Oh my goodness. Have you ever sat down with your to-do list and felt overwhelmed with the large number of tasks that you have scheduled for today?
And, in many cases, it's a result of you deferring tasks from previous days. In the example that I have here, it's a Monday morning, and I've got way too many to-dos than I'm going to be able to accomplish today, especially when I look down at my calendar and see the number of meetings.
So what am I going to do to prioritize this list, and make sure that I don't have this problem, or at least reduce this problem, for the remainder of the week? Well, that's what I'm gonna show you in today's video.
Hello everyone, Scott Friesen here at Simpletivity, helping you to get more done and enjoy less stress. And today, I want to show you both a simple but a fun way to prioritize your list so you can focus on what's most important to you.
So, whether you manage your to-do list on a piece of paper, whether you use a calendar like I'm showing here, or maybe you use some other to-do list app, you've probably found yourself in this situation.
Now, I could go ahead and maybe defer half of these things to tomorrow, but I've probably already got a number of tasks waiting for me tomorrow. That's one of the reasons why I prefer a week-view of my tasks. So I'm just gonna change that here within my calendar so I can see the rest of the week.
And sure thing, I've got four other tasks already scheduled for tomorrow, so if I just go and defer half of these tasks, I'm only gonna have the same problem again tomorrow.
So today, we're gonna use a bit of gamification. Yeah, we're gonna have a little bit of fun as we prioritize this list. And step one is by picking a hard number. What do I mean by a hard number? Well, in this case, I'm gonna pick the number five, and I'm only going to commit to accomplishing five of the tasks that are already slated here for my Monday.
Now, the reason for doing so is that I want to force myself to ask some hard questions. What is most important? What is most valuable to me? What should I really be focusing on so I can defer the other things in my list?
I need to remind myself, and you may need to remind yourself, that there are no two things which are exactly equal on your to-do list. Something is always going to be more important than something else. So, in this case, we're gonna pick the number five.
Now, you might wanna pick the number three, or maybe pick the number seven. I would recommend not going any higher than perhaps seven tasks, 'cause the other part of this system is that you want to have the positive effects of saying, "You know what? It's only five," or, "It's only seven things that I need to focus on today."
You wanna have that positivity to give yourself the motivation to accomplish all the things in your tasks. So, I'm gonna commit to doing five, and I'm gonna defer the remaining four on this list somewhere else this week.
But here comes the second step of the process. Instead of just deferring them all to tomorrow, or just sort of blindly deferring them, I'm gonna add another step to this method, another step to this gamification, and in that, I'm only gonna commit to deferring something to one of the following days.
So that's right, I've got four tasks which I need to defer. If I defer something to, let's say the 7th, well then the 7th is taken. I can't defer anything else on this list. I'm gonna have to pick one of the other days this week. What that's gonna do, is that's gonna help me continue to ask the hard questions about priority. What should come before something else? Or what's more important than something else?
But it's also gonna disperse this out a little bit so I don't have this same problem of having 10 or 15 or 20 things show up on a particular day. So, let's get going. I'm gonna get started, and I'm gonna start looking at the things that are, perhaps, the least important, right? The things that I can defer.
So, updating my LinkedIn profile, not that important. I'd like to do it, but it's certainly not urgent. I'm gonna take that one, and I'm gonna put it on Friday the 9th. So remember, the 9th is now taken. I can't defer anything else to the 9th, 'cause I don't wanna heavy-load my Friday or heavy-load a particular day. I might wanna just jot it down on a piece of paper if I need to remember, but it's pretty simple as a part of today's example.
All right, let's look at what else we've got on this list that I don't really need to do today. Pick up my new phone case? Certainly not something that I need to do today. And you know what? Since I have my calendar open, I notice that I'm having lunch with Julie. That's right next door to the store, right next door to the store where I'm picking up my case. So I'm gonna move that one to Thursday, okay? I can pick that up when I'm out of the office.
So 8th and 9th are taken. Now I'm gonna focus on the 6th and the 7th. Well, creating the monthly email newsletter is something I need to do this week, but I certainly don't need to do it today. I'm gonna move that one out to the 6th.
And that means I've got one more spot here on the 7th. What don't I need to do today? Something that I could push off. You know what? Review all of my social media comments. Certainly don't need to do, that's not urgent. So I'm gonna push that one out to the 7th.
Now I've got five things. I've got five things that are much more important than the things that I've deferred. I've got the positivity, I've got the motivation, to knock off these five things even if I'm having a rough morning. You know, I've got all these meetings. I can say to myself, "You know, it's only five. It's only five, Scott, that I need to accomplish today."
And here's the additional benefit. If I get to, let's say the mid-afternoon, or even the later part of my day, and I have accomplished all five things on my list, there is something so gratifying to look ahead and start to knock off things that I didn't even plan to get done today, things that are now scheduled for tomorrow. There's something very gratifying, very satisfying, of taking things off of this list, can make you feel even more productive, and also leave work or leave your office with a smile on your face.
So, if you're confronted with an overly long to-do list on a particular day, try a method of picking a hard number such as five, focusing just on five, and then deferring the remainder of your tasks, and using the limit of only one day for the following days ahead so that you can disperse your tasks along here.
And already you can see that the rest of my week is a lot more manageable as a result. Of course, other things are gonna be added to this week, but it's a lot more manageable as I manage those tasks going forward.
Thank you so much for watching today's video, and I would love to hear your comments and your questions on this fun and productive method. Remember, being productive does not need to be difficult. In fact, it's very simple.
