6 Steps to Bullet-Proof Your To-Do List

To Do Lists don’t work…

Right?

Well… that’s what many bloggers and personal development leaders looking for a catchy headline would have you believe.

“10 Reasons why keeping a To Do list is a waste time”

I’d read that article…

Would you?

The problem with people perpetuating the idea that to do lists don’t work is that it creates a complete disregard for the fact that in today’s busy times, we all need some type of system for managing the day to day “transactional tasks” that we need to accomplish to ensure that other areas of our lives don’t go t@#%! while we are pursuing our big goals and dreams.

I can assure you that to do lists work…

but..

only if you understand how make it work for you.

I firmly believe that to do lists are a necessary evil and should been seen as such, rather than being regarded as some great productivity tool.

Crossing items off a t0 do list doesn’t make us productive, it simply free us up to do the things that will create real progress.

Because T0 Do list are a necessary evil we must learn to make them work for us.

Here are 6 Steps to Bullet-Proof Your To Do List:

1. Have more than 1 list on your to do list.

Because many of aren’t taught how to keep an effective to-do list… most people’s list consists of 1 piece of paper or 1 document on the computer

The problem with this is that when you look at the list it always feels like you have 20 tasks looming over you that need to be done at any given time.

The reality is that very few to do list tasks actually need to be completed that second, or even that day.

Having more than 1 list allows you to write things down so that you don’t forget them… but without the negative side effect of always feeling like you have an insane amount of things to do.

Here is an example of the different list that you can keep:

1. To do today.
2. To do tomorrow
3. To do next week.
4. To do next month.

Having multiple to do list stops you from having mile long lists filled with task that have low urgency and low impact.

This bring us to our 2nd way to Bullet-Proof your to do list.

2. Manage Your To Do’s by Urgency and Impact

How many times have you looked at your to do list and instead of doing the most important thing, you did the easiest, least stressful thing?

Yes, you “got stuff done”, but the important task is still on the list and not only that… but you now shortened the amount of time between you and the tasks deadline.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day… and as cliched as it sounds, its what we do with that time that counts.

In order to have a To Do list that is bullet proof you need to know the:

• Urgency of the task
• Impact of the task
• The income potential of the task.

Urgency is easy… when do the task need to be done by… and how urgent is it compared to the other things on the list.

Impact… how important is this task to future outcomes? Does it make a big difference… or does it not?

Income… what is the potential for this task to earn you “returns” in terms of money in the bank or time back on your schedule.

When you start to take these things into account, you start to focus on the things that matter and put things that don’t “on the back burner”

This will ensure that when you are tackling your to-do’s you are doing things that will help to advance your life and not simply occupying yourself and having the delusion of “productivity by busyness”

3. Never have more than 10 items to complete in a single day

“I have 17 tasks on my to do list today”

This is problematic on a lot of levels.

1. Chances are some of those things don’t need to be done today.
2. It creates a feeling of overwhelm.
3. Cause the person to default to doing what’s easiest first rather than what matters.

Why the #10? The number 10 comes from what my research has taught me and what I have seen in my own life.

I typically never have more than 5–6 items a day.

Also, I only write down things that I will forget to-do unless I write them down.

For example… I don’t write down:

1. Brush Teeth
2. Feed Cats
3. Kiss wife before I leave for work.

I do write down:

1. Return Mr. Smith’s phone call.
2. Contact Web Designer Re: Site Changes.
3. Make sure electric bill was payed.

Keeping the number of items on your to do list low will help to make you feel less stressed and ensure that you only write down whats necessary, but also make sure that you don’t confuse crossing low urgency, low income, and low impact tasks off of your list with being productive.

4. Write your to do’s, so even a stranger would know what you were talking about.

Now I know I didn’t follow this in the example above, but its important to make sure that you write your to do’s out in such a way the even a stranger would know what you are talking about.

…but wait…

… my to-do list is for me… why would anyone else need to know what these things mean?

Well.. there are 2 reasons:

1. Writing the task out clearly with a “call to action” gives you a specific instruction to follow.
2. You may forget what it means between the time when you write it and when you do it.

As for #1… you want reading your list to be something that tells you to perform a specific action… as “nitpicky” as it sounds… writing down something like “shower” could mean a lot of different things… take a shower… clean the shower… plan your friends baby shower.

As for #2… I know we have been there… written down some cryptic 1 word tasks only to come back to it later and have idea what it means…

What a great feeling… remembering you had something to do, but not being able to remember what it was.

Some of the best ideas are the ones that are the easiest to dismiss. Trust me… this is not one to dismiss.

5. Avoid to-do’s that have a lot of “sub” to do’s.

Ideally task’s on your to- do list should be stand alone events that are “1 and done”.

Now… I would never put the following item on a to do list (its more of a “dream list” items… but its an easy way for me to illustrate this for you.

Having “write a book” on your to-do list would be a case where this is problematic.

Writing a book involves many different steps. When you make the mistake of boiling it down to a 1 item task… it usually ends up incomplete or the planning is so poor than it takes way longer than it should and you make more mistakes than you need to.

Items with a lot of “sub tasks” should either have their own list… or might even qualify as a goal… which in my opinions your to do list is no place to write your goals.

… which brings us to #6

6. Only use your to-do list for busy work and not dream work…

If I had to guess… the number of goals and dreams that are killed by being lumped in with “hamster wheel task” on to do lists is sickening…

Our big goals and dreams can be scary, complicated and difficult…

When we lump these things in with our to do list tasks… its easy to default to easier important things.

Because we spend our time on what Brendon Burchard calls, “Transactional Tasks”… the every day things that you need to do to keep your life and business running…

We never have time for what he calls “Transformational Tasks”… the important things that will move us close to our dreams.

If you only take 1 thing away from this article… then let it be this…

Your big dreams are WAYYY to important to be relegated to your to do list.

Keep these transformational tasks separate from the transactional tasks and I guarantee you will move towards you big goals and dreams much faster and easier than you would otherwise.