Time Based To Do Lists

Feel like you can’t make any progress on your daily To Do list? Try this simple upgrade. It’s only takes a few moments, but makes your list much more realistic and actionable.

You probably know the feeling… you create your to do list for the day. Maybe you have 5, 15, or 25+ items on it. You’re thinking “great, let’s gave a productive day!”

Next thing you know, the day is over and you’ve completed a small portion of your list. Why? Because we are not planning when we will do the work on our daily to do list. By planning when we’ll do the work, we avoid the common pitfalls of the standard daily to do list.

The Standard To Do List

Whether it’s on a piece of paper or in a program, the standard to do list might look something like this. It’s usually some variation of a bulleted list:

• Get email inbox below 40
• Process all voicemails
• Cancel meeting with co-workers at 2 PM
• Fix bug in program A
• Finish attribute sequencing
• Make backup of profile
• Call vendor on topic B
• Process daily note inbox
• See co-worker on credit card charges
• Do laundry
• Get groceries

The Upgraded To Do List

The upgraded to do list is simple — all you do is plan when you’re going to do the tasks on your list. You don’t need to do this in your calendar. You can if you want to, but I find it’s quicker to jot this down on paper.

Step 1 is to compile a to do list. Step 2 is to plan when you’re going to do you items on your to do list.

There are a few important things to remember when planning the “when”:

1. Be realistic when estimating how long something will take.
2. Multiple small, quick tasks can be planned into the same batches.
3. Don’t plan multiple medium or large tasks in the same batch. Keep your batches focused.

Now our example to do list looks like this:

7 AM — 10 AM:

• Cancel Meeting B with co-workers at 2 PM
• Get email inbox below 40
• Process all voicemails

10 AM — 11 AM: Meeting A

11 AM — 12 PM:

• Finish attribute sequencing
• Make backup of profile

12 PM — 1PM: lunch

1 PM — 3 PM:

• Fix bug in program A

3 PM — 5 PM:

• Call vendor on topic B
• See co-worker on credit card charges
• Process daily note inbox

6 PM and on:

• Groceries
• Do laundry

That list already feels more manageable. We have a plan of attack!

Summary

If you’re anything like I was (before I started using this trick), your daily to do list looks mostly the same day after day after day. Which means we are not getting things done.

This exercise of planning when is an easy, impactful approach to improving our daily productivity.