My life as a freelancer #5 : Daily routines and to-do lists

I've been thinking about my work system frequently in recent days. Usually, I would like to work as regularly as possible, but most of the time I can only complete 65-70% of my daily or weekly plans. This makes me feel uneasy on the one hand, but in fact, I'm overwhelmed by myself, which makes me work more efficiently than other people. But I always have the same question in my head. Despite so many productivity applications, to-do list, time tracking programs, why can't I work as I want?

At first, I thought the problem was to bring a lot of work to myself. My goals were so high, the deadlines were very close, I wanted to do so much at the same time, and that's why my weekly and daily to-do list was filling up. Yes, it was very logical, they could explain some of the consequences. I mean, I wasn't wrong, but I knew that wasn't the only problem. I could reduce my goals to correct this situation, spread them over a more extended period or do less, but I didn't want to do any of this, and I found another solution.

First of all, I checked to see if I had enough time on my to-do list. The fact that the time I took for each mission was not realistic could have caused the problem. I saw that I was actually doing a very realistic program, except for two minor edits. So the problem was not related to time. However, there were some explanations in my work system. For example, the smaller and trivial task that I did in the mornings until I woke up sometimes distracting me unnecessarily and making it difficult for me to focus on my next real work. So I haven't touched on my daily to-do lists, but some revisions in their order during the day.

At the next stage, I started thinking about things that prevented me from working and taking notes aside. Ringing phones, continuous opening browsers, Youtube videos, and frequently controlling mailings were at the top of them. And they were unconsciously wasting so much time; it was even a miracle that I could actually work. For example, a channel I loved about coding was uploading new videos, and since it was related to my job, that 5-minute period wasn't a time loss for me. But Youtube was like a black hole and somehow always been watching other videos. Such loss of time and low efficiency was the cause of such distractions. So I made a new list for myself called to-don't list, and I wrote on this list that they wouldn't be done while I was working. These include checking the mail only in the morning and evening, entering Youtube and other social media accounts after my work, closing all unnecessary tabs on my browser, and muting the phone. I think we all need both, a useful to-do list and a helpful to-don't list. I don't know what the efficiency of this new system will be, but I can tell you that it is a more robust way of working.

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