Is your to-do list overwhelming you? Try a Power Hour and get your to-do list knocked out in no time.
Feeling overwhelmed when you look at your to-do list? I know that feeling all to well. I often have to-do lists going that are a mile long and there aren’t enough hours in the day to get them done.
While I’m trying to write better and more realistic to-do lists, something I learned more about in Make Over Your Morning, I still end up with to-do lists that are too long and overwhelming.
I hate making it to the end of the day with so many things that haven’t been checked off. Even when my day has been productive that un-finished list makes me feel like I didn’t get much done.
A great way to get a big chunk of your list done is with something called a Power Hour. This is used in time management and goal setting for all kinds of things and it can be very useful in homemaking.
What is a Power Hour
A Power Hour is setting aside an hour to get a big project or several small projects knocked out. It’s time that you won’t check email or Facebook and you avoid all distractions.
Gretchen Rubin author of The Happiness Project has this to say about a Power Hour.
“One problem: nagging tasks. It’s a Secret of Adulthood: Nothing is more exhausting than the task that’s never started. I knew this, but nevertheless I’d accumulated a lengthy list of small, mildly unpleasant tasks that I kept putting off—in many cases, for months. Maybe years.
These tasks weren’t urgent (which why they didn’t get done), but they weighed on my mind and sapped my energy. As I walked through my apartment, or sat at my desk, the accumulation of these little chores made me feel overwhelmed.”
Starting a Cleaning Power Hour
Look at your to-do lists over the past couple of days and see if there are things that keep getting moved from to-do list to to-do list. These are great things to do during your Power Hour. You also can just look at your to-do list for that day and mark a few things you want to knock out.
Once you know what you want to do make your list. Keep it short, you can always add more if you finish you list but it’s best to not have more than you can get done on your list.
Turn on some upbeat music or a podcast and set your timer. Now get busy! Stay as busy as you can and do your chores as quickly and efficiently as possible. It’s only for an hour, you can do it! I find it best to have a reward for yourself when you are done. I often will watch a YouTube video and drink a cup of tea as my reward. Anything that you can look forward to after a job well done.
I love to do a Power Hour when I know I have a busy day with a long to-do list. Seeing that long list is overwhelming but when I take a chunk and power through it in an hour the rest of the list seems a lot more manageable. It’s amazing how motivating it can be to mark off several things at once.
Power Hour & To-Do List Resources
Power Hours seem to be gaining popularity and there are some great resources out there to help you with yours. And if like me you struggle with making realistic to-do lists there are some useful resources out there for you as well.
- Say Goodbye to Survival Mode e-course
- Make Over Your Morning e-course
- My New Habit for Tackling Nagging Tasks: Power Hour
- Power Hour Printable and Task Ideas
- Creating a Home Management Binder (keep Power Hour ideas in here)
Love this! I definitely need to start doing this with school projects. Going into my last semester in the Fall and I already know I will need to be absolutely on top of things so that I don’t fall behind! Thank you for sharing!!
A power hour is a great idea , especially the reward at the end part!
You can get so much done when you work without distractions, and you get a feeling of accomplishment when it’s over.
So true!
Gretchen Rubin is brilliant! Her insights make it so easier to live productively, simply, and happily. I love the idea of a power hour for getting rid of all of the tasks you’ve been putting off and dreading – once you get started by checking one thing off the list, it’ll motivate you to do the rest, too!