Simple Productivity Tips- Daily Work Management

It is never late to practise productivity in our day-to-day life. Even now you can change yourself and make your life more productive.

How many of us have regretted later in your life that I should have spent my time more effectively earlier, or I should not have wasted my time during those days and so on?

This month my blogs are about Productivity. These are the simple productivity tips which I do follow every day.It helps me to stay focused, stay organized and above all it gives me some sort of satisfaction towards the end of the day, which makes me happy.
So the first Productivity Tips is about Daily Work Management.

 What is this? 

Daily work management may sound more like industry term. Yes! It is a common industry term which is used in most of the production lines. But what I am referring here is called our own personal Daily work management system.

So, what is this?

Daily work management is the simple To-do list for the day.

Refer below picture. At the start of the every day, I would decide what I should do today and I make my To-do list. I follow it and end of the day I would strike off the one which I have accomplished. If not, I have not accomplished any stated task, then those would be my priority for the next day.

Picture shows my daily work management. End of day I used to reflect myself on task accomplished and not accomplished.

 Step by Step Explanation 

These are the step by step approach w.r.t Daily work management which I follow each day. 

  1. Have your own To-do-List Book
  2. At the start of the day, list the task which you want to do in the book
  3. Follow it. Don’t try to keep on adding to your To-do-list.
  4. End of the day, take some time to reflect yourself on the task accomplished and strike it off
  5. For task not accomplished, make it top priority tomorrow.
  6. Repeat daily

 In what way does it help me? 

I may not fool you by telling you that for so many years, I was practicing this method. Not at all. It has been just 4 months since I started using this method. But I always felt that I should have done these earlier.

The prime helps of this method is that it gives me a clear direction of what it should do during this day. I know my purpose in life. I know my short-term goals and long-term goals. But the path of marching us towards that short-term goal start with the concept of how we begin our day. This Daily work management gives me proper clarity of where I am heading towards my goal. It also help me to organize my life better.

There are days where, I would have accomplished all my tasks which I have planned and there are some days, where I would not complete a single task. But this daily work management guides me that which day is productive and not productive for me. Also, it tells me indirectly where is wrong and what should I improve upon.

If I am not able to complete my task for a stretch of 4 days, then definitely there is something wrong with the task or my mind. It signals me to take a break and try something different.Then after taking the needed break, if I come back I would have completed the long pending task with ease. I learned when to take breaks, when to shift our moods, from this daily work management.

This is not just a to-do-list. According to me, it is the guide for my day.It help to me to stay focused and stay organised.

 Things I need to improve in my to-do-list: 

As mentioned earlier, it has been just 4 months since I started incorporating this self-discipline method into my life. It helps me a lot. But also there is a lot to improve me in this technique. I use to learn from mistakes and so below shown are some of the mistakes which I do and I should try correcting it in the future. If you are the one who is starting to adopt this technique in your day-to-day life, then try correcting from day one onwards.

 Missing Prioritisation:  This is the basic mistake which I am doing. Our productivity increases not by just listing down the tasks, but also by set up the priorities. If we cannot visualise what is important, urgent and not important, how do we know which do to complete at first? Even though I have a mentally thought on the flow of task I need to complete in my mind, I should also list the same in my list. I am lagging in the point and I should start correcting myself.

 Not planning an activity which is related to self-care in your To-do-list:  I use to list down the task which is related only with my studies or work. But I always feel I should also list the task about my self-care. Because self-care is also equally important than our regular works.

 Skipping To-do list on Vacation or breaks is Ok:  Initially, when I started adopting this technique to my life, I used to list down the task even — such as, go for the movie, No work today (refer snaps below) etc…

In mean time, I became more organised and use to keep up my to-do-list even during my breaks or weekend. I realise my mistake later on and then I corrected myself.

But later on, I felt that I have become too organised. It is ok to skip your to-do-list during vacation. If we get to organised at everything, then if suppose if you are not able to do it on someday, you get to feel obsessed of yourself. It happened to me initially and later on, I realise my mistake and started correcting myself. It’s ok to not to write or plan for your day during vacations or sometimes even weekends. Don’t become too organised.

 Making a huge list of tasks:  Yes. I do some days. But at the end of the day, I was not able to complete even one. It makes me feel obsessed about myself and I decided to take a break for the next day (It happened twice in this 4 months. Refer snapshot below). Making huge list not only spoil the current day but also the upcoming day.

 Why not have a standard template for To-do-list instead of notes:  I made a separate note for this to-do-list, which is fine and good. But I always felt that I should have a standard template to list down the task. I have identified one from Lavendaire To-do-list. I will try to merge the same in my life too.


Knowing our purpose of life is important. But how are we going to do that purpose? It’s all start with how we plan our day. This will set a clear direction in our mind. Daily work management is the simplest way to get proper clarity of yourself and your task in a day.

It is not necessary to use pen and paper for listing down. There are lot many productive apps which will help you to design our life better. But fact says writing is better than viewing. So writing in pen and paper is the best way to start planning your day.

Stay organized and stay focused. Be happy !!