Less is More with Tasks
A healthy balance of tasks can help you do more
Our to-do list tend to be a representation of our workload.
We typically have between 10–15 tasks to do during our day, with varying priority levels associated to them. The core problem with our task management tends to be with how many we’ve loaded up for our day.
Now, don’t get me wrong — getting more done feels better collectively, but let’s be fair to ourselves — unless we’ve had a pretty decent day — it is rare we end up completing all 10–15 tasks — without overloading ourselves.
Normally what happens is we feel overwhelmed because we get to the end of the workday and we have only done 7 of those 15 tasks, and that sometimes that does make us feel under-accomplished.
Here’s two ways to change your approach and adapt your thinking:
✅ Choosing Tasks
Picking the tasks for our day is something we don’t review day-by-day.
We assume what is on our plates is the best thing for our work — it could well be, but a lot of the time — we end up doing what other people assign us or work that ticks a box, but might not present a deliverable.
I’m thinking about the times I’ve pumped out 20 videos in the month on Keep Productive and not even looked back to think “could I have been doing more hard-hitting videos” — a real-life quantity over quality approach.
One approach I’d recommend exploring is by Khe Hy — RadReads founder — who explores the importance of picking “$10k tasks” versus “$10 tasks” — essentially paying attention to low-value tasks.
This approach applied to daily tasks can help to determine what matters to you, alongside philosophies like MoSCOW and the Eisenhower Matrix.
At Bento, we recommend choosing 3 tasks for your day ahead, a large one, a medium one and a small one — explore our methodology here >
📋 Order of Tasks
Ordering your tasks for the day is a really underrated activity.
We all know our energy level fluctuates across the day.
Some people start the day with a flurry of energy — early and peak at midday — whilst others find they tend to spike their energy after the lunch hour or even later in the afternoon/evening — everyone’s different.
Choosing the order for our tasks can help you be more effective and feel more in control. The best way to do that is simple.
Use these three workflows:
- 🐸 Eat That Frog — start with the largest and work down your list to smallest task — a theory taken from Brian Tracey’s 1990’s classic read
- 🏔 Climb The Summit — start with a medium energy task, and follow onto the largest task — finishing with your smallest
- 🏃🏼♀️ The Slow Burn — Start with the smallest and work to the largest
Each workflow can be applied day-by-day, so you can choose them to how you wake in the morning and your energy levels.
Balancing the order of your tasks entirely based on your energy levels or how you best work isn’t only valuable but it can change your approach to completing them and making sure you get to them all without fail.
These are the two approaches we’d recommend to doing less and presenting more workflow orientated days. You can read more about the Bento method which applies our whole process below!
