These Five Tricks Will Help You Finally Complete Your To-Do List
If your long list of projects and tasks is leaving you overwhelmed,
these methods will help you finally get things done.
Ah, to-do lists. The bane of our existence, the source of our
stress and occasionally the symbol of our triumph. OK, I’m being a little
dramatic–but those of us who’ve abided by this method of task-organization have
probably felt that sinking feeling when we realize we’ve barely made a dent in
our list, and it’s the end of the work day. And on rare days where we do manage
to complete everything, we feel like we’re on fire.
If your list has got you feeling more stressed than triumphant
lately, it might be time to modify your approach. Here are some ideas how:
1. LIMIT IT TO SIX THINGS A DAY
I remember hearing about this 100 year old “Ivy Lee” method
back in college, and I’ve adopted it ever since. As James Clear previously wrote, the
idea isn’t that six is some sort of magic
number, it’s that by imposing a limit on the amount of tasks on your to-do
list, you’re forced to make tough decisions about what’s important and what’s
not. Also, the idea of tackling a to-do list of six is a lot less overwhelming
than a to-do list of 20–which means you’ll be less likely to procrastinate.
2. DIVIDE IT INTO SECTIONS
There are certain tasks that are just easy to do one after
another, and others require a complete switch in thinking. If we’re
interrupted by a phone call when we’re heads down writing a report, it’ll
probably take us awhile to get back “in the zone” after that phone call, and as
a result we take much longer to complete our task because we need to allow time
for brain transition. This is why lumping similar tasks together make sense;
you’ll get more done in less time that way.
Fast Company writer Michael
Grothaus recently
tried this method. He divided his tasks between “digital quickies” (like
emailing someone or making dinner reservations), “work” (writing, reporting,
and pitching stories) and “real world” (personal errands like laundry or
grocery shopping). Before trying this approach, Grothaus struggled to complete
his to-do list. After dividing his to-do lists, he found himself crossing
off every single task.
3. TRY TIME BLOCKING
Maybe you’re just not a list person, or you find it difficult
to break down “making progress on that big project” to smaller to-dos.
You could try abandoning lists altogether, and instead
dedicate chunks of time for certain work instead.
That’s what writer Gwen Moran tried
when she wanted to understand why she wasn’t getting everything done. She tracked how she was spending her time, saw
interesting patterns and began to devote time slots to certain work rather
than make her way down a long list. Kevin Kruse, management expert and author
of 15
Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management told
Moran that not only does time blocking force you to work with discipline and
order, it also has major psychological benefits.
According to Kruse, when we have the expectation of completing a
task and we don’t, we tend to stress about them. “However, when we have all of
our tasks placed into a specific date, time, and duration, we sleep more
soundly knowing everything that needs to get done is in its place.”
4. DISTINGUISH WHICH TASKS ARE TRULY IMPORTANT, AND WHICH
TASKS ARE NOT
If you’re the type of person who just needs to write down
everything you need to get done–regardless of how important or urgent they
are–you can at least make assessments on their importance. If you don’t get
everything done, you would have at least made headway on the things that are
important.
Business coach and author Brian Tracy provides some guidance on
how you can make this assessment. In
his book, Master
Your Time, Master Your Life, Tracy recommends we mark our tasks A, B, C, D, or E,
depending on the consequences of not getting them done.
“A” tasks, according to Tracy, is something that we must do–if
we don’t, there will be “serious consequences.” Things like meeting a deadline
or preparing for an important meeting fall into this category.
“B” and “C” tasks are items we should do, but not
doing them will only have minor (or no consequences).
“D” are tasks that we can delegate, and “E” are tasks that aren’t
that necessary and we can therefore eliminate from our list. And speaking of
elimination….
5. MAKE SURE IT INCLUDES THINGS WE WANT TO DO
We’re more likely to be motivated to tackle our to-do list when it
contains tasks that we’re excited to work on. Yes, there are certain “shoulds”
that we just need to bite the bullet and do, but there are probably many
“shoulds” that aren’t going to affect our quality of life or career if we don’t
do them. By getting rid of those from our list, we create room to do more
things that actually makes us happy. In the long term that is.
Psychologist Art Markman
previously wrote for Fast Company, “If
you confront yourself each day with reminders of only the least enjoyable parts
of your job, it’ll probably wind up sapping your motivation to come to work.”
It’s important to note that Markman isn’t saying that we should
all stop doing part of our jobs that we hate; rather, he’s encouraging us to
allocate some time each week to big-picture projects that contribute to our
long-term career or life goals. Perhaps it’s learning a new skill that can
get you on the promotion track faster or spending more time getting coffee with
colleagues in your workplace in order to deepen your industry knowledge.
Markman ends by saying that we might start feeling better about our
to-do list–even when it has plenty of tedious tasks–when it includes the things
we want to do. These tasks “help put the more boring tasks into perspective”
and remind us that our job “is more than just a sequence of small, boring,
urgent duties to execute–because [we’ve] planned it to be.”
BY ANISA PURBASARI HORTON
https://www.fastcompany.com/40440153/these-five-tricks-will-help-you-finally-complete-your-to-do-list?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=fcdaily-top&position=7&partner=newsletter&campaign_date=07192017a
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