Do you have a to-do list that is never ending and you don’t know where to start? In this post, I share my top tips on how to prioritise and manage your to-do list.
And when you are on a mission to be successful it can feel like you have a lot to do. If you are anything like me you will have a never-ending list.
The first step is to get everything out of your brain onto a list. It doesn’t matter if on paper or on a computer, although it will be slightly easier to sort on a computer if your brain works that way round.
STEP ONE: Rate everything on your list by importance and urgency
Tasks can be classed as important or not important and then urgent or non-urgent. For many women, you can become overwhelmed by your list when you have lots that are classed as urgent, so you have to focus on whether or not they are important or not. Go through your list and rate the tasks. Then if you have anything in the not important and non-urgent category ask yourself whether you can delegate that task to someone else or if it even needs to be on your list at all.
Now you will be left with three categories:
- important and urgent
- not important and urgent
- important and not urgent
STEP TWO: Put an estimate time value on each task
The aim here is to estimate how long each task is going to take you. Go through your edited list and next to each task note down the number of minutes you think the task will take.
STEP THREE: Block out time in your diary
By now you have a good idea of the priority of your tasks and how long they are going to take so now it is time to block time out in your diary to actually do the work. I recommend that first of all you block in when you will do the important but non-urgent tasks. The reason I recommend you start with this category is because those are the tasks that notoriously get left behind. This is because urgent tasks, whether important or not, will always seem more pressing. And quite often urgent tasks will be tasks you are performing for other people and they are imposing their deadlines onto you. However, if you have decided that something is important to you then you should be setting the time aside to dedicate the attention the task deserves. Then you can schedule the important and urgent (unless they are super quick, less than 5 minutes, and then just do them straight away) and then you can schedule the non-important and urgent.
That’s it!
Depending on your list you might do this before you go to bed every night, every few days or once a week.
However, I want to stress one more time to not forget the important but non-urgent tasks. It is too easy to fill your day with urgent tasks (often those that are unimportant) especially when you are supporting others, but if you want to build a successful future then you have to put yourself first. This means doing the groundwork, which is often important but non-urgent.
