Organize and Manage Your To-Do List to Get More Done
Does your to-do list seem to grow by three items before you can cross off one? If you’re like most over achieving young professionals, your to-do list is out of control at work and perhaps even in your personal life. Traditional time management seminars offered by corporations may give you a few tips that serve as a time management band-aid, but it’s going to take a larger overhaul to get organized and maximize your productivity.
I recently read David Allen’s book The Art of Getting Things Done, which offers sounds advice on how to maximize your efficiency and productivity through a better organization system. Here’s a modified version of Allen’s steps for organizing and managing your to-do list:
1. Collect all of your to-dos items, including actual “stuff” as well as “thoughts”. Go through your home and/or cube at work and find any physical items that you haven’t dealt with (e.g., business cards, files, papers, etc) and put them into one location. Next you’ll need to empty your brain. It’s amazing how much stuff floats around in your head as you try to remember (or are randomly reminded of) all of the things that need completed. The process of writing everything down either on paper or within an electronic application lets you rest a little easier at night because you don’t have to actively remember anything. At this stage, you don’t need to process or organize any of these items; just put them in one place.
2. Choose an organization system. You can opt for a paper and file folder system or an electronic one. I prefer an electronic system because it’s easily accessible wherever I happen to be. I researched multiple online and i-phone to-do applications, with toodledo prevailing as the winning, free app I now use regularly. Note that I still have a few file folders in my desk for reference items, as it’s nearly impossible to get rid of all papers. However, 90% of my organizing is done online or via an i-phone.
3. Bucket all of your to-dos. Go through everything you’ve collected and decide which of the following needs to be done with each item:
- DELETE/TRASH anything that doesn’t really need to be done and that you’ll never need to reference again.
- COMPLETE the task now if it requires action and will take you less than two minutes.
- DELEGATE any item that requires action but is best done by someone else.
- ADD THE ITEM TO A TO-DO LIST if it requires your action but will take more than two minutes. It’s helpful to have more than one to-do list so that you group similar items together, which saves time when you get to step five. Here are a few of the to-do lists that I keep: calls to make, tasks to complete at computer, errands around town, things to do around the house, current projects, items to review, and items I'm waiting for (this helps keep track of what's been delegated).
- FILE anything that doesn’t require immediate action but that you may want to reference in the future.
- RECORD RANDOM “IDEAS” on a list too! I keep a list of websites I’d like to check out, books I want to read someday, places I’d like to visit, gift ideas for friends and family, and skills I’d like to learn. This saves me time when I’m ready to start reading another book or in need of a new restaurant to try.
4. Prioritize the items on your to-do list. Assign due dates to each item when hard deadlines apply. For anything that doesn’t have a firm deadline, prioritize it by importance using “Low”, “Medium”, and “High” designations. Toodledo has this feature, which allows you to always see the items in the order of highest to lowest priority (taking into account both due date and importance designation).
5. Jump in and start knocking items off your list. That’s right, you now know what to do and in what order to prioritize things, so hop to it! Because your to-do list is comprehensive and actionable, you’ll be able to increase the speed and efficiency with which you get things done. When you have at least an hour to do work, start with the item that’s highest priority based on deadline and importance. Or, when you have limited time or resources, choose items you can complete easily and quickly. A quick scan of your to-do list allows you to select a few items that can be done quickly one after the other depending on where you are and what tools (e.g., computer, phone) you have handy.
6. Review your to-do list and make sure it’s up to date. Set up a recurring one-hour meeting once per week in which you gather and process any outstanding items from the previous week, empty your head of any to-dos, and review your current project, next actions, waiting for, and any other to-do lists. Allen describes the review step as doing whatever it takes to get “clean, clear, current, and complete.”
This system gets easier with practice, as you start relying on it 100% and get a feel for what to tackle when you have a few free minutes. While working a full-time job, starting a business, applying for business school, volunteering for a non-profit organization, and trying to maintain a relatively normal social life, I’ve found that this modified version of Allen’s systematic approach really does work.
By: Gale Bowman
8-09-2010
After graduating from Notre Dame, Gale realized that young professionals need a source of reliable information as they face “real world” challenges. Gale manages WhatCollegeForgot.com and is pursuing an MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
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