If you feel overwhelmed by the amount of work you have to do! Face a constant barrage of looming deadlines ! Forget to do something important, so that people have to chase you to get work done!
All of these are symptoms of not keeping a proper "To-Do List". To-Do Lists are prioritized lists of all the tasks that you need to carry out. They list everything that you have to do, with the most important tasks at the top of the list, and the least important tasks at the bottom. Keeping a To-Do List effectively is often the first personal productivity/time management technique people start to use.
By keeping a To-Do List, you make sure that you capture all of the tasks you
have to complete in one place. This is essential if you're not going to forget
things. And by prioritizing work, you plan the order in which you'll do things,
so you can tell what needs your immediate attention, and what you can quietly
forget about until much, much later. This is essential if you're going to beat
work overload. Without To-Do Lists, you'll seem dizzy, unfocused and unreliable
to the people around you. With To-Do Lists, you'll be much better organized and
much more reliable. This is very important!
Whilst To-Do Lists are very simple, they are also extremely powerful, both as a method of organizing yourself and as a way of reducing stress. Often
problems may seem overwhelming or you may have a seemingly huge number of demands on your time. This may leave you feeling out of control, and
overburdened with work.
Preparing a To-Do List
The solution is often simple: Firstly, download our free To Do list template.
Start by writing down the tasks that face you, and if they are large,
break them down into their component elements. If these still seem large, break
them down again. Do this until you have listed everything that you have to do,
and until tasks are will take no more than 1 - 2 hours to complete.
Once you have done this, run through these jobs allocating priorities
from A (very important) to F (unimportant). If too many tasks have a high
priority, run through the list again and demote the less important ones. Once
you have done this, rewrite the list in priority order.
You will then have a precise plan that you can use to eliminate the
problems you face. You will be able to tackle these in order of importance.
This allows you to separate important jobs from the many time-consuming trivial
ones.
Tip:
When you have a large task on your To Do list that isn't a high priority, you may find it useful to create some high priority "micro-tasks" related
to it. These might include commissioning some research in advance so that you have the data you'll need once you actually start the project, or even just spending 15 minutes each day thinking about how you'll tackle the project when it comes to the top of your To Do list
Using Your To-Do Lists
Different people use To-Do Lists in different ways in different situation: if you are in a frontline type role, a good way of motivating yourself is to keep your list relatively short and aim to complete
it every day.
In an operational role, or if tasks are large or dependent on too many other people, then it may be better to keep one list and 'chip away' at it.
It may be that you carry unimportant jobs from one To-Do List to the next. You may not be able to complete some very low priority
jobs for several months. Only worry about this if you need to - if you are
running up against a deadline for them, raise their priority.
If you have not used To-Do Lists before, try them now:
They are one of the keys to being really productive and efficient.
Published by Working Together Project
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