Why Your To-Do List is Missing the Point

With big goals sometimes the obvious tasks are NOT the most important.

If you want to achieve a big goal, you’re going to have a list of tasks you need to do.

But choosing the right tasks is crucial. If you are focused on the wrong things, you’re not only wasting time, but risking failure.

So how do you choose the right tasks?

This may help:

I want a promotion

Let’s imagine a scenario where you’re working at a big company. You’re ambitious and want to get a promotion.

What would be the best way to do this?

You could be on the lookout for any positions becoming available in the company and then preparing for applications and interviews.

You could do this for several years hoping that simply being there and relentlessly applying will get you the promotion.

But this would be an inadequate approach.

To illustrate, have a look at this picture:

I am certainly no expert on photo composition, but on a basic level this picture is made up of a foreground and a background.

It’s easy to focus only on the old truck in the foreground, without realising that the background is equally important.

If the background was the inside of a shopping mall, it would make it a completely different picture.

Background vs Foreground

With big goals, like getting a promotion, it’s too easy to focus on the foreground tasks like applying and interviewing. These are the most obvious tasks associated with achieving the goal. But to do this is missing the deeper level of tasks required.

In this example, there are background tasks like building a network and improving your value to the company.

Building a network: It’s not what you know but who you know. If you have developed a network, you could use this to find out about any upcoming promotions early.

Improving value: If you’re developing your skills, and being proactive about projects that build value within your industry, this alone could attract attention from your company or others. The best, most visible people in any industry are often headhunted, meaning they don’t need to seek out opportunities, the opportunities come to them.

It’s Easy to Ignore the Background

In any goal there are the foreground tasks that are the most visible, but often background tasks that if done well, may make the foreground tasks unnecessary or at least much easier.

The difficulty is that the background tasks are often “long-haul” tasks. You have to do them for a long time before you start seeing a benefit.

But they never feel urgent so it’s easy to put them off. And if you only do them when you need them, it’s too late.

No Success Without the Background

People who achieve extraordinary success are unable to do it without the background tasks. These are the foundation of anything major you want to achieve in your life.

So look at your big goals and look at your to-do list.

Are you too focused on the foreground and minimizing the background?

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I blog at Seven Insights where you can read more about goal-setting, productivity and success based on my experience running a behavioral psychology clinic in London, UK.