Mastering your to-do list may be one of the most important steps in taking control of your agenda and improving your work productivity. To-do lists are an important part of accomplishing what you set out to do every day.
Equally important is knowing what should not appear on your to-do list. Any tasks that don't belong on your to-do list are a distraction. They can also cause stress by making you feel overwhelmed, not to mention creating a sense of guilt or anxiety at failing to accomplish what's on your list.
Perhaps most importantly, items that don't belong on your to-do list are mind clutter that can prevent you from totally focusing on what matters and what adds value to you and your company.
It's time to start salvaging your time by trimming your to-do list.
1. Make a distinction between your long-term and short-term goals.
In my opinion, long-term goals should not appear on your daily to-do list. Instead, consider breaking down your long-term goal into bite-size pieces that you can realistically achieve in one day.
Let's say your long-term goal is to attract more new customers. One action step you can take in the short-term is to get your website to appear on the first page of Google. You can break this down further into a smaller task, which makes it easier to complete, rather than a large, overwhelming one.
In this simple example, your smaller task may be signing up for the free Google My Business feature. You can do this in one day. That's the item that should go on your to-do list.
You see the difference between “attract more new customers" and “sign up on Google My Business"? The former belongs on a master list and the latter on your to-do list for the day.
If you think “bite-size" with all of your long-term projects, you may be more likely to create a focused to-do list for better work productivity.
2. Shorten your to-do list.
Is your to-do list brimming with entries? Is it becoming longer every day?
A mile-long list can harm your work productivity; it's not functional and can stress you out.
So how many items should you have on your list? The answer varies from person to person.
If you're unsure about what constitutes a manageable number of items for you, consider the 1-3-5 approach developed by Alexandra Cavoulacos, COO of The Muse, in her 2017 book The New Rules of Work.
The 1-3-5 approach recommends a to-do list of nine items (you can download a free template here):
● 1 big thing
● 3 medium things
● 5 little things
This balanced approach may help increase your work productivity.
Listing broadly defined tasks may not help your work productivity. Instead, try noting the specific action required to perform that task.
3. Leave off things that take up only a few minutes of your time.
Don't clutter your to-do list with something that you can do in less than 10 minutes. Just do it right away and be done with it.
If you can't do it right away and need a reminder, write the task down on a sticky note and keep it on your desk to do later in between important tasks.
4. Stop doing tasks that nobody cares about.
Are there tasks that you do periodically—monthly reports, for example? It might be time to evaluate their usefulness.
Would anyone care if you stopped issuing these reports?
Does anyone even read them?
Find out if people still want to receive them. If you haven't received any feedback or any reactions to these reports for some time, chances are you can drop them without any adverse effects.
5. Automate any tasks that can be for better work productivity.
Anything you do that can be automated doesn't deserve a place on your to-do list.
Today, there's a proliferation of work productivity tools to help you automate all sorts of tasks. For example, BlackLine, Adra, and Titalti are automated transaction matching tools that can help you reconcile a variety of transactions including bank statements, credit cards and payroll.
Automating tasks can help save you hours and improve your work productivity.
6. Add innovative or creative nuggets to your to-do list once you're ready to act.
You likely come up with creative ideas that you want to try for your business. While these are in the gestation stage, they probably don't belong in your to-do list.
You can capture these ideas in a notebook for further exploration. Once you're ready to act on these ideas, you can transfer them as action items into your to-do list.
7. Avoid adding tasks that are duplicated elsewhere.
Are there any responsibilities that you've taken on that are also handled by someone else in your company? It's possible that there's a duplication of effort. Find out if this is the case and consider offloading the responsibility to the individual who's already handling the area in question.
8. Realize that tasks that you can delegate or outsource aren't to-do list material.
There's a myriad of administrative functions that you can transfer to a competent employee such as making travel reservations, scheduling meetings, editing your writing and preparing your expense account.
Perhaps the most important of these administrative tasks is managing your email. An assistant can sort through your email two or three times a day, to determine what needs your attention and what you don't need to see.
However, don't just delegate low value or routine tasks. To help others grow while you simultaneously pare down your to-do list, consider delegating interesting tasks as well. Perhaps there are parts of your business that you've mastered. Give one of your people a chance to have a go at it to build their skills.
What about tasks that a talented direct report or colleague may do better than you? Consider re-assigning these so that you can trim down your list and focus on other parts of the business.
Think, as well, about tasks that you can outsource not only for your business, but for your personal life. Productive people often outsource personal chores to free up their time for the success of the business.
9. Turn periodic tasks into calendar reminders.
Are there tasks that are scheduled periodically?
Don't clutter your focused to-do list by adding these recurring tasks to the list. A simpler way to keep track of these recurring tasks is to add a reminder on your calendar.
10. Get specific about the tasks on your to-do list.
Listing broadly defined tasks may not help your work productivity. Instead, try noting the specific action required to perform that task.
For example, instead of writing "work on the presentation to the board," write down the two or three items you need to do that day for your presentation:
● gather statistics for investment into artificial intelligence startups,
● create a graph to illustrate the statistics and
● get a visual image for the agenda slide.
Specific tasks, rather than general and broad ones, can help make it easier to get the job done.
11. Declutter your to-do mentality.
Want to tame your to-do list? Adopting a decluttering mentality can help.
When you declutter your environment, you usually group things in three piles: What to sell, what to give away and what to discard. You can adopt the same rule for your to-dos.
Before you add new items on your list, do a mental sorting using the rule of three:
1. What must be added? These are your top priorities, the things that add value to you and your company.
2. What needs to be added? These are the things that aren't top priorities, but are nonetheless important.
3. What could be added? These are the "nice-to-do" things that you got used to doing over time. They might include "coffee meetings" in the middle of the day, long lunches with colleagues or useless networking with people who have time to waste and want to waste it with you.
Beware, as well, of requests from people you don't know who email to invite you for coffee "to pick your brain" on issues. Be ruthless and ditch these. They eat up time and lower your work productivity.
12. Take that recurring item that never gets addressed off your list.
Do you have an item that keeps cropping up on your to-do list but never gets done?
Ask yourself why that is. Perhaps it's not the right time for this item. Maybe it's based on an aspiration you had at some time in the past, that you're not letting go.
It's OK to pass on that weekend MBA or that advanced supply chain management course. Leave it out to revisit the issue at a more optimal time.
Your turn: How will you slim down your to-do list?
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