Energizing To Do's

 Do you write to do lists and still get little done? Do you write things down that you know you need to do and yet get to the end of the day with little checked off? What is the problem and how do you turn it around and have productive lists? I think the problem is that these lists are unfocused, vague and unactionable. There are 3 things that you need to do to fix the problem.

First you need to give each item a "why?" Why do you want or need to do this? Is it personal and important to you? We do many things in life without knowing why. And having a why gives us better reason and energy to complete the task. It might be that you are in charge of a project, or have financial or medical reasons driving it. Or you may have promised someone (family or otherwise) to complete the task. Every item on your list needs to have a '"why?" stated - even if it seems really obvious.

Second you need to set a priority to the task. Is it the most important task for the day, the week, the month? Is it  short term immediate task, or is it more future priority - first task on a project? This will help you to know where on the list it should go and whether you need to jump on it first, or if it can wait until you finish other tasks. Size of task is also important - sending off most emails is quick, while outlining a speech can take a bit longer.

And thirdly, you must list a first step. So many to do list items are vague. 'Working on project X" is not specific, "try to compose Y" gives no specifics. Every project is either a specific task (email/call/write so and so) or has specific tasks to complete - "create outline", "register for conference", etc. If there is no specific task to start with the item can expand to fill much more time than necessary - involving just "thinking" about it instead of doing something productive. Or it can discouraging any effort on the task because it seems overwhelming and hard to grasp.

An example for me recently was a speech that I had planned. I had collected and arranged recent pictures and weaved a story through them. I was not totally happy with the result. I felt the end was too abrupt and unsatisfying. I know I needed to fix it but was stymied. I knew that my presentation was 2 weeks away, so I needed to fix it before then. But where to start? I took some time to think about it, musing whether I needed to add/delete text, or maybe add a few pictures to flesh it out. Then as I reviewed the pictures in my mind I realized I did not need to add any pictures. With the switch of a couple existing pictures, and a couple extra lines of text, I could create a satisfying end for the story - satisfying for both me and my audience. I had my why and priority, I just had to add the first step.

As the Chinese proverb goes "the journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step". Answer the "why?", establish the priority, and lay out the first step and see if your to do's start getting done.