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How many days a week are you feeling overwhelmed? Do you spend your day checking off little tasks, only to feel as if you’ve accomplished nothing and made no money? There really is a secret to daily productivity. Here are five ways to organize daily tasks efficiently and productively.

Prioritize

Many people mistake prioritizing tasks with ordering them. The tasks that receive the highest priority should be the task that will generate the most profit or results. For example, email should probably never be your first priority. However, planning your next product launch is a top priority task because it leads to more profits and a bigger business. Email is something you can likely manage during lunch or at the end of the day. Or better yet, outsource to an assistant.

Believe me, I know you just cringed and in your head said “NO WAY” to my outsourcing your email. I’ve said it as well. But how much time do you spend sending pretty much the same email to others and deleting most others? Go through your common replies and come up with a few for your VA to use. If it’s a new VA relationship then they will contact you when they are unsure of what you would like them to send anyway. That’s how good VA’s work.

Plan ahead

The best time to plan tomorrow is at the end of today. At the end of your day, make time to plan the next day. Take time to acknowledge your accomplishments and prepare for the day ahead. This helps you prioritize without the distractions of the day. It also helps you sleep better because you have a plan.

Use a system that works for you

There are a lot of experts that tout their system as the only one that really works. Actually, the only system that really works is different for each person. Some people work quite well with pocket planners. Others need a software program like Outlook. Still others benefit from a PDA or Smartphone. Find a system that works for you and use it consistently.

Here’s the trick for the system that works for you…it’s the one you use. I have regular calendar type things on my phone which is a droid so it’s google. But the majority of my tasks and to-do list is on good old pen & paper. I’ve tried many other ways and I am just too old school and want to physically cross tasks off. Paper, digital document, physical planner or phone, what are you going to check daily and multiple times a day to cross things off your list?

Celebrate your successes

It’s easy to look back on the day and see what you didn’t accomplish. Yet it’s much more powerful to look back on your day and acknowledge what you did accomplish. It helps you embrace a positive mindset. It prepares you for a productive tomorrow. It pushes you to do that extra work the next day because you saw some money from the work you did yesterday.

Plan ahead

One of the easiest ways to make the most of your daily tasks is to plan ahead. Take a look at your goals and create a reasonable plan to achieve them. Assign daily tasks for yourself throughout the month or quarter. Then sit down and plan your weeks ahead of time. When you can take a look at a week or a month and know what you need to accomplish, it’s much easier to plan your day.

Good planning and productivity are a habit. Habits are created by consistently focusing on replacing bad habits with good habits. If you have bad habits, identify one and work on replacing it with a good habit. Give yourself about three to four weeks to adopt this new habit. Once you’ve achieved success then you can add another new habit. Little by little you’ll adopt a lifestyle of good habits that result in well organized and productive days.