Ever got to the end of a working day and felt like you should have achieved more? Maybe you’ve just had a bad time of it or you’ve been pulled in every direction. You’ve now got a choice – spend more time working or log-off and go home feeling guilty. Either way, it’s not a great choice.

The truth is you’ve probably achieved more than you think

You’ve probably done all the right things, spoken to all the right people, made all the right choices. Even if you haven’t – it’s still OK. There is no such thing as the ideal routine or the perfect day. Believing there is can be rather unforgiving. Life, and work, can be messy and disorganised, but that doesn’t mean it’s not exactly as it should be.

That said, we can’t live life according to our every whim. Sure, there is a lot to be said about letting the daily flow guide you in order to let your creative juices flow, to ruminate and digest ideas etc. But at some point we have to get down to it.

So how do we balance getting things done with releasing those feelings of guilt? How do you ensure you can go home at the end of each day, content that you’ve achieved everything you needed to?

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Here are some tips that might help:

  • Identify that One Big Thing. That 20% of effort that will have 80% of the impact. It exists. There is always something that, if you complete it, you can pretty much pack up and go home, giving everyone high-five’s along the way.

  • Use the 1-3-5 rule. As themuse.com founder and COO, Alex Cavoulacos says “On any given day, assume that you can only accomplish one big thing, three medium things, and five small things.”

    This isn’t a bad assumption to make, and extends the OBG idea. However, at Parity.Planner HQ we like to remove the guilt completely by defining these as shoulds and coulds. You didn’t get to do them? Meh…

  • Be explicit about things you won’t do or will plan in for another day. Write these down. That way you can well and truly park them, stopping them from cluttering your thoughts and getting in your way.

  • Recognise your successes. At the end of the day it’s easy to gloss over good things and focus on negatives. Taking time out to think about what you’ve achieved will grow your confidence, motivate you and release happy chemicals.

  • Practicing your affirmations is also important – stating something in a positive way can be all that’s needed to break out of negative thought patterns. Let’s say you’ve been called into meetings all day – changing “I didn’t get enough done today” to “colleagues value my input” can change how you feel about your day.

Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out and let us know if these have worked for you or if you have your own tried and tested techniques. We’re keen to hear from you.