How NOT To Do Your To-Do!

Now that the new year is in full swing, we’re all back to work, back to the gym and back into our routines and the hopeful, exciting and ambitious New Years Resolutions are long forgotten.

And so what do we do now? The chances are that regardless of your medium and long-term goals, you are likely to turn over your new leaf by setting yourself daily goals (or to-do’s as most people call them) which will hopefully give your life more drive, accomplishment and ultimately success.

However, a to-do list is not just a list – there is a technique – and I see lots of people getting it wrong.

So to help you to get it right – here are my Top 7 Ways Not To Do a To-Do!

Top 7 Ways Not To Do a To-Do!

1. Set & Forget: This is the classic and the one thing that most people do wrong. Setting a to-do list is all about consistency, not just writing it all down, feeling better about yourself and then ignoring it once the going gets tough. In fact, sticking with your to-do is probably more important when your day is hectic and your life is hard to handle as it will let you crack on with the most important things and ease the pressure on yourself.

   If you are feeling overwhelmed and cannot stand the thought of facing the day ahead – just get your top 3 priorities done and dusted and you will avoid any more worry – because lets face it, you can control your own stress and worry by taking the initiative and throwing yourself into your work. And once these top 3 tasks are done and dusted, the momentum will help you to smash through the others in no time and make some real progress.

2. Lost in Vagueness: this is also a common goal killer. Writing simply ‘get a job’, or ‘write report’ means nothing. How will you know whether you have made progress, what you need to do or how you are going to get to the finish line? Goals and list items MUST be stated in a more specific, measurable way – with sub-actions which break down your exact roadmap to completion. By breaking things down into manageable, easy chunks you can also give yourself the opportunity to build more momentum and feel positive as you cross things off.
3. Dream On: while goal setting should include some element of stretching ambition/dreaming – the to-do list requires far more practicality as it is short-term, here and now stuff. If you write a list solving all of the world’s problems in a day then you are likely to become discouraged very quickly. Keep your long-term goals to your goals list and your short-term steps to your to-do. As I saw somewhere recently (more than likely on stevepavlina.com) your 3, 5 and 10-year plans are the result of 1,000’s of individual actions on your to-do’s.
4. Chop and Change: start your report, answer an email, go to the shop, get back to the report, book a flight, call your accountant, get back to the report…If you don’t plan and manage your time then your list is almost pointless. Block out time, switch off your phone, ignore your emails and get things done!
5. Prioritise by Fun: this is so familiar to me it is untrue and this is probably one of the single most important bits of advice in this post: RANK YOUR TO-DO ITEMS BY IMPORTANCE, NOT BY FUN. OK, so you may well have to book your next holiday and this is a valid to-do, BUT if you also have a deadline to meet, an article to right or your tax to sort out then browsing online for a holiday should probably come 4th in your list. You may also find that you are one of those perverse people (PhD students are prime candidates for this) who get some sort of strange prcrastination-force which makes them suddenly rank cleaning the oven, hoovering the spare room or baking a cake as priorities on their daily to-do list. If you are one of those odd ones – then always use this technique: picture yourself at the end of the day having completed your 3 most important tasks. Vividly imagine how you will feel, picturing yourself looking at your completed work. Now do the opposite and vividly picture yourself having completed your procrastination tasks while the real, important tasks remain a mess on your desk – untidy and uncomplete. You will be amazed how well this works.
6. Fuzzy Focus: If you don’t have an ultimate goals list then make that #1 on today’s to-do list. Without goals your to-do’s won’t have focus, and if your to-do’s don’t have focus then, really, what is the point? What are you working towards? What are you trying to achieve? If you completed every to-do for a month – what would you be closer to accomplishing?
7. Set 99 To-Do’s a Day: a to-do is not intended to take all day to read. It should not be so long that writing it and reading it become to-do’s in themselves. It should be focused, short and definitely fit on to one piece of paper. If there is too much on there you are only going to become overwhelmed – especially when items 10-100 get shifted onto tomorrow’s list. You don’t want to be forever chasing your tail so stick with the most important tasks which will make the biggest positive impact to your life.

If you take heed of these not-to-do’s you will likely see a big improvement in your productivity – but I reiterate – without an ultimate, up-to-date goals list your to-do’s will not actually be moving you towards anything exciting or inspirational.

So if you haven’t already got one – create a goals list!

Ross’ Goals Resources:

Energise Goal Setting Resources
Steve Pavlina Goal Setting
Mindtools Goal Setting
Tony Robbins Goals Document

Goal Setting & Time Management Products