How To-Do Lists Can Stop You From Getting Things Done
By: J.R. Flaherty
Tags: Work, Business, Productivity, Personal Development, Work Life Balance

Productivity

How To-Do Lists Can Stop You From Getting Things Done

Three alternative (and creative) ways to stay productive

Photo by Phuong Tran on Unsplash

Life is complex today. We all want more control over our time. Is it too much to ask for? Tasks feel overwhelming when you face a gauntlet of hours and things to do. It’s been happening a lot this year, for obvious reasons.

There are other ways to do it. I learned the hard way.

Even though I gritted my teeth throughout, I’m grateful to have worked under a strict business owner in my early twenties. One day, I received a terse email to say I needed to go down to her large office on the ground floor. Don’t pass Go. After three months of working in her agency, she wanted to lay down the law.

I sat up straight like an orphan in the headmaster’s office while she explained how her business worked. She broke it down: The budgets and sales figures. She drew a red line to show how the clients fees (which were part of my job to pitch for) directly related to my hourly wage. It was an eye-opening experience for someone who had never managed a business.

Naive, yes, I know, but I did not have a firm grasp of how the money came into the business. Before this job, I had worked for wealthy investors who plowed in their own money during the tough times. Money, money, money, as Abba sang, so funny in a rich man’s world.

In my defense, only senior management was privy to the sales figures and budgets. I was the lowest on the food chain. From that day on, she expected to see my tasks broken down into 15 minutes bursts. She wanted to know what I was doing and what projects I worked on — a simple form of time-sheeting, drummed into me like a beat on the warpath. The battle was on.

Of course, I wouldn’t say I liked it. I ended up leaving to go on to better things. Looking back, I now appreciate the techniques this savvy businesswoman taught me. Since then, I have experimented with different ways to manage tasks. Before showing you three ways to approach To-Do Lists; let’s look at what is a To-Do List, and why we keep doing them despite our best interests.

What is a To-Do List?

Nearly everybody has a To-do List. It could be on a scrap of paper, or it could be electronic, but we will have a list somewhere. Lists are categories, groups, or outlines of the information in your life in one place on the page. Plans keep track of information you want to remember and allow you to forget information, such as taking notes for later.

To-do lists can be hard to use. But if they’re too hard to use, why do we make them? Many To-do lists contain tasks that are just distractions, especially when they are phone apps.

They give you the illusion of control. The problem is most To-do lists become a rat’s nest of conflicting priorities. Everything becomes jumbled up together. They can be so overwhelming; we can abandon them as soon written. It becomes a random check-list but without rhyme or reason.

For example, your list may have (1) dry-cleaning, and; (2) book an appointment to get a haircut; and so on. Is dry cleaning more critical than booking an appointment?

It depends. On what? It’s not evident from looking at a numbered list of random tasks. So why do we want to use a to-do list at all?

Here are three ways to break down tasks and finally make sense of what you need to do.

To-Focus-On List

Make a good to-do list by breaking the project into steps and building your To-do list around a future-self.

Instead of focusing on what you should be doing, it’s where you should concentrate your attention. Focus on different durations: it could be three months, a year, or five years. Where do you want to put your extra time or effort? It doesn’t mean you don’t have to do the smaller tasks not on your focus-on list, such as emails. But it does give you a sense of where you should put your energy and discretionary effort.

Three months — Change Jobs (send off CV, network, meet recruiters)

— Change Jobs (send off CV, network, meet recruiters) One year — Promotion (learn new skills, apply for MBA)

— Promotion (learn new skills, apply for MBA) Five years — Managing Department (longer-term skills)

Giving yourself a time framework gives you more strategic planning than a regular to-do list.

To-Be List

The beauty of a To-Be List is it takes into account who we want to be in the world. Understanding that and knowing what you value enables you to make better choices about where you spend your time. The tasks then can naturally fall under your larger goals. That’s a lot better than a regular To-do list. For example, if you want to become:

Better Parent — Need to spend time with children

— Need to spend time with children Visionary Leader — Learn to listen more to younger staff

— Learn to listen more to younger staff Win a Game Show — Practice at Quiz Nights on Thursdays

Apps and Tools

If you want to become more productive, putting away your phone can be the best thing you can do. Constantly checking our phones for notifications, social media, and messages from friends nibble away at your time.

In 2020, Americans spent, on average, 5.4 hours on their mobile phones daily. They check their phone on average 63 times per day. Do you want to jump on your phone to check your productivity app? When the best thing is still a pen and a piece of paper.

The apps and tools work well if you have To-do lists involving groups of people. If you are working with teams and task management, you may appreciate sophisticated tools such as ntask or Trello. If you have your hand’s full juggling kids and home, the Tick Tick app works seamlessly with Siri.

Conclusion

To be more productive, is not simply adding more input to get more output. A To-Do list can be a helpful jog to the memory, but there are better ways to get more done. Choose one that works for you:

To Focus-on List

To- Be List

Digital Apps & Tools

To-Do lists can be a distraction more than a help. When lives are complex and messy, these lists help you think more strategically about your time.