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Dealing With A Massive To-Do List

Donna — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:35:26 +0000

We all face the extra-long to-do list now and then. Because many of us wear lots of hats in our one-person businesses, and we don’t always have a team of people to help us out, our to-do lists can become unwieldy – sometimes to the point of outrageousness. Once a task list reach that stage, we can often become completely incapable of getting any of it done! It’s as though the big, bad, scary to-do monster has paralyzed us with indecision and overwhelmed us into inaction.

Here’s what I do when I’m faced with the monster of all monster task lists. I divide it up into 3′s: Must-Do’s, Should Do’s, and Everything Else. Each item on my to-do list has to be re-routed to one of these three new sublists. Here’s how to determine which items go into which list.

Must-Do’s are tasks that you are obligated to complete, either because you have an agreement or a contract with someone else to do so. If you are a freelancer, for example, you have clients that you’ve contracted with to perform certain tasks. Those will always go into the Must-Do sublist. Likewise, you may have items on your list that absolutely have to get done for yourself (such as paying bills and/or taxes on time) or there will be fairly impactful consequences for inaction. Move all must-do tasks onto this list first.

Should-Do’s are items on your to-do list that are important because accomplishing them would be beneficial to you or your business in a rather large way. Not getting them done won’t necessarily hurt you or your business, but getting them done would make a nice difference in income or sanity or happiness, for example. Move these types of items into this sublist now.

Everything Else is … well … everything that’s not a Must-Do or a Should-Do.

Now that you have your 3 sublists, you are going to divide the Everything Else sublist into 3′s yet again. Because these items are the least important of all the tasks you have on your list, you’ll want to get as many of them off your shoulders as soon as possible. Divide these up into the following sub-sub-lists:

Kick ‘Em Off: These are tasks that really aren’t important enough to waste a moment of time on, but somehow they snuck onto the list for one reason or another. Often we think something might need to be done for a moment, and then later realize it really wasn’t important at all. Dump any of those right now.

Put ‘Em Off: There’s a good chance that a large majority of the Everything Else list will be moved into this sub-sub-list. Most of the items are important enough to get done at some point, but there’s no great urgency to any of them. Throw those here.

Pawn ‘Em Off: If you’re lucky, you’ll find a few items on the list that could be pawned off on someone else. We don’t always have a large number of people that we can rely on to help us with our daily tasks, but hopefully there is a short list of people that are there to help us on occasion (and vice-versa). If you’ve been networking, then you probably have a few virtual friends that would be happy to give you a hand. Maybe that designer friend of yours would edit a photo for you, in return for that time you helped her brainstorm an idea. That’s one of the great things about networking, so don’t forget to make use of it (without abusing it of course).

Now that you’ve divided your list up into smaller chunks, it should make the monster look much less threatening. Tackle the Must-Do’s first, then the Should-Do’s, and eventually the Put ‘Em Off’s. What was once overwhelming will become actionable, and you’ll be back on track in no time.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2008. | Permalink | 9 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: designer, GTD, tackle, task list, Time management, to-do
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Working Through The Tedium

Donna — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 08:06:05 +0000

We all have our likes and dislikes; our strengths and weaknesses. No matter how much each of us might love the work we do, there will always be some aspects that will be less enjoyable than others. The parts of my job that I hate the most are the ones that I consider to be tedious. I’d rather tackle something that is difficult, or requires creativity, than do something that is mindlessly easy but boring. Nevertheless, the things that I find most tedious about my work still have to get done. Without them, the difficult or creative tasks are useless.

I’m in the middle of creating a new site for my latest idea. I’ve been having fun working on the design and planning it all out, but now it’s time for the tedious part. There are some things that involve nothing more stimulating than cut-and-paste. Lots and lots of cut-and-paste. It’s mind-numbingly simple, and so tedious it makes me want to scream.

I know, though, that if I can just slog through it for a few hours, I’ll be done with it and I can move on to more exciting work. But just the thought of the tedium keeps me from starting that part of it. And of course, if I don’t start it, I can’t end it.

There’s no doubt that I’ll get it done. But I’ll procrastinate a little longer than I’d like. So I’m here to ask all of you for inspiration.

What do you do to work through the tedium? How do you motivate yourself to do the mind-numbing bits of work that you hate?

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Motivation, procrastination, tackle, tedious tasks
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Let Your Readers Follow Your Progress

Donna — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 14:02:37 +0000

This may not work for everyone in every situation, but it could work well for some of you. Once you’ve established a loyal following of readers, and you have some kind of relationship with them, you could successfully pull off an extended “watch while I do something” exercise. What does that mean? Let me explain.

Are you overweight, or just want to get in shape? Do you want to quit smoking? If you have those are similar problems and you’d like to do something about them, you could blog about your progress as you attempt to make the changes. If you are using products to help in your quest, and those products also have affiliate programs, you could also make a little extra money while you lose the weight, get in shape, quit smoking, etc.

Again, this won’t work for everyone, but if it’s something that you might be considering doing anyway, it would be a great idea to share the progress with your readers. Millions of people struggle with these issues, and watching someone else tackle them is both interesting and motivating. In addition, you are forming an even closer bond with your readers than ever before, as you share such intimate details of your life with them.

If your blog or site is totally unrelated to these things, as most would be, you would need to work these updates in to your schedule, without sacrificing your normal content. Your users want what you normally give them, so don’t make them lose any of that. Just add a little extra, on a set schedule, to let them follow along with your personal quest.

© Donna for DazzlinDonna, 2007. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: tackle
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