How do you motivate yourself to complete the items on your To Do list?

Dedication is the one key ingredient of achievement. Constantly visualize what needs to be done (to-do list) and I believe to improve your outer world change has to start from your inner world. Don't do it because it needs to be done ,just do it because you love to do it . For long term improvement each and every small effort counts so think what's done today perfectly will have an impact on the quality of tomorrow and just be like you can do it and be perceptive to the changes happening. Talk to yourself and constant self motivation will have a great impact.

I love the feeling of checking things off my list. My habits are quite easy to do and are all a step towards my life vision.

Hi! 👋 What a great question… I find that motivation is one of the biggest struggles we all face after a few days (or in some cases minutes) of trying to be productive 😅…
In my case, having a goal and visualizing it is essential 😉. For example, I study because I want to have a brighter future (then I imagine a future self with a great job, a great family and an iPhone XX 😉😂), or I want to do my laundry to always be looking as a model (and I visualize myself dressed as if I was in a red carpet for the rest of my life 😂…).
Another important thing is an immediate mood booster because, yeah, I wanna have an iPhone XX, but I can do that after watching another “10 minutes of YouTube”, am I right? 😏
Don't worry, that happens to all of us, we are not perfect, and it's very important that we acknowledge that 😉. Even if we wanted to, we cannot go to the moll and study a whole unit of something in 1 hour; and those “10 minutes more” will end up being “2 hours less of sleep because you ended up watching way more than 10 minutes of YouTube and now you are running late for whatever you have to study tomorrow…” (it happened to a “friend”… 😂).
In this way, if you want to prevent that, you'll need shot actions that will make you leave the bed… You can use any kind of music 🎶 that makes you feel as Beyonce (for example, I use Ariana Grande's new song “7 rings” or “Dinero” by JLO) or you can look at some inspirational quotes online 📖. Having short term goals helps too, and you can reward yourself once you complete one of them 🏅😉…
If you are interested, I have a studying motivation account on Instagram called __studyjournal__ where I post some bullet journal spreads that might inspire you (sorry for the shameless promo 😅😂)…
If you'd like to, you can contact me there and we can be motivation buddies 😉…
Hope you have an amazing life and day, and good luck in this journey! ☺️

I like to remind myself that it will be done, and I won't have to agonize over it any more. I'm really bad to do all the easy, unimportant things and just keep moving difficult things to the next day, then the next day, then the next day… The "A" priority items used to not get done because I enjoyed crossing all the tiny items off.

I like to cross things off, because it immediately relates to my success in completing the task which then immediately makes me happier and less stressed. Where I struggle is that I get overwhelmed by the shear amount of things I have to do. I'm working on that with a personal statement through Fab app though. However, just writing a to do list decreases my anxiety immensely and allows me to sleep without going through a list of what I have to do in my mind.

Commitment. The use of reward for completing and punishment for procrastinating or missing goals. I feel very bad when I forget to check on complete tasks.

Some days I find it so hard to complete but I know I need to change my habits to be more productive and live more enjoyable life so try to tell myself this is what I need to do today.

I just look at the list, think why this tasks are important, what they bring in to my life.. and I just do them.. they are not hard. After you realize that the small changes really affect your life. You will do this things not even thinking twice.

It can definitely be challenging. It’s helpful to focus on why I’m doing each task and what the potential positive outcomes could be.

First of all you need to understand why you are making a to do list. The sole goal of it (for me atleast) is to save the extra time thinking about my priorities because you don't want to finish one task and then think about what to do next. You want to keep the momentum and finish things one after the other.
What I would suggest is keep aside 15 mins everyday in the morning for creating that list. And when you begin work make the list your main priority. And the task on it will be your goals for today and no nothing else. After that just follow the list and keep finishing task after task until you finish.

If you can't do something today add it to tomorrow's to do.

Hope this helps.

I keep a mental list of the rewards that come from doing what I’m supposed to do. Whether it’s working out or eating right or errands, each has its own reward. And while they each have different rewards they all have one in common—how I feel having completed the task or errand or thing. This doesn’t make it easy to do but it does make me more willing to make a small move in the right direction toward getting at least a small thing done. That enables me to do one more thing and so on. Next thing I know I’ve completed my list. Getting done what I’m supposed to makes me feel really good. Not getting it done regardless of the reason makes me feel crummy.

I use todoist which uses streaks of days in which you have completed your goal number if tasks. You also advance through levels.

I have a strict upper limit on the number of tasks I assign myself each day.

I try to keep task lengths short even if it means breaking tasks into smaller pieces.

I use the pomodoro technique to get started and also to check in to be certain I am still on track.

I keep my list with me and refer to it first thing in the morning and then throughout the day as I check things off. When I have a long list I make a new list on a clean sheet of paper. Seeing the fresh short list makes me feel a sense of accomplishment and since the list is shorter I get in a can do frame of mind.

Prioritise your tasks from importance to not so important. Use a timer to judge how long each task should be so that you don't overspend time on one task. Turn off your phone or notifications so that you are focussed on the task.

“the only motivational advice anyone has ever needed: You don’t have to feel like getting something done in order to actually get it done.“

https://medium.com/swlh/theres-no-such-thing-as-motivation-e02edd7de30

Be realistic with the goals, list the most important and hardest ones first and reframe how you see them. If they seem like a chore rather than a blessing, you are less likely to do them!

Trusting myself the space to upgrade each time, each hour, each day and flow with it more consciously, knowing that whatever i'm capable of doing better each day will bring me closer to the next fulfilling life that i'm already in.

Sometimes I get to all of them, sometimes life intervenes. Lately I’ve been dieting and that makes me have to attack easy things first.