5 Tips to De-clutter Your To-Do List and Become More Productive

1. Prioritize – Decide what is most important for you to complete first and work your way through a list by putting your list in an order from most important to least important. That way the first things you tackle are the most important ones and if you run out of time you won’t feel the same pressure or stress.

2. Delegate – If there is something you have to do and you don’t like that part of your job figure out how you can delegate. Some photographers outsource editing, accounting, invoicing and more. If those things are taking too much time for you and you can’t do them find a solution to delegate that work to someone else.

3. Give Yourself a Schedule – If you give yourself a schedule of work hours you’ll find your time for work is more limited and less “open” when you’re sitting at home doing nothing but twiddling your thumbs. Once your work hours are up, stop working, and when you have those work hours get rid of the distractions so your work time is more focused and you can cut through your to-do list.

4. Give Yourself Permission to Quit – If you have a perpetual product that’s always finding itself on your to-do list and never being completed consider giving yourself a time out on that project. Re-evaluate this project and see what you need to do to change it so it’s something you can complete or if it’s something you want to keep working on at all.

5. Minimize the Time Wasters – Facebook, twitter, other photography blogs? Those little visits in between working add up. 5 minutes here and 30 minutes there and suddenly you have no more time left in your day to finish the items on your to-do list. Schedule yourself time to do these time wasters and when you have focused work time turn them off – and keep ‘em that way!