Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to tighten your to do list. By
Speaker 1: making your day's list short and focused, you will make progress,
Speaker 1: and progress is incredibly motivational. Figuring out what makes for
Speaker 1: a good work day is hard enough as it is,
Speaker 1: and this is doubly true for the millions of folks
Speaker 1: who have started working from home over the last year.
Speaker 1: When you commute to an office, the act of getting
Speaker 1: ready and going somewhere and seeing people can make you
Speaker 1: feel like you've done something, even if you really haven't.
Speaker 1: When you're at home, an unproductive or undirected day can
Speaker 1: make you feel like you're just spinning your wheels. Plus,
Speaker 1: there's this question, how do you know when you're done?
Speaker 1: If you commute to an office you do eventually have
Speaker 1: to leave, you aren't going to sleep there. In a
Speaker 1: home office, it can be easy to keep half working
Speaker 1: all night. You're not getting anything done, but you're not
Speaker 1: relaxing either, which is the worst of all possible scenarios.
Speaker 1: So here's an idea. Tighten your to do list. Make
Speaker 1: yourself a short list of three to five challenging but
Speaker 1: doable tasks. When chosen well, this can be enough, especially
Speaker 1: since stuff will come up. Stuff always comes up. And
Speaker 1: when you are able to cross everything off your days
Speaker 1: to do list, which you can when it's short, you
Speaker 1: will be able to choose new stuff for the next day.
Speaker 1: You will make progress and that feels amazing. Plus, when
Speaker 1: the list is all done, the day can be done.
Speaker 1: That gives you permission to relax. Unfortunately, over the years,
Speaker 1: I've noticed that most people approached to do lists in
Speaker 1: an entirely different and I would say far less productive
Speaker 1: way they make them, which I guess is good. But
Speaker 1: the to do list will have forty items on it's
Speaker 1: it's more of a comprehensive list of anything you might
Speaker 1: ever want to do. But while a forty item to
Speaker 1: do list might make you feel important, it's actually self defeating.
Speaker 1: You will not get through forty items in a day.
Speaker 1: You will get through some of them, but which ones
Speaker 1: the most important? Well probably not. It's going to be
Speaker 1: the easiest ones or whatever is screaming loudest at a
Speaker 1: particular moment, So stuff that needed to happen won't get
Speaker 1: done or will be done under extreme time pressure at
Speaker 1: the last moment, and you'll wind up rolling many things
Speaker 1: over to the next day. You in the day feeling defeated,
Speaker 1: or if you're working at home, maybe the day just
Speaker 1: doesn't end. And what was the point of this? So
Speaker 1: hear me out on this one. There is no virtue
Speaker 1: in putting something on a to do list and then
Speaker 1: not doing it. It is just as undone as if
Speaker 1: you had never put it on the list in the
Speaker 1: first place, only now it's there, making you feel bad
Speaker 1: for not doing it. A better approach is too tighten
Speaker 1: your to do list down to only the things that
Speaker 1: you absolutely intend to do that day. I mean, come
Speaker 1: hell or high water, even if the power in your
Speaker 1: home office goes out at ten thirty a m. Indeed,
Speaker 1: this is actually a good way to construct a to
Speaker 1: do list. If you were to lose power at ten
Speaker 1: thirty a m. What would you absolutely need to have
Speaker 1: gotten done today? When the list is tight enough, it
Speaker 1: can become a contract with yourself you get through it.
Speaker 1: When you do get through it, you know that you
Speaker 1: have done important work. When the list is done, you
Speaker 1: can relax. Everything else you do is just gravy. If
Speaker 1: you want to to go choose some other stuff to
Speaker 1: work on. Well, great. You can keep a maybe list,
Speaker 1: or a rolling projects list, or some other lists somewhere
Speaker 1: that has all the things going on that you could,
Speaker 1: in theory do. But don't treat this unprioritized broad list
Speaker 1: as a daily to do list, because it isn't. You
Speaker 1: can pull things off this broad list to make your
Speaker 1: tight daily to do list, but only if you truly
Speaker 1: intend to do them today. So if you think this
Speaker 1: is going to make you worry that stuff isn't getting done,
Speaker 1: here's a variation on this theme. Some weeks, I will
Speaker 1: make my to do list for the whole week ahead
Speaker 1: of time. Monday's three to five tasks are the most
Speaker 1: set because I have a better sense of that day
Speaker 1: is going to look like. But I can assign a
Speaker 1: few things to other days too. What three things do
Speaker 1: I plan to do on Tuesday? That way, when I
Speaker 1: remember on Monday that I don't only have three to
Speaker 1: five things going on in my life, I can relax.
Speaker 1: There is a time for them later in the week. See,
Speaker 1: I've got them on the list for Tuesday, not today.
Speaker 1: My to do list is like a Ferris wheel. We
Speaker 1: focus on these three to five things on Monday and
Speaker 1: then Tuesday, it spins and we focus on a few more.
Speaker 1: Wednesday we get to others and so on to everything
Speaker 1: in turn. Whereas when we attempt to do all these
Speaker 1: things all at once, the ferris wheel winds up with
Speaker 1: ten cars at the top, and well, we've got a problem.
Speaker 1: So today, rather than diving into a forty item un
Speaker 1: prioritized list, choose three to five things that absolutely have
Speaker 1: to get done today. Figure out when roughly you'll do them,
Speaker 1: hold yourself accountable to doing them. Keep this promise to
Speaker 1: yourself and do these things by the end of the day.
Speaker 1: When you do this, day after day, you will find
Speaker 1: yourself getting a lot more done. And if you're working
Speaker 1: from home, you know that you can close your laptop
Speaker 1: guilt free. You know that you have put in a
Speaker 1: good day and you will tomorrow too when you tighten
Speaker 1: your to do list enough. In the meantime, this is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast Pod. That's b E. The number four. Then
Speaker 1: Breakfast p o D. You can also shoot me an
Speaker 1: email at Before Breakfast podcast at iHeartMedia dot com that
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks
Speaker 1: so much, I look forward to staying in touch. Before
Speaker 1: Breakfast is a production of I heart Radio. For more
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