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My Tip for Productivity: Tear Up the To-Do List
November 18th, 2008 | Posted in Technical Writing |
Have you ever thought of tearing up your to-do list?
A couple of weeks ago I started listing all of my to-do’s in Outlook. Soon the list grew so long that I felt I would never be able to do it all. We all lead extremely busy lives. We have goals, commitments, and an almost endless amount of tasks to complete. Are there any productivity tips that work for you?
Here’s how my friends on Twitter responded:
DeeElling: Take the work and go elsewhere — a park, cafe, or any place where no one you know will interrupt you. Planes are good too!
krug95: Take down the Internet.
okeefe_scr : Stay away from Twitter.
michelleschoen: My biggest tip for being productive is creating Project Plans with milestones and deadlines. Do with both clients and partners.
DrChaos: Be an inspiration to those you work with. The synergies created will benefit all!
Kristil: Before bed, list the 6 most important tasks for the next day. Identify the most important one. Even if you only do that 1, in a year you have accomplished 365 important things. Got this from Michael Clouse, and it really helps me focus: http://twurl.nl/0juvjf
rjhoughton My biggest tip? Get a good night’s sleep.
heidilhansen: Productivity things I do: headphones with classical music to drown out voices, email closed, some meetings skipped, and big mug of water handy.
Whataboutmom I start a list, prioritize the list, and then start on the first items. If I think of additional things while I’m working on the first, I add the new items to my list rather than giving my attention to them at the moment.
I don’t have any earth-shattering advice for being productive. For me, good sleep is probably what makes me most productive. I listen to music when I want to write and skip meetings when I think my presence isn’t needed. I focus my energies on one task at a time rather than trying to do five at once. I usually tackle priority items first, going along with the big-rocks-little-rocks metaphor. I also alternate tasks so that I stay fresh.
But sometimes I think we clutter up our lives with things that, in the end, don’t matter. A few weeks ago while cleaning I came across a list of a dozen or so old tasks that I’d written months ago. Everything that was important had eventually been done, without my crossing them off one by one.
It amazes me that the truly important activities I need to accomplish often never make it on to my to-do list. For example, time spent with my kids, dates with my wife, the slow walk along the countryside on a sunny day. These are things that matter, yet they are often written out of my schedule with errands and other to-do’s.
This weekend I ignored my growing to-do list, and did what I wanted. On Saturday I attached a child carrier on the back of my bike, put my two youngest in there, and then rode alongside Avery, my oldest daughter, five miles out to Eagle Mountain’s City Center and back. We stopped at her school playground, the library, and walked our bikes up the steep hills. It was wonderful, and not on my to-do list.
However, as a result, I skipped working on a project that I needed to start on. Now Monday morning approaches, and I have nothing to show for it.
My feeling is that the best productivity tip is not a neat way of organizing yourself, or waking up early, or making sure the lights are fully dark while you sleep. The best productivity tip is desire. For example, when I woke up, I did what I naturally desired to do. I know this sounds odd, since I didn’t finish what I thought I needed to do. Instead, I finished what I really should have done.
If you truly want something, you find a way to do it. Nothing can substitute for this inner drive. If you feel yourself moving in a natural direction, based on your inner compass, I say follow that, and not your to-do list. The important to-do errands will get done without a detailed strategy for them. But if you let a list of to-do’s drive you, they can smother inner movement and exploration that may ultimately be more productive in the long run.
I found a similar expression of this strategy on The Lazy Man’s Guide to Getting Things Done. In a list of unconventional wisdom, the author writes,
Allow things to happen: Trying to force things to go your way is not only stressful, it’s not very intelligent. It’s better to guide things along, than trying to marshal them in like a dictator. Try to let things happen, instead of making them happen. Remember that a small rudder directs even the most giant ship.
I love his advice — let things happen, instead of forcing them to happen. I know this doesn’t fully address the subject. There are tomes of books written on productivity. But time and again I find myself shackled down with a list of to-do items that become burdensome and frustrating. Many of the tasks don’t reflect what I truly want to do. When I remove the list and move in a natural direction, I often end up using my time in a more personally productive way.
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Tags: distributing workload, getting things done, growth, lists, productivity, to-do items
November 18th, 2008 at 8:04 am
Tom –
Just wanted to say that I recently had one of my most focused, productive days while also logging the most posts on Twitter in a single day. Also this is the second piece of media I have read/heard which mentioned sleep as the key to success. I am really going to have to get more Zzzs.
DC
November 18th, 2008 at 8:17 am
In the spirit of inner drive, I’d say beating one’s own inertia is a must. I start with the easiest thing on my list, then the satisfaction of completing that task gives me the drive to continue.
Thanks for a great article.
Tammy
November 18th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Dude! I’m beginning to wonder if we really communicate as well as we think we do.
When I was talking about my list making, it’s not something I follow — but rather, I have a very hard time settling down to one task until I’ve emptied my mind of every other dang thing I have to do. So a to-do list for me is a dumping ground of all my anxieties and stresses and reminders that would otherwise teem through my mind as I try to focus on one thing.
And the other things I add as I try, try, try to get that first one thing done? They’re all the little noises still whispering through my brain as I try to concentrate. Or maybe those are the kids?
Maybe I need some Ativan.
November 18th, 2008 at 10:00 am
I find it really easy to be productive. Just wait until the LAST POSSIBLE MINUTE before your deadline, and suddenly, presto, it’s really easy to concentrate on work.
The work you produce might be total crap, but at least you’re focused, right?
November 18th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Oh, I was also going to say that your idea that we do (or should do) what we really want to do is applicable to blogging too. I make lists and lists of all the different blog posts I want to write, and then I sit down and write something totally different, something that, in that instant, I HAD to write.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
This is why I like combining some of David Allen’s GTD ideas with Stephen Covey’s thoughts on focusing on those things that add value. Covey says it doesn’t matter how fast you run if you’re running in the wrong direction. Similarly, you point out the important things are very rarely the simple to do errands we think of. The trick is not just being efficient at clearing your to do list, but first prioritizing what you do so its based on your values and principles. For me that’s the key - I need to live my values and principles every single day. I may not be efficient when I take a break to horse around with my kids in the snow for 2 hours, but I am certainly much more *effective*. Because I’ve targeted my values and principles, let them manifest in the things on my to do list, and given them the time they deserve.
Covey goes on to discuss the importance of moving from those highly urgent things that don’t really need to be done to getting to a life where you do the things you like to do, whether they’re highly urgent or not. Once you can strip off the unimportant (even if you delegate it to coworkers, employees, software, housecleaners, or whatever), you can focus on what matters. So many people are ticking things off their to do list a furiously efficient rate, they are running that rat race to nowhere. They haven’t set their direction before they started.
The solution isn’t to tear up the to do list, it’s to let your to do list hold actions that match your direction - the goals, values, principles, ideals, and beliefs, that make your life effective rather than just efficient.
November 18th, 2008 at 11:55 am
I sure hope Rhonda Bracey at Cybertext in Australia chimes in on this discussion. She is one of the most productive people I’ve ever met, and has among the best time and project management skills I’ve ever seen up close.
In answer to the question on your graphic, I actually have torn up my to-do list and was a more peaceful person as a result of it.
I used to have exponentially long to-do lists. I’d lose track of what was there, and when I put it there. When I started my new to-do list, I started dating every entry that I added. Then I evaluate quarterly. If something sits on your list for a quarter or two and doesn’t get done, it’s likely not that important.
Tools like Backpack and To Do List (both from 37 Signals) help with this. I’m becoming increasingly enamored with an online tool that Rhonda told me about — Toodledo.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:01 pm
FWIW Jane I’m working on this now, both in terms of blogging and other aspects of my life. I start with a notebook I can carry in my purse and jot down every thought, reminder, idea I have, then I get home and transfer it to a calendar, to do list, project plan, or whatever. The trick is to capture all the thoughts in a way that works (for me that’s a notebook and pen in my purse since I always have that) then spend a few minutes at regular periods transferring it.
For instance, I wouldn’t put ideas about blogging on my to do list, though I might put a reminder to blog that day on my to do list. I’d transfer the blogging notes to, say, a draft entry in Wordpress, or a note program like EverNote.
As a mom I relieve a lot of stress by just dumping every thought into a notepad as it comes - Dr visits, ideas for blogging, plans to take the kids to the zoo, interface ideas for work, etc. all get dumped there whether I’m in the car or having a bubblebath. After all, I don’t think of these things when I’m chasing the kids. But then I’m not laying in bed at night going oh god, I have to remember to call the Dr for Toddler’s vaccinations. Braindump, sort, transfer to calendar/notes/blogging/etc.
November 18th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
Before I leave work, I take a few minutes to write my ‘to do’ list for the next day. Then when I get to work I don’t waste time figuring out what I have to do and then get distracted by emails, phone calls, etc.
Unless something is urgent (really urgent), I stick to the list.
I know this is an anachronism these days, but how I work is:
I do one thing at a time
I do it very well
Then I move onto the next thing.
November 18th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
I feel like a fraud!
Whitney has ’shouted out’ to me about my productivity, but this week it’s taking a hammering. I just don’t feel like doing very much at all. My ‘to do’ list on Toodledo is long, but nothing is urgent, and my brain just isn’t focused. I don’t have many weeks like this, but this is one of them.
So what happens when I get into a slump like this? I do something else, well away from the computer and the communications gadgetry. I don’t have kids or pets, so I’ll spend some time in the garden (pruning and pulling weeds by hand is very therapeutic), or I’ll do some quilting or cooking, or we’ll go for a walk or a drive to a nearby town.
Sometimes you just have to step away from the computer and from work…
(That didn’t answer the main question Tom asked, but as I’m not very focused at the moment, it’ll have to do!)
November 19th, 2008 at 3:51 am
Stephen Covey’s approach is too methodical.
Sometimes the brain and the body cannot be as methodical as we’d like.
Nevertheless, my dog-eared copy of his book showed how methodically I studied his ideas!
November 19th, 2008 at 7:40 am
Having test driven several ways to get organized, the best for me was My Life Organized software, based on the GTD concepts. The key with using a list is to go back and review it. You can put things off if not critical, but don’t not go back and see where the tasks you want to get done fit in.
November 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am
@Tammy You made me smile
Yes it can be too methodical. I don’t follow Covey’s approach or GTD as strictly as I could. For one thing, I don’t feel I have the time to learn how to do it exactly as Allen describes at length. I still find a huge benefit from just taking some of the principles of each - ie. the idea of dumping to a notebook then transferring to a trusted source regularly. Otherwise I was scribbling notes wherever and marking appointments in a print calendar, Google calendar, Outlook calendar… then forgetting things because duh, I couldn’t trust one source to have it all. Now my moleskine has it all, and I transfer out of it.
@Chris Thanks for the recommendation, I’m going to check that out myself. I was also thinking about Sandy - the online “digital assistant” at iwantsandy.com - I never did set it up properly, but it might help with a lot of to do list and reminder items. Being web-based its accessible anywhere from my Treo or library computer etc. But I’m going to check My Life Organized out as well. Outlook just doesn’t cut it for me.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:33 am
thanks
November 20th, 2008 at 1:09 pm
I’ve begun writing myself post-it notes and sticking them on the calendar right beside my screen. I only do one at a time, and it always starts out with the phrase “Why don’t you…” or “You really ought to…” and then the top two things I need to get done.
I see it every time I glance away from the screen. And I seem to do the two — maybe three — things on the list.
It’s a gentle reminder rather than a TO DO. When I read it, I say, “Oh, okay!” and I do it.
Or maybe I’m just nuts.
November 24th, 2008 at 8:36 am
Thanks Tom!
I try to mix different time management styles and techniques, as none of them utterly suits me. I find setting deadlines helpful. To-do lists, yes but only as alerts and reminders…can’t leave without them (though can be troublesome if overused and distracting). There is something else, which can ruin even the best masterminded plan - multitasking or should say - switchtasking. Although this is a subject for another discussion - I found it interesting: Multitasking is a Myth
http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Multitasking-Doing-Gets-Nothing/dp/0470372257
November 25th, 2008 at 11:16 am
Hi Tom,
I am replying after a long time and so I don’t expect you to remember me :). All the things said (and the saga done with), To do list always works for me.
As far as work in related, as soon as I reach work I open my diary and list the things I have pending since yesterday, most important things today, and things out of today which can be pushed to tomorrow. I know too complicated ..lol…well the whole reason to do all this is to STRIKE OUT.
Yes…striking out things which I have already completed gives me the most amazing pleasure. It makes me feel that I have been able to take care of something in my unmanageable life (imagine this state without kids).
As far as personal goals are related, well I don’t have many since loving the people important to me is the most important To-do for me everyday :).
Thanks,
Shweta
November 26th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
To-do lists never worked for me. All they ever did was make me worry about how much work there is. I just try and do whatever seems more important. Works for me.