Prime 5 Errors You’re Making with Your To Do Listing
Errors You’re Making with Your To-Do Listing shall be described on this article. For those who missed our most up-to-date Workplace Hours, take a look at the recap under or watch the video right here.
Prime 5 Errors You’re Making with Your To-Do Listing
Do you ever end up annoyed on the finish of the day observing all the unchecked objects left in your to-list? Altering the way in which you craft the listing might make all of the distinction.
With so many issues begging on your time and a spotlight it’s crucial to face the day with a transparent plan, and all of it begins with an organized to-do listing.
At this time, we’re diving into 5 widespread errors you possibly can be making whereas crafting your to-do listing and repair them so you may make progress in your tasks and have a good time these small wins alongside the way in which.
Mistake #1: Too many to-do lists
The place do you retain your to-do listing? For those who use a mixture of Asana, a paper pocket book, cellphone notes, screenshot photos, and you’ve got post-it notes littering your desk, it’s time to consolidate.
The issue with having too many lists is that it’s a symptom of not having a dependable system. If in case you have too many to-do lists, it’s time to simplify. Begin by narrowing your lists down to 2 locations. One ought to be a high-tech possibility, resembling Asana duties, Trello or digital device and the opposite use a low-tech analog possibility resembling a pocket book or a paper planner.
Now, you’ll have a reliable system in place and know precisely the place to look to plan out your day with ease.
Mistake #2: You don’t have a listing in any respect
Are you making an attempt to recollect your to-do listing in your head? Whenever you rely in your reminiscence to select up the place you left off, your bandwidth is taken up by remembering what you must do as a substitute of doing the work.
Consider it as having too many tabs open in your mind. Holding on to completely different items of data stands in the way in which of directing your vitality in direction of taking motion, being artistic, innovating and downside fixing.
In reality, David Allen, creator and creator of the Getting Issues Finished system, famously mentioned:
- “Your thoughts is for conserving concepts, not holding them.”
It’s most helpful to get within the behavior of utilizing your digital and/or analog to-do listing so you possibly can deal with the duty at hand.
Mistake #3: Your listing is just too lengthy
In case your listing is a mile lengthy, a sense of being overwhelmed units in and could be paralyzing. When that is the case, the perfect factor to do is to interrupt the duties down into two lists. It might appear counterintuitive, however having one overarching Grasp Listing and one At this time Listing may help you deal with a manageable set of duties.
The Grasp Listing is an entire mindsweep of each single excellent process in your skilled and private life, sometimes captured in digital kind. As a result of there are such a lot of excellent duties on a Grasp Listing, it could really feel such as you by no means unravel it. That’s the place the At this time Listing comes into play.
A At this time Listing is a stand alone listing with solely the duties to be accomplished on a given day. It helps slender your focus, creates an opportunity for small wins, and permits for a way of accomplishment on the finish of the day.
Begin by scanning your Grasp Listing and pull the highest priorities onto your At this time Listing, then take it one step additional and timeblock these objects in your At this time Listing into your calendar.
Mistake #4: Your to-do listing is just too brief
How can a to-do listing be too brief? One of the vital widespread errors is to have a listing of tasks as a substitute of writing out particular person duties. A mission is something that requires a collection of duties to perform whereas a process is one motion.
For instance, your to-do listing could seem like this:
- dentist appointment
- automotive
- new rent
These three issues find yourself staying in your to-do listing for weeks as a result of all of them require a number of steps.
Right here’s an instance of successfully breakdown the above tasks into an motion merchandise:
- analysis three dentists close to your property
- schedule automotive upkeep
- onboard that new rent
When you’ve got one clear process to finish in your listing, it’s not solely simpler to finish, however you even have the power to time block for a single process and have a good time extra wins.
Mistake #5: Your listing just isn’t actionable.
Let’s return to our earlier instance:
- dentist appointment
- automotive
- new rent
These are nouns, not verbs. Subsequently, none of those are actionable.
Our mind sees ‘dentist appointment’ and has to do the psychological gymnastics to determine what truly must be accomplished.
Whenever you require your mind to do all of this work simply to perform one factor, it is not going to solely take longer to finish but additionally make it extra seemingly so that you can procrastinate.
As an alternative, ensure that each line merchandise accommodates a verb:
- analysis three dentists
- schedule automotive upkeep
- draft job description
The distinction between these two strategies is the primary one requires your mind to do lots of considering, whereas the opposite one provides your mind a break. Make issues as apparent as doable so you possibly can simply soar in and take motion.
Bonus- Mistake #6: Your listing just isn’t prioritized
For those who’re simply beginning with no matter is on the high of the listing and also you’re working your manner from high to backside, you possibly can be sabotaging your productiveness. For those who get to the tip of the day and really feel such as you’ve accomplished lots of issues and also you’ve been busy all day, however in some way you didn’t get to the essential tasks, that’s since you had been spending your time on unimportant issues.
To stop this, attempt labeling your high three duties and prioritize getting these accomplished first. How will you strategically construction your time to sort out these duties that reap the most important reward? What’s the next step? What’s one factor that you simply’ll do subsequent week to construct a greater to-do listing?
