Why You Should Stop Depending on Your To-do List.
To-do lists are useful. They are a great way to reduce overwhelm and stress and they prevent us from forgetting things — those little things that are easily forgotten. However, they can also become a productivity drag when you become too reliant on your to-do list to tell you what to do.
If you take a little time to study very successful people, whether they are in business, science or sport, one thing they have in common is they know exactly what they need to accomplish each day without the need for a to-do list. When Eliud Kipchoge (the world’s fastest marathon runner) begins his day, he does not consult a to-do list. He is very focused on what needs to be done that day. If you watch the excellent documentary on Netflix, Inside Bill’s Brain, you will be struck by how focused Bill Gates is each day on his objective. There’s no to-do list involved. He knows exactly what he wants to accomplish.
A to-do list is there to pick up the pieces that are easily forgotten. Sending a copy of your slide deck to a colleague who asked for it while you were walking to lunch, a reminder to make an appointment for your daughter to see the dentist and those little routines that just need to be done, but are easily forgotten — expense reports, gym membership renewal and bill payments. These types of tasks are great for a to-do list. But when you have to consult your to-do list every day to see what you need to do, then there is a bigger problem in your productivity system.
When you become reliant on your to-do list to tell you what to do, you spend so much time updating, reorganising and checking you have a lot less time for the doing. Being more productive is about getting more done in less time. Having a wonderfully organised to-do list manager with many levels of hierarchy, labels and start and due dates might look good on paper (or on a screen), but it causes you to be less productive. You are spending too much time in your to-do list manager.
This morning when I woke up, I knew exactly what I needed to do — write this blog post. I did not need to consult my to-do list manager. After writing this, I will take my dog for a walk for thirty minutes and then I will write up some feedback that needs writing up. I have a lunch appointment and then in the afternoon, I will go to the gym for an hour before teaching a class in the early evening. I know that and I do not need to consult my to-do list to know that. This is the ‘outline’ for my day. I prepared this ‘outline’ yesterday.
The little routine tasks, the daily admin, are in my to-do list manager, but I will not need to see those until I have at least this post written, the dog is walked and my feedback done.
If I decide that on Thursday I am going to spend the afternoon working on a specific project, I will likely have the project open in my to-do list. But again, I will have reviewed what needed doing the evening before and know exactly where I want to start. The only reason my to-do list would be open is to collect new ideas and to-dos while I am working on the project. I do not need my to-do list to tell me what to work on next. I already know what needs doing.
Whether you work in an office or work from home as I do, if you give yourself ten to twenty minutes before you end the day to decide the outline for the next day, you will find yourself a lot more productive and a lot less stressed. By planning the day before, you give your subconscious brain time to develop the best ways to accomplish your work. It means when you start your day you begin with purpose, clarity and energy and will find you have many more productive days.
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