Fix Your To-Do Lists In One Easy Step

A way to keep them simple, to dramatically reduce stress

Drowning in work

Sitting back on his swivel chair, his desk covered in small post-it notes and yellow folders, my boss put both hands over his eyes and sighed loudly.

“I’m drowning, Keith”, he said, now massaging his own head in exaggerated strokes.

He was overwhelmed. This man had been promoted to a senior position within our company only a few months earlier, and he now seemed to really be feeling the weight of this new role.

“I have a million things to do, and I don’t even know where to begin”, he continued, looking down at a monstrous list of pending tasks awaiting his action.

But the problem wasn’t that he had a monstrous list of tasks. The problem was that he didn’t know how to prioritize them.

Getting things done

In his book “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”, efficiency guru David Allen talks about the need to make lists. Allen says “our minds are for coming up with ideas, not for holding them”.

I’m a list maker. Every day, I open up my notebook and write, on one page, the 50 things that I, personally, want to get accomplished.

Now, I’m well aware that I may not be able to do all 50 things.

The issue that many people face is that they write their lists out each day, mark the important items with a star or a number, and start working on those ‘important’ items one by one.

Before long, they are behind in their tasks and, even worse, they’re stressed out because they know that certain deadlines are approaching.

There’s a better way.

Divide your list into 3, to reduce your stress

After making your list on one page, use another blank page to categorize those items:

1) one category for important and urgent tasks (those things that absolutely must get done today) 2) one category for important but not urgent tasks (those things that can wait) 3) one category for ‘other’ (those things that don’t fall into the other two categories, including items that are important to others but not to you)

In the classic productivity self-help guide ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’, by Stephen Covey, the author points out that most ineffective people are constantly working from the first category.

You cannot be relaxed if you are constantly dealing with urgent and important items. It’s like you’re running from one emergency to another. Our goal must be to immediately identify and deal with those items that urgently need our attention, and get them out of the way first.

If you can accomplish that, then the rest of your day will be much more relaxed because you will be able to work on items that are not due until a later date. Dividing your list also shows you, at a glance, what you shouldn’t be working on at all.

This one simple step will provide you with the clarity, the plan, and eventually the results you want each and every day.

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