Why Your To-Do List Sucks
Scenario: "Dude, let's tack another item on our to-do list. We'll finish them someday. High-five!" You know the deal:
- You start a to-do list.
- You put 908532502 things on the to-do list.
- You get overwhelmed.
- You start avoiding your to-do list.
Your productivity? Drainage. Though you'll tackle those entries "someday", you'll either:
- Procrastinate until some looming threat gets you to do it.
- Never do it.
The solution? Shrink your to-do list to bite-sized, manageable entries -- and see your productivity soar like a flying hyena high on chicken wings.
Say NO! to Too Much
Complexity prevents you from working. It's like Bo Schmuck Climber staring at Mount Kilimanjaro -- instead of jumping onto the vicious mountain of tasks, he waits, and waits, and waits for the perfect time (that just never comes). With an enormous to-do list:
- You know you'll have to accomplish vicious mountains of tasks.
- But the fear of failure scares you from doing anything.
- You start avoiding your tasks, waiting for the "perfect time."
Result: Your productivity drains.
Keep Your To-Do Lists Small
Small to-do lists prevents you from overwhelming yourself. (Also, when it gets too big, you know you're spending more time on your to-do list than actually working.) Instead of increasing self-doubts, manageable lists increase your self-confidence:
- "This is very manageable!"
- "Simple, I can do this."
- "No sweat. Piece of cake."
- "I'm gonna chase down this to-do-list-mutha-*&^%$#, and beat it into submission."
Manageable to-do lists drive you toward action, now.
Eliminate Junk
Twenty-percent of your to-do tasks contains 80% importance. Most tasks dilute what should really get your concentration. Eliminate those suckas. Or, maybe better:
Defer It!
Ba-da-bing! Your main to-do list lets you concentrate on what (1) you can do now, and (2) what's most important. Your deferred list gives you a:
- "Hmm. Someday, I'd like to get this done -- but not now -- since it ain't so important yet."
You'll start kicking-booty-and-taking-names by filtering out the most important from the less important.
Manageable To-Do Lists = Krr-aa-zzz-y Sex-aay
Read More Business Tips From Trizle »
10 Comments
on Why Your To-Do List Sucks
Doesn't matter
2007-07-11 16:25:27 UTC
Who are you? Put up a bio or something.
Helen
2007-07-11 20:14:19 UTC
You make a good point. Even thought we are doing it for our own good, we still have to consider the fact that too much does not produce a desirable result.
Thanks for this great reminder.
Phil L.
2007-07-12 05:13:27 UTC
Additionally, a tool such as http://www.dailytodo.net may help to manage your to do list.
Gerd Tarand
2007-07-12 09:33:18 UTC
Another simple categoy and may-be even one of the first to consider is to ask the simple question "Can someone else do this?". I used to do everything myself, trying to be the action man who gets things done no matter how unpractical the approach - making the difference between "do it youreself" and "get someone who actually should/could do this to do this" helps to cut a lot of the load.
BetterFasterNow!
2007-07-12 13:37:11 UTC
Good article. If your list doesn't drive towards action, you need to gut it 'till it does.
- Dave Navarro
Norbert Mocsnik
2007-07-12 14:52:07 UTC
I've been doing this unconsciously for a while. Besides having a full GTD implementation, I always keep an empty sheet in the front of my laptop to sketch ideas on. I noticed this week that I'm always transferring some very next actions from my GTD system to the sketch pad. Only as much as I can finish in one iteration. Since then, my productivity has boosted like a crazy sexy mofo, yaay.
Charlie
2007-07-12 19:59:53 UTC
So true. With too many tasks to do on the list, who would have the time to do it? However, it's also good to some who has the time to sort the list so that it would even be more specific.
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