Master Your To-Do List
We all have so much to do it can be overwhelming. Here are 6 strategies for keeping your sanity and master your to-do list.
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Keep a Master List
If you don’t have a master list start one right now. Set a timer for 20 minutes and write down everything you have to do. If you keep your lists in multiple places now is the time to gather all the scraps of paper and put it all down in one master list.
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Brain Dump Weekly on to your List
Now that you have a master list you need to keep adding to it. Every week block out some time to brain dump all you new to-dos. List everything that pops into your mind. No item is too large or too small to be added to your list. By now you probably have an enormous list, and it is a bit overwhelming. We will take care of that in the next couple of steps.
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Delete Items that are no Longer Relevant
So, you have brain dumped and gathered all your miscellaneous lists into one master list and you are totally overwhelmed with all there is to do. I want you to go through your master list and cross off anything that you really don’t need to get done. We add items to our lists thinking we are supposed to be doing these things. Not necessarily. Don’t succumb to the pressure of what others are doing. Look inside yourself to determine what needs to be done and cross off those items that are irrelevant.
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Delegate items that don’t need to be completed by you
We all need help and with the list, you have going you are going to have to enlist the help of family, friends, and co-workers. Go through your master list and decide what doesn’t need to be done by you. Delegate those items out. No need wasting your time on tasks that are not your strong suit when there are plenty of resources to help you. For example, do you hate grocery shopping? There are services who will do the shopping for you. Delegate that task out.
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Transfer Items from you Master List to your daily to-do list
This step is one of the most important especially if you are feeling overwhelmed by your master list. Review your list and write down your top 3 priorities for the day. Trust me your day will throw you curve balls, and you most likely won’t have time for more than 3 of your to-dos. Do this every day, and you will start making progress on your master list. It doesn’t mean you can only do those 3 items. You may find yourself with extra time to tackle more items on the list. Just make sure you get the top three done.
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Schedule your To-Dos
Writing your to-do list down doesn’t mean it is going to get done. You need to block out time to accomplish your tasks. Take a look at your calendar and decide when you will complete your tasks. Make an appointment with yourself and stick to it. No rescheduling. You need to get these tasks done, and you have made time for it so respect your schedule.
Following these strategies will put you in control of your to-do list.
I think #6 is really the “secret sauce” of productivity. What gets scheduled, gets done! Once it hits my schedule, I am about 80% more likely to do it.
Yes! I had been struggling to find a way to have my tasks show up on the calendar on my phone and then I discovered Wunderlist. It doesn’t allow you to assign a time, but at least I can see my tasks that are due that day on the calendar. Sure wish Outlook would hurry up and add task management to the app. I hear it is coming, but not soon enough.
The most difficult part for me is to figure out what I can give to someone else (#4). It’s a goal of mine to figure this out this year. I am getting a meal delivery service and a cleaning service this year. By, that has helped a lot on time management.
Delegating is hard. You have to find someone who buys into the importance you place on the task. That can be difficult. I try to have a meeting with the person I am delegating the task to so we can have a chat about the importance and any objections they may have about the task. Sometimes in talking, I will discover that objections to the task are because they haven’t been properly trained on how to complete the steps. It is also important to remember that there is more than one way to do most tasks. Giving a person more authority over how they will complete the task can go a long way towards getting it done. To identify what to delegate I start with my least favorite tasks and the tasks that don’t have to be done by me. For example, making lunches for my son. I hate it. I delegated it out to my husband. He doesn’t mind the task and now I don’t start my day grumbling.
What a great list Jamie! You’ve hit all the major points that I share with clients and audiences when discussing time management and to-do lists. I love to think about it as Do, Delegate or Delete – exactly what you shared! And I’m with you about the Brain Dump – I love doing that every Sunday evening. It makes my week go so much smoother 😉
Love it, Liana! The Three D’s of the To-Do List! I have a couple of clients that our first order of business is a brain dump. They talk I write!
Love, love, love this post! I love how you have made it easy to break down a to-do list into simple bite-sized steps. So many people get bogged down by how simple it is to manage a master to-do list.
I heard JLD (John Lee Dumas) talk recently on the Ray Edwards Show about the Pomodoro Technique. “You have a set amount of focus time and then a set amount of refresh time and that’s before you start your focus time…. 42 minutes of focused time, 18 minutes of refresh time. I do 4 sessions of those every single day…”
In other words, we can be incredibly focused on fewer items throughout the day, and accomplish more work than the average person. But it starts by focusing on what’s most important.
Loved this post – I”ve saved it in Evernote for future reference. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by, Jason! I so happy you enjoyed the post. I love the Pomodoro Technique! Knowing you only have to concentrate for a set amount of time before you get a break is so motivating.
Weeding out the items that are no longer relevant on that master list helps to keep the list from being overwhelming. With paper piles I sometimes call this the “time took care of pile.” It’s need has expired before there was time to attend to it.
Your system for going from general capturing of ideas/to dos to actually getting them done is great!
Thanks, Linda. I love the “time took care of pile” idea!