Question – My to-do list seems to be never-ending. Is there an efficient way to organize and address the things that I need to work on?
My Perspective – In my thought, what overwhelms most of us is not the tasks, but the lack of clarity and control on what all needs to be accomplished and when!
Follow the below steps to bring some method to the chaos around this challenge –
- On Paper (this is important, not on mobile or laptop), list down all that you think you need to get done in various aspects of your life. These could be things that you need to get done today, tomorrow, this month, 3 months down the line or this year. It is basically dumping everything in your head on this sheet of paper. Let it grow to any size, the idea is to clear your mind and create space for better things. Some examples of things in the list could be –
- Premium payments
- Car Servicing
- Kids fees payment
- Filing returns
- Watching a movie
- Spending time with kids
- Buying groceries
- Filling appraisal
- Reviewing the design document
- Planning a holiday
- Reading a book and so on …
2. Now, compartmentalize your life into important areas and divide what you got in step 1 into these areas. Some areas could be –
- Fun
- Personal Growth
- Health
- Contribution
- Office Work
- Kids
- Relationship Building
- Wealth Creation and so on …
3. Now, Prioritize the list in each area and put dates by when you would want to act and strike this off the list. Use the principle of 4D’s “Do, Decide, Delegate, Delete” as needed when you are doing this. You might want to prioritize between areas of your life as well.
4. Put this sheet of paper on a wall or at your desk or somewhere where you can see it. Make this a living document so you need to keep adding and deleting stuff from each section of this document. Use creativity to make this activity exciting.
Use post-its, colours, sketch pens, pictures, drawing etc to make it interesting.
5. Now that you know what needs to be done in which order, chances are that you will get to address it on time.
6. GET STARTED!
That’s it – Isn’t it simple. The best part is that now that you have everything on paper and organized – your mind has the space to do better things and think better thoughts!
All the best to you as you implement this and please do share your feedback on what happened when you used it to simplify your life!
I help leaders find joy & purpose @ work by building a Winner’s Mindset, Financial Freedom and Job Satisfaction!