Written by Jenny Catton
Creating an effective ‘to-do’ list is one of the first steps to taking control of your time. Without one you can easily find yourself forgetting important tasks or focussing your energy on the wrong jobs. But it’s important that your to-do list actually helps make your day easier rather than simply being a stressful reminder of all things you never quite have time to complete.
So how do you create a to-do list that will take the stress out of your day, help you plan your time more effectively and ensure you get things done? Here are our tips:
Keep it Short
If you find that you’re always adding more to your to-do list than you’re crossing off, it can quickly spiral out of control and become a stress-inducing list. So rather than referring to one big list, create a more manageable list of just the three or four urgent tasks you must complete today. You can always keep a separate ‘on-going’ list for all the things you can’t forget but that don’t need dealing with straightaway.
Tackle the Worst Job First
In his time-management book Eat that Frog, author Brian Tracy compares the tasks you really don’t feel like tackling to frogs that need to be eaten. The temptation is always to put off the job you’re dreading until later. However, this can be emotionally draining as every time you look at your to-do list, you’ll experience a moment of stress when you see the task you’re putting off. Tracy says that by completing the least-enjoyable job first, the rest of your day will become easier and more enjoyable.
Break it Down
Avoid putting complex jobs as one item on your to-do list.For example, ‘plan annual conference’ shouldn’t be an item on your daily to-do list. Instead create separate lists for each major project, so that you can break the task into manageable chunks, e.g. ‘book venue’, ‘design invitations’, etc.
Tackle Your Two-Minute Tasks
If a task crops up that will take less than two minutes to deal with, don’t add it to your to-do list; just do it instead. By the time you’ve added it to your list, read it several times and then eventually dealt with it and crossed if off, you could have dealt with it almost as quickly in the first place.
Keep Your To-do List to Hand
How you format your to-do list is up to you. Some people like to create a list on their phone or laptop so that they can set reminders or synch it with their electronic diary. Others prefer to have it stuck on the wall by their desk or on a whiteboard so it is clearly visible. Choose whatever method works for you – just make sure that your list is somewhere you will remember to look at it. Tick off your jobs as you complete them and keep your to-do list up-to-date.
For more advice on time management, visit: www.mindtools.com
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