How to keep your to-do list short and still be insanely productive.

 

 

A to-do list forms the basis of every life skills, personal development, or productivity enhancing course.  Self improvement, self help, and time management advice always begins with a list. Blog posts, articles, audio and video life coaches all emphasize the importance of a to-do list. A list of goals, aims and objectives is considered a pre-requisite to organise your day and your life.

In the 21^st century, a to-do list does not require paper and pencil. It can be made on a desktop or laptop computer. You can make it on the go on your tablet or smart phone. In this digital age, surprisingly, there are people who prefer to map their day on paper. Special printed notebooks and notepads, journals and planners, are even more popular today than they were before the advent of electronic devices. People (especially young people) love to fill them with monthly, weekly and daily lists of tasks. Some people love decorating these glorified to do lists with colour coded headings, stickers and other embellishments. A happy marriage of print and electronic media has resulted in printable planners and to do lists. You can find them from the innumerable choices available on the web and then print them out yourself.

All this planning and list making should make our lives far simpler shouldn’t it? It should in theory, but in practice the situation is quite the reverse.

Life coaches advise making a list the night before, or before the start of a workday. What they neglect to mention is that being faced with a long list of tasks first thing in the morning can be daunting. This can potentially leave you feeling overwhelmed and de-motivated, thereby defeating its own purpose.

Wise people have found a way around this: a short to do list. The good personal development experts recommend a list of no more than six items for each day: three big tasks and three small ones.

“With a list as short as six items, how am I going to reach my goals?” you may ask, “How am I going to become successful and popular with only a short list of tasks to do each day?”

Here are a few ideas that might help:

 

1. DO IT NOW!

Instead of putting it on your list, some tasks can be handled the moment the need to do them arises. A button works loose as you are getting dressed in the morning. You could change your shirt, and put the ‘button less’ one back in your wardrobe. Later, you could write “Sew button” on your to do list. On the other hand, you could take an extra thirty seconds and sew the button on immediately avoiding the need for another item on your precious “to-do”.

A friend calls asking you to call someone or do something. Do it right away if you have the opportunity — to-do stays short, job gets done.

“If something takes less than two minutes to do, don’t write it down or add it to your to –do list— do it now.” (David Allen, Getting Things Done).

 

2. ‘BUY ONE GET ONE FREE’ — TWO FOR ONE

I got this tip from a lady I flew with once — when going to do something in one part of the house, say the kitchen, do something on your way back. Maybe you went to the kitchen to turn off the stove, bring the stack of laundry to the kids’ rooms on your way back.

You end up accomplishing two tasks in the time allotted for one, akin to the “Buy one, get one free concept” of marketing. Stuff gets done — to do list stays short.

 

3. DEVELOP REFLEXES — OPERATE ON AUTOPILOT

For mundane things like household chores, bill payment, picking up laundry, car pool, etc. create routines. Do these mundane things consciously the same way until they become reflexes. If you have these things on autopilot you won’t need to put them on your to-do list.

 

4. RULE OF THREE

Try not to crowd your poor “To-do”. Keep things down to a minimum of three essential things and three not so important things. This three plus three method is quite effective and also quite flexible: if you are short on time, just do the three essentials.

 

5. RESIST THE TEMPTATION TO DO MORE

Do not be tempted to add to or overburden your to-do list. If you keep adding items as you are crossing some off, you will just become the proverbial hamster on the wheel.

If you get through the list quickly, enjoy the bonus time. Do something for yourself, something that only you enjoy — some well- deserved “me time”.

Intelligent list making can keep you motivated and enhance productivity. It will also prevent you from ‘putting too much on your plate’ and “biting off more than you can chew.’

How do you organise your to-do list? Or if you don’t use a planner or list, how do you plan your schedule/ Do drop me a line in the comments section.

 

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All images courtesy Unsplash.

 

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