Use This Formula To Tame Your Hopeless
To-Do List
You know how to write a to-do list. If you’re
like lots of people, you may already be in the habit of writing out a list of
the day’s tasks as soon as you get into the office each morning or even the
night before.
The bigger
challenge is figuring out how to prioritize it. No matter how productive you
are, there will always be too many tasks for you to complete. You’re always
going to have to choose which ones to do first, which to do second, and which
tasks to do not at all. It isn’t always easy to remember that it’s not the
amount of time you put in, it’s the value of the work and the things you
achieve in that time that really counts. Your job is to focus on accomplishments rather
than activities.
Allocating your time based on the value of
the task starts with your to-do list, and this method can help.
The
"ABCDE method" is deceptively simple: Before you start your workday,
go through your list and write one of these five letters before each task or
activity. Think about the likely consequences of completing or
not completing each task. Something is only as important as its potential
consequences. Likewise, an unimportant task is one that has low or no potential
consequences. Consequences are everything.
Highly
productive people spend most of their time working on activities that have big
potential consequences.
Successful, highly productive people spend
most of their time working on activities that have big potential consequences.
Unsuccessful people often work harder and longer hours, but they spend too much
of their time working on activities without much impact one way or the other.
It doesn’t really matter if they complete them or not.
Put the
letters A, B, C, D, or E next to each task on your list.
An A activity is something that you must do. It has
serious potential consequence for completion or non-completion. If you don’t do
this task or get it done on time, there are going to be serious problems. These
are the most important things that you do each day.
Put a B in front of activities that you should
do, activities that have mild potential consequences if they are done
or not done. You need to get to these tasks sooner or later, but they are not
as important as your A tasks. The rule is that you never do a B task when there
is an A task left undone.
A C task is something that would be nice
to do, but it has no consequences at all, either for good or ill.
Checking your personal email, phoning home, having coffee with a coworker, are
all activities that are nice to do but it does not matter at all whether you do
them or not. These items don’t often make it onto our to-do lists but tend to
creep into our workdays unplanned. Since you’ll probably be checking Facebook
anyway, it helps to include that—the key is to take an honest inventory of what
you’ll do at work each day before you can take action accordingly.
Unfortunately, the great majority of people
spend most of their time doing B and C tasks, and they think that because they
are doing them at their workplace they are actually working. But this isn’t
true. Just because you’re at work does not mean that you’re indeed working.
Put a D
next to all tasks you can delegate to anyone else who can do them. Think
about the value of the work you do in monetary terms: If you aspire to earn $25
per hour ($50,000 per year) or $50 an hour ($100,000 per year), don’t spend
your time doing tasks that someone else can do for $10 an hour.
An E
task is something that you can eliminate and it won’t make any difference
at all. It may be a task that you have been doing for a while (or even just a
bad work habit . . . sorry, Facebook), but it’s no longer important. It may no
longer be your task to do. Whatever the case, it can be eliminated safely and
have no consequences at all for your career.
Now go back over your list and organize your
A tasks by priority by writing A-1, A-2, A-3, and so on next to your most
important tasks. Do the same for your B tasks. Finally, start on your A-1 task,
your most important and valuable use of your time. Resolve to concentrate
single-mindedly on that one task until it’s 100% complete.
This simple formula—making a list,
prioritizing it, and then starting and completing your most important tasks
first, uninterrupted—can help you dramatically improve the quantity and quality
of your output at work. It’s the key to high results. And remember, results are
everything.
This article
is adapted from Master
Your Time, Master Your Life by Brian
Tracy, from TarcherPerigee, a division of Penguin Random House. Copyright 2016,
Brian Tracy
https://www.fastcompany.com/3064390/work-smart/use-this-formula-to-tame-your-hopeless-to-do-list
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