Permission to Shorten Your To Do List - Granted
By Tana M. Mann Easton, Lead Efficiency Engineer
Do you ever find yourself with a to do list that is 30+ items long and completely unrealistic given the number of hours in a day? Did you know that many successful individuals actively limit the number of tasks that they focus on in any given day? Marie Forleo and Greg McKeown are just a couple of people who vocally advocate for limiting the size of your daily task list. Both of them claim that they have 1-3 tasks for each day that they highly prioritize and use their best energy to accomplish. And then with any remaining energy, they knock off other little odds and ends if possible. However, if they only accomplish their 1-3 priorities for the day, then they consider the day successful.
I also limit my task list to 1-3 high priority tasks per day. The tasks that I consider high priority are usually items that are important to me and they usually take 20 minutes or more to accomplish. If a task takes more than 20 minutes to do/requires thought/needs concentration, then I consider it a deep work task. A task that takes less than 20 minutes/is routine/I’ve done many times in the past, is a shallow task (not unimportant, just easy). I plan my task list for tomorrow at the end of each day. If I look at my task list for tomorrow, and I have more than 3 deep work tasks, then I know I need to figure out the three that will receive my focus and move the others to future days. Examples of deep work tasks for me are writing these blog posts, research, creative projects, planning events and travel, manual labor projects, etc. Again, I only allow 1-3 of these into any given day. After accomplishing these high priority items, I usually have a bit of energy left to accomplish some additional shallow tasks. Examples of shallow tasks for me are sending emails using existing templates, scheduling meetings, reading emails, most household duties, bill paying, etc. As long as I have accomplished my 1-3 high priority items, I will often keep completing shallow tasks until I have no more gas in my tank. But I still consider a day successful if I only accomplish my top 1-3 priorities.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by the number of items on your daily task list, consider changing your mindset to focusing on just the top 1-3 high priority items. A focus on completing just a few needle-moving deep work initiatives a day is how many successful people thrive, so give that mindset a try and see how it fits for you.
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Sincerely Yours,
Focus to Evolve Team