I was having a rough time recently with creativity, manageable tasks and physically too for a few months and the most incredible thing I found when coming out of it is as if my brain relaxed and brought forward two organisational layouts! One being a to do list in my regular A4 £1.99 pad of paper and the other a bullet journal tracker and reflection of tasks and feelings throughout the day.

Today I am talking about my To Do list in my pad of paper, you will see in the video above I explain as I go, the concept is very simple.

I write To Do at the top of the page. Though it could be anything – Ta Da list, plan for the day and so on!

I put dots spaced out 1-3 depending on how much time I have, if it’s a work day then I will usually put one and if I have the whole day off I will put three. Do what’s do able for you. You can fill out the tasks now, just write a short sentence no over explaining.

I then put another heading a bit below – Break time ideas, I draw another shape such as a sideways triangle and note down some fun things that I can do in 15,30,60 minute breaks. These can be anything but ideally something you want to do. I usually want to add paint to something. Putting on a load of washing does not come in here but the next bit.

So lastly I put a timing I need to do something such as 12 Make lunch 1pm leave for work, or you could put 11am put wash on as it takes an hour then you can continue with your tasks till in my case it’s time to make lunch.

What I’ve found with this to do list layout:

I was going from my task, straight to getting ready for work, then eating a quick lunch and hurriedly getting out of the door on time. That’s when I realised I’d been putting getting ready for work in my ‘break’ ‘rest’ ‘enjoyment’ time, I had no time to sit and engage in something fun, or reflect or laugh out loud at something silly! Getting ready for work is not fun. While I appreciate we may not all have time for a break between our things to do, if we can squeeze in 3 minutes singing to a great song or 5 minutes of long deep breathing or 20 minutes to paint something then lets do it! Intentionally enjoying life.

I very easily go into overwhelm, it could be at the notebook and pen I’m using (I need to start scruffy, making it all neat to share on instagram does not work well for me). If there’s so many things on my to do list that I’ve taken a whole page or I’ve used so many words to describe something simple – overwhelm. That’s why I’ve included break time ideas, because they’re not things I have to do, they are things I can do to keep energy in motion.

Also, for some the whole ‘break time’ section may seem a little un needed, let me tell you what I know – it is! Hugely for metal health, balance and more productivity.

Have a go and try it out! Let me know your findings and feelings!