As a follow up to the last post (creating a 2-minute task list) I want to also share some ideas to change up and simplify your regular to-do list. The easiest way to do this, is what Jill Farmer calls the Rule of Five in There’s Not Enough Time.
To-do lists have gotten so crazy and out of control for most people, ending up being a warehouse of all the stress inducing tasks and jobs/duties in our lives when really the purpose is a way to help us track and remember items that we need to get done each day. Jill recommends calling your to-do list your to-day list. I love this suggestion.
With the Rule of Five you take your regular to-do list and create a separate list that includes only five items. I have to be honest and tell you that reading this caused a bit of panic for me. I realize it may come across as drastic and completely impossible in today’s world for us to cut our to do list to only 5 tasks each day, I totally get it. But, I’m willing to give it a try because it may be one of the most powerful steps we can do to be more productive and allow some down time for ourselves in our schedules.
Here’s the steps:
- Take a look at your current to-do list
- Pick the most pressing tasks–include only items that have a deadline or are most important for your peace mind
- Make a list of just these items
Once you have this list, look at your calendar for the day and the actual time you have available, noticing where items on your list can be achieved and given time available. For items that require a specific time of day, add them to your calendar, but remove them from your to-do list. These items are actually part of your daily activities, not to-do’s and they’ll be more likely to get done than if you just left them on the list. An example would be exercise.
Others items on your list that don’t require specific time stay on the to-do list and then you add only those that are priority for the day to your to-day list. So, folding laundry and going to the grocery can be two examples. Does the laundry have to be folded today? For me, no. But, we’re out of groceries and the car is out of gas so both of these take precedence over folding the laundry. Laundry goes on the to-do list, gas and groceries go on the to-day list.
Let’s give it a try and see what we can get done today.
