When life gets hectic and you don't have enough time in the day to get everything done, how do you feel?  Are you anxious, frustrated or overwhelmed?  Well, as you know here at The Happiness bucket I like to give you tools to help you reduce and eventually eliminate those feelings and replace them with calm and happiness.  So I'm going to help you out!  Lets talk about the Get Things Done Challenge, because it will help you identify and prioritize all the things you need to do to get things done.  It helps you learn how to plan things out in your day, week and month so you begin to <a href="http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/batch-organizing/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">batch</a> your to do's to be more efficient and even find ways to delegate tasks to other people.

In an ideal world you will have a master book of to do's and yes your THB Journal would be a great place to put these lists.  In total, you should plan for 12 - 24 pages for your Get Things Done Challenge lists in your journal, so make sure you have enough room.  You will need 1 - 2 pages per month, depending on how big you write or how many lines there are per page in your journal.  As the challenge progresses, you will find yourself anticipating your needs for the following months, plugging in to dos early and anticipating things that you must get done before you actually need them.  Seriously, it's a beautiful thing!  So, now that you know the overall plan of action, lets talk about the steps to the challenge.
<h1>The Steps to the Get Things Done Challenge</h1>
For those who are new to this, the challenge is set up to hold you accountable.  To make you think through what you have to do, write it down and take action.  This is how it works:

1.  Number a piece of paper (or your spreadsheet for you techy's) using the number of days in a month (i.e., November has 30).  So using this example your page should be numbered 1 - 30.

2.  On each of those lines identify something you need to do.  Make your holiday card list, Wash the car, clean out your purse, make the Thanksgiving menu, take items to goodwill, read a book for a bookclub mtg, etc.

3.  On November 1 (or whatever day you start the challenge) you are to take a photo of your list and post it in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/ChangeAcademy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">group</a> with #gtdchallenge.

<img class=" wp-image-5528 alignleft" src="http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Planning-200x300.png" alt="Get Things Done Challenge" width="195" height="293" />

4.  Each day, you should complete at least one thing on your list and post in the group what you completed (note:  if it is a personal task, just say I completed task number 3 today!) I would love for you to take a photo of the completed task (if that is possible) and/or list how it made you feel to have it done. Remember to use the #gtdchallenge.

5.  On November 30 (or whatever day you end the challenge) share a summary of how the challenge helped you.

If these tasks are things for the house, I encourage you to incorporate the entire family.  I mean who said you have to be the only one getting things done?!?!?
<h2>Identifying the Challenge Goal</h2>
The goal of this challenge is to get you to take action and to learn how to plan, even if it is small action.  This challenge will ultimately help you organize your thoughts and plan ahead for things that normally would cause you stress.  Now, that being said...I don't want you to panic if you don't finish your whole list.  As time goes on you will learn how to accomplish the tasks and goals you have on your list.  You will also learn how to pair down and be realistic in the overall goals you set for yourself.  So, if you don't finish the list this month, just move any items you haven't completed to a new list for the following month and pick additional items so that your list totals the number of days in the month (i.e., December has 31 days).  You continue this through to the end of the year and if you decide to keep the list you can see what all you accomplished throughout the year...but ummmm lets discard it at the end of the year.  Seriously, no need to hold on to clutter.

Now speaking of clutter, one suggested way to use this list...specifically those of you who are working on an organizing project...is to make the list things that will help you meet your organizational goals.  You could make a declutter list, or a project list of to do's, maybe you are planning a move or a life transition.  You figure out what works for you.  I love to use this list around the <a href="http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/holiday-planning-guide-pt1/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October - December</a> time frame because the <a href="http://development.thehappinessbucket.com/holidayorganizing/">holiday's</a> can always get really hectic for me and since it is my favorite time of the year, I want to be able to enjoy it.

In the process of developing the list.  It's also okay to put fun stuff on the list, I mean all work and no play makes you well...not so much fun LOL.

Get creative.  Enjoy yourself and see how much you can take action on today!