How I Accomplish What I Need to Do in a Day

I was talking to a friend of mine this weekend who is unemployed. She talked about the frustration of having the day pass without feeling like she accomplished anything. I shared with her my secret for getting a lot done on days when I work from home but don't have a lot of items that are "due." I am one of those people who work much better with a deadline, so there are a few things I do to help myself be more productive when there are no deadlines.

The first thing I do is create a to-do list of things that I can accomplish that day. I try to make it long, but also only include things that I could actually do on that day. It might include "write an introduction" for a long document I'm writing, but it would not include "write the long document." I think it's important to only put down things that can be accomplished on that day. If it's a large task that needs to be done, I will break it down into subtasks that I can complete.

The other thing I love to do is to check off items on my to-do list. This helps to keep me motivated. And I also come up with a goal of how many items I'm going to cross off my to-do list. I usually aim to complete about 50%-75% of the list. I like having the flexibility of putting off a few things until tomorrow so I never aim to complete the whole list.

Sometimes when working with items with a nebulous deadline, I simply assign a deadline to it myself. This helps me tremendously, while I know others will also need accountability from others. If you need the accountability, I would recommend telling your spouse, best friend, or even parent.

I hope these tips help those of you out there and please let me know what you do to stay on track on a day without deadlines.

Long Term Financial Planning

This weekend my husband and I tried to do some long term financial planning. I have quite a bit of Excel knowledge gained from work, so I was busy working on a model, modeling our income growth over the next 30 years or so, taxes, and the effect of inflation. I also wanted to model our expenses, but we needed a lot more assumptions for that so I didn't get a chance to finish that. Based on my modeling and the assumptions I made (e.g. $15,500 annual tax deferred retirement contribution), we should be millionaires in our forties, assuming 6% growth in our investments. That's exciting, I hope it happens!

Start Buying Your Christmas Gifts Now

I, like most Americans, often wait until the last minute to buy Christmas gifts. This year I decided to try and do something differntly. I try to shop a little as the year goes by - especially now. I am on the lookout for items that I think my friends and family will want. I then buy them now, or sometime wait for them to go on sale. Then once they're home, I wrap them up.

I personally love to wrap presents, but I hate to do it when I have a gazillion other things to do. Buying gifts slowly gives me pleasure since I spending money on others and I get the joy of wrapping presents for them.

Of course, there are some gifts that are a better price during the holiday season (or even right after the holiday season). On those items, it might be better to wait for the big sales.