10 Simple Ways to Stop Your To-Do List from Ruining Your Life

Free AI web copilot to create summaries, insights and extended knowledge, download it at here

2666

Abstract

s to avoid difficult tasks. In any given moment, we’d prefer to tackle the easy actions than the more critical ones. And it’s much easier to focus on an easy task if it’s written down on that list. Don’t give yourself this out. Critical items, no more than five.Give yourself a parking lot. As new tasks come up throughout the day, most people keep adding them to their to-do list. So even if they started with three critical things, they finish the day with 12 new actions that weren’t there at the beginning of the day. Give yourself a parking lot for the long-term and yet-to-be-prioritized. Not only does this minimize disruption, it lets you prioritize with a clear head. In the moment, everything new seems urgent. Yet it’s amazing how that urgency tends to drop if you just give it a couple of hours.Have a compelling reason for every action on your list. Most people don’t have a time management problem, they have a priority management problem. They run out of time because they find themselves focusing on the wrong priorities. Before adding anything to your to-do list, make sure you can clearly state why it’s a priority. If you can’t, why would you want to invest your limited time on it?Turn it into a schedule. Steven Covey once said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” It’s easy to let your schedule drive the day while the actions on your to-do list are relegated to the spare moments between meetings. This strategy usually ends with the unenviable choice of either working late or not accomplishing your list. The actions on your list are your priorities. They’re what will decide if the day’s a success. Why should someone be able to usurp that simply because they know how to find some free time on your calendar. Schedule your priorities, be unapologetic about it, and let everyone else fight over the scraps.Think in terms of air, water, and food. Stephen and Heidi Messer of Linkshare found that all of their priorities were always “high,” so they started evaluating them in terms of air, water, and food. To survive you need air, water, and food. You can survive for a few minutes without air, a few days without water, and a few weeks without food. While food and water are still high priorities, you’re not going to be worried about them if you can’t breathe. Thinking about actions in terms of these can bring more focus when everything seems to be a constant demand for your attention. What do you need to do right now? What can wait until tomorrow? And what needs to happen over

Options

the next week?Give yourself hard deadlines. Parkinson’s Law tells us that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” So if you give yourself all afternoon to complete a task, you’re likely going to wrap it up at 4:59pm. Instead, give yourself an hour. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in 60 minutes if you focus and limit your distractions.Write down the absolute next action you need to take. In <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Things-Done-Stress-Free-Productivity/dp/0142000280">Getting Things Done</a>, David Allen suggests that we focus on the absolute next action to minimize the resistance to starting a project. I’ll admit, I was skeptical about this one. I felt like an idiot writing down “Find roofer phone number,” instead of “Fix roof” as an action. But finding a phone number’s easy enough. And once that was done it was simple to put in a phone call, have someone come out for an estimate, and then have them fix that leak that’s plagued me for far too long. Breaking down tasks into clear actions makes everything seem more manageable. Remember that action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s the cause of it. As Allen wrote, “Without a next action, there remains a potentially infinite gap between current reality and what you need to do.”Start tackling your actions before checking your email. Most people are at their best first thing in the morning — after they’ve had their coffee of course. Once you start checking email, it’s easy to lose an hour or four. And email can leave a mental footprint. If you read something upsetting, it keeps distracting you long after you’ve moved on to tackling your top priorities. Reserve your focus and most productive periods for where it’ll have the biggest impact.Identify your biggest rocks the night before. In the moment, we’re lazy. We know which task will have the biggest impact, yet we don’t do it. The human brain is very skilled at rationalizing away behaviors that we don’t want to do. Don’t give yourself this leniency. While you may struggle to make the right decision in the moment, it’s much easier to sign yourself up for challenging work the night before. Leverage that.Reflect and keep improving. Excellence comes from self-expression and no one has a universal solution. If something doesn’t work for you, no worries. Correct what doesn’t. Build off what does. And keep improving. We get better through feedback and adjustments. Make sure you’re giving yourself this opportunity.</article></body>

10 Simple Ways to Stop Your To-Do List from Ruining Your Life

How to Make them Work For You. And Not Against You.

Most people use their to-do list as a form of torture. It’s less of a tool for productivity than a nonstop drain on their mental energy.

I know, writing down a list of actions doesn’t seem like something that should be difficult. But never underestimate our ability to overcomplicate the simple. What starts as an effective tool quickly becomes a series of Memento-style body tattoos in our misguided attempts to maximize quantity over quality.

Think of how most people use to-do lists. They spend each morning rewriting down everything that they didn’t accomplish the day before. They fill it with more tasks than they can possibly get done. And it’s full of vague actions that they have no idea how to accomplish. If someone tried to design a system with the express purpose of overwhelming people into inaction, the average to-do list would fit that bill nicely.

While a little stress can be a good thing, constantly feeling overwhelmed leads to frustration. And finishing every day short of their goal doesn’t encourage anyone to do better tomorrow. It normalizes failure. Before long, people become comfortable not living up to their own expectations.

It’s no wonder so many people need to find solace watching cat videos.

The good news is that to-do lists can be a worthwhile tool. But like any tool, they’re only helpful if used effectively.

Your to-do list has a job. It’s supposed to help you focus your energy on those critical actions that will make the biggest impact. That’s it. Don’t ask it to do more than that — it’s not qualified and you’re only going to be disappointed. Here’s ten ways to keep things simple and help make sure your to-do list is working for you and not against you.

Limit the quantity of tasks on your list. What 3–5 things will make today a success? Twenty actions on a to-do list dilutes your focus from those critical few that will make a significant impact. Limiting it to the critical items also cuts away on the potential rationalizations to avoid difficult tasks. In any given moment, we’d prefer to tackle the easy actions than the more critical ones. And it’s much easier to focus on an easy task if it’s written down on that list. Don’t give yourself this out. Critical items, no more than five.

Give yourself a parking lot. As new tasks come up throughout the day, most people keep adding them to their to-do list. So even if they started with three critical things, they finish the day with 12 new actions that weren’t there at the beginning of the day. Give yourself a parking lot for the long-term and yet-to-be-prioritized. Not only does this minimize disruption, it lets you prioritize with a clear head. In the moment, everything new seems urgent. Yet it’s amazing how that urgency tends to drop if you just give it a couple of hours.

Have a compelling reason for every action on your list. Most people don’t have a time management problem, they have a priority management problem. They run out of time because they find themselves focusing on the wrong priorities. Before adding anything to your to-do list, make sure you can clearly state why it’s a priority. If you can’t, why would you want to invest your limited time on it?

Turn it into a schedule. Steven Covey once said, “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.” It’s easy to let your schedule drive the day while the actions on your to-do list are relegated to the spare moments between meetings. This strategy usually ends with the unenviable choice of either working late or not accomplishing your list. The actions on your list are your priorities. They’re what will decide if the day’s a success. Why should someone be able to usurp that simply because they know how to find some free time on your calendar. Schedule your priorities, be unapologetic about it, and let everyone else fight over the scraps.

Think in terms of air, water, and food. Stephen and Heidi Messer of Linkshare found that all of their priorities were always “high,” so they started evaluating them in terms of air, water, and food. To survive you need air, water, and food. You can survive for a few minutes without air, a few days without water, and a few weeks without food. While food and water are still high priorities, you’re not going to be worried about them if you can’t breathe. Thinking about actions in terms of these can bring more focus when everything seems to be a constant demand for your attention. What do you need to do right now? What can wait until tomorrow? And what needs to happen over the next week?

Give yourself hard deadlines. Parkinson’s Law tells us that “work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” So if you give yourself all afternoon to complete a task, you’re likely going to wrap it up at 4:59pm. Instead, give yourself an hour. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in 60 minutes if you focus and limit your distractions.

Write down the absolute next action you need to take. In Getting Things Done, David Allen suggests that we focus on the absolute next action to minimize the resistance to starting a project. I’ll admit, I was skeptical about this one. I felt like an idiot writing down “Find roofer phone number,” instead of “Fix roof” as an action. But finding a phone number’s easy enough. And once that was done it was simple to put in a phone call, have someone come out for an estimate, and then have them fix that leak that’s plagued me for far too long. Breaking down tasks into clear actions makes everything seem more manageable. Remember that action isn’t just the effect of motivation; it’s the cause of it. As Allen wrote, “Without a next action, there remains a potentially infinite gap between current reality and what you need to do.”

Start tackling your actions before checking your email. Most people are at their best first thing in the morning — after they’ve had their coffee of course. Once you start checking email, it’s easy to lose an hour or four. And email can leave a mental footprint. If you read something upsetting, it keeps distracting you long after you’ve moved on to tackling your top priorities. Reserve your focus and most productive periods for where it’ll have the biggest impact.

Identify your biggest rocks the night before. In the moment, we’re lazy. We know which task will have the biggest impact, yet we don’t do it. The human brain is very skilled at rationalizing away behaviors that we don’t want to do. Don’t give yourself this leniency. While you may struggle to make the right decision in the moment, it’s much easier to sign yourself up for challenging work the night before. Leverage that.

Reflect and keep improving. Excellence comes from self-expression and no one has a universal solution. If something doesn’t work for you, no worries. Correct what doesn’t. Build off what does. And keep improving. We get better through feedback and adjustments. Make sure you’re giving yourself this opportunity.