is no uploaded and ideas flow freely, it is crucial for self-examination. Modern life requires us to be constantly busy with work and to focus on the outside world, but such a regime is gradually depletes human. He does not leave us the time that Immordino-Yang calls constructive internal reflection, which allows you to put in order and harmony of all our conflicting thoughts and feelings.

List made - it's a simple way to implement a constructive internal reflection. It allows you to analyze the thoughts, the details, indicators of your progress, you may miss out on the flow of work. Sometimes, we do so many different things that we can not remember what they were doing, even yesterday.
Known invisible gorilla experiment illustrates the remarkable effect. The subjects watched a video in which the two teams played ball. One of them was dressed in black, the other - in white. Participants are told to closely monitor how much gear made the team in white. Somewhere in the middle of the video among the players there is a woman in a gorilla suit, drumming on his chest and then leaves. About half of the subjects did not notice its appearance. But if they were not so focused on counting transmission, see the gorilla would have been quite simple.
The participants were very surprised by the results of the experiment. They were convinced that they really something this just does not happen to. The same thing happens to us in everyday life.
How did notice that you do not notice? How do you know what you should spend more time, and that - less? That's what you need every day to take notes and analyze them.

To shed light on the details elude you, take a step back. Regular self-examination will help you get acquainted with yourself. So you will be better prepared to learn something new, to grow and improve. Reflection will help you achieve inner balance and to clarify where you are now and where you are going.

Analyze your successes and failures and find the relationship. Can you trace the pattern in your reactions and behaviors? Do you work more productively when you go to bed early? You are less likely to exercise during the busy work week?
When you manage to independently calculate the patterns of behavior that lead to failure, you will gain enough energy and motivation is to adjust their behavior in the future. So you'll find at what point it all went wrong, and understand how to fix it. And lists help made in the best way possible.

Politician, diplomat, inventor, musician, author, one of the US founding fathers Benjamin Franklin was clearly a man who many have time. But before you reach success, Franklin was an ordinary guy who was given a hard time management.
During his voyage from London to Philadelphia in July 1726 a 20-year-old Ben was thinking about how important productivity and how to reach it. He did not pursue fame or money. It was important, as it will be the man. Since Franklin developed a plan to achieve a moral ideal. He wanted to develop the 13 different virtues of justice to cleanliness. Like most of us, Benjamin felt, how hard to follow these principles in practice.
The question that Franklin asked himself daily, was: "What's good I did today?" It was he who helped Benjamin kontsentirovatsya a good and develop their positive qualities, and when things were not going the way he wanted to, corrected. Of course, Franklin did not reach the ideal. But that did not need to, because it has changed for the better. That's hindsight helps develop new positive habits and become more productive.

If you can not understand what is written in the list to do and how to use it, answer the following questions:

Some people choose to make the list of all the points made at the same time before going to bed or when the working day comes to an end. Others make the recording as you complete tasks. If you stick to the latter strategy, do not forget at the end of the day to look at the final list and evaluate how it has grown.
The effectiveness of both methods is individual, so experiment and determine what is right for you. Perhaps, if you'll remember at the end of the day, all his achievements, the more and improve memory.

In this case, the regularity is important. The only way you will get the necessary supply of energy, inspiration and motivation.
The formation of any good habits takes time. This also applies to the compilation of the lists made. Try not to miss a single day, especially at first. Once the preparation of the list will be part of the routine, it will be easier to stick to this daily ritual.
Do not use lack of time as an excuse to do nothing. It only takes 5-10 minutes per day. Chances are you spend a lot more on hangs on social networks. But the list made, in contrast to the past, you will bring great benefit.

Counted all the achievements. Do not wait for the moment when you reach some big goals. This happens not every day and prevents you evaluate other useful achievements. Remember that these details are summed up in the long term give noticeable results. Therefore, do not neglect them.

Make sure that the action that you make in the list were some real benefits. The only way you can get satisfaction from drawing up such lists.
In contrast to the to-do lists, which include assignments of different types of lists can be made to derive maximum benefit when they are accompanied by explanatory notes. Also, you should understand, that in assessing the existing list will be important to you. Someone will not be included in the list of household chores, but for someone, these items will be a good tool for future work on yourself.

In contrast to the to-do lists, in the preparation of lists do you have a lot of freedom in the formulation. And you can make them as you complete tasks.
You can write down any details that you find interesting and important, including your thoughts and comments. Lists made resemble a diary, so do not be afraid to add details and to express their opinions. Emotional context and comments added to your list of values ​​at the stage of analysis and reflection. Perhaps you will experience a special sense of satisfaction, having ascertained that it interfere with your productivity in the afternoon, and then fix it.
Use a style that you like. It may be short pieces of text, a list of key tasks moments, whole paragraphs or even poetry.
The main thing is that the form that you choose, was the most useful for you.

To remove from the lists made the most out regularly analyze them. It will not take much of your time, but you will better understand what you manage to achieve. List made helps to evaluate how you deal with all the challenges and difficulties.
Identify own productivity secrets, its impact on your mood and health, the extent of your involvement in the work. Written reports - a good basis for self-improvement. Thanks to them, you realize that you want to change and how you are now productive.
How much time did you spend on the class, not included in your list? In a period of days or weeks, you are most productive? If your list is done will help to answer these questions, you will be able to more intelligently plan their time.
As a result, you will be able to assess whether you are wasting strength and energy on what's really important, if you confuse permanent employment with real progress, how well you prioritize. Learn more about yourself, about where your energy goes, learn how to make plans and feel happier with what you could do and what to do in the future.

Let the list is not made to be a direct reflection of your to-do list. Value list made is that it adapts to you and the events that happen to you, not adjusted for any advance invented the job. You control list, but does not list you.
Optionally, renounce the use of to-do lists. With their help, you can track how much of the planned you manage to do. Perhaps, over time, your lists will be consistent with each other.

Due to the compilation of the lists made you stop worrying about what you have failed to do. Instead, you focus on what has already been achieved.
Keep a positive attitude, despite the fatigue, frantic pace of life, the possible disapproval and lack of external motivation. Let your small victories become the driving force that will help to achieve significant goals and really feel happy now.