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Today we are going to talk about simplifying our tasks and to-do lists, and creating a beautiful way of managing them.
We want to create a simple system for our tasks.
- Have one place to store your tasks.
- Make it a habit.
- Check it every morning or multiple times throughout the day.
- Throw everything you can in there.
- Keep it up to date.
First, we create a sacred space. It can be a text document or to-do program. I like ones that use web and have an app for your phone. It syncs easily. Todoist is one I use. Asana is another program I use that works great for teams. You can easily add tasks or create projects. You can also have conversations with team members and there is a calendar to track your progress.
A simple system for dealing with tasks:
- Throw new tasks into the program.
- Clear out the inbox (new tasks) and put them in the appropriate spots.
- Prioritize. Mark the highest priorities in the beginning of the day.
- Focus on one thing at a time.
- Trust they will be taken care of.
If you do this, you have a trusted system that this will all be taken care of at some point. You can add other systems into the simple system. You can also add in other ideas of things you want to address later on.
How do you trust they are going to be taken care of?
- Clear through the new list by sorting through it once a day.
- At the end of the week, go through all the projects. Pick a day and go through your calendar.
This is a simple system that makes sure everything gets taken care of. Your focus is on what’s really important right now.
You can always create your own system as long as you are regularly throwing tasks in there. Sort through it once a day and know your priorities in the morning. Whatever your system is, write it down and implement it. After a while, this becomes second nature.
Know that to-do programs, just like emails, are not things to be cleared off completely. It can cause stress in people seeing the length of the list. You do not need to get to all of them today. If you need, push something off until tomorrow. Get to the high-priorities first. There is always going to be more stuff coming in so you will never get to the end of it. That is not the nature of a to-do list. It is to remind you what you can focus on and allows you to choose what to focus on first. That is the idea of a to-do list. You will never get to the end.
Share some of your to-do list systems on Slack!