Are you Getting Things Done? If not Create A Smart To-Do-List.
Try to spend 5-10 minutes each day on planning your
activities with a daily to do list. Start your day with it. Even better,
every evening write a
plan for the next day,
listing your daily things to do.
It is important that you actually
write your tasks. Some people are more comfortable doing it on paper, while others prefer using a computer. Try and see what works better for you.
Have an active list and a waiting list.
Try keeping two lists. One that includes the important and urgent
items, and a separate list that includes other items, those that are
less important and less urgent. If they become more important or urgent,
you can move them over. Or maybe you’ll never move them over, but at
least they’ve been identified, right?
[See Have a list and a waiting list.]
Focus on important first. Especially if you’re in an active job search, differentiate between productive tasks and satisfying time wasters.
Be specific. The more specific you can be, the better. Instead of “networking,” write: “Identify five new networking events for Jan. and choose five people at each event to meet for coffee the following week. More specific equals more actionable and more measurable. It‘s easier to craft a plan of action when you know precisely what you’re trying to accomplish.
Lean on technology.
Rather than writing on old-fashioned paper, try the task function in
Outlook or a cool application like Evernote, which allows you to save
audio or text notes on your smart phone and computer. You can then
categorize and tag them to stay better organized. And at the end of the
week, you won’t have to spend an hour re-writing your old list into a
new one.
Tie in the larger reward. This isn’t about putting a dollar bill in a jar for every task completed. It’s about reminding yourself why the task is important, why it’s there in the first place. If your larger goal is to establish yourself in a new career where you can find happiness at work, you need to include this somewhere. For example, give the list a theme each week.
So if you suffer from bad to-do lists and if you find yourself writing and re-writing the same tasks each week, give these suggestions a try. You may find you become more efficient or effective, giving yourself the best possible chance to succeed.
A written to do list is a simple technique that can increase your
productivity by 20 percent or more, if you don't use it already. It also
has extra benefits of clearing your mind and saving you energy and
stress.
After you've listed all your tasks, review your to do list and decide on the priority of each task.
Give higher priority to the tasks that get you closer to your goals.
Here are some ways to create an Productive to-do list:
Keep it short. Can you accomplish two important tasks each day? How does that compare to your current success rate? A long to-do list (two pages ore more) is intimidating. And it’s easy to see all of the items as having equal value, when they probably don’t. So try capping your list at 10 important items each week.
Have an active list and a waiting list.
Try keeping two lists. One that includes the important and urgent
items, and a separate list that includes other items, those that are
less important and less urgent. If they become more important or urgent,
you can move them over. Or maybe you’ll never move them over, but at
least they’ve been identified, right?[See Have a list and a waiting list.]
Focus on important first. Especially if you’re in an active job search, differentiate between productive tasks and satisfying time wasters.
Be specific. The more specific you can be, the better. Instead of “networking,” write: “Identify five new networking events for Jan. and choose five people at each event to meet for coffee the following week. More specific equals more actionable and more measurable. It‘s easier to craft a plan of action when you know precisely what you’re trying to accomplish.
Tie in the larger reward. This isn’t about putting a dollar bill in a jar for every task completed. It’s about reminding yourself why the task is important, why it’s there in the first place. If your larger goal is to establish yourself in a new career where you can find happiness at work, you need to include this somewhere. For example, give the list a theme each week.
So if you suffer from bad to-do lists and if you find yourself writing and re-writing the same tasks each week, give these suggestions a try. You may find you become more efficient or effective, giving yourself the best possible chance to succeed.
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