WEBVTT - Create a better to-do list

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.

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<v Speaker 1>Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

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<v Speaker 1>Today's tip comes from a listener who has upgraded her

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<v Speaker 1>to do lists by giving all tasks a time frame.

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<v Speaker 1>People love to hate to do lists, and certainly many

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<v Speaker 1>people don't use them effectively. Over the years, lots of

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<v Speaker 1>people have sent me one study that found that about

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<v Speaker 1>half of the tasks on people's to do lists are

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<v Speaker 1>done in a day, but are never done at all.

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<v Speaker 1>I have to confess that I find this bewildering. There's

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<v Speaker 1>absolutely no point in putting something on it to do

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<v Speaker 1>list if you don't actually intend to do it. I

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<v Speaker 1>could see maybe one task every few days not happening

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<v Speaker 1>because of something truly unforeseen. But it's the nature of

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<v Speaker 1>life for stuff to come up. This is not a surprise.

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<v Speaker 1>If of items aren't getting done, there's a mismatch between

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<v Speaker 1>people's intentions and reality. One of the most important mismatches

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<v Speaker 1>is a gap between how much time is available and

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<v Speaker 1>how much time the items on a to do list

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<v Speaker 1>will take to get done. Fifteen hours of tasks don't

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<v Speaker 1>fit in five hours of time, and by the way,

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<v Speaker 1>five hours of tasks is about all you can reasonably

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<v Speaker 1>commit to ahead of time during an eight hour work day.

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<v Speaker 1>But Listener Ginger has come up with a strategy to

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<v Speaker 1>mitigate this common time planning fallacy. As she puts it,

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<v Speaker 1>my productivity hack is to use to do timelines instead

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<v Speaker 1>of to do lists. She explains the reason for this

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<v Speaker 1>is that if I have an unstructured work day, something

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<v Speaker 1>she says is rare but can happen, I easily get

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<v Speaker 1>distracted and end up wasting half of the day without

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<v Speaker 1>getting anything done. So I change up my to do

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<v Speaker 1>list to look like this. In her email, she listed

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<v Speaker 1>out her tasks with a time frame next to all

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<v Speaker 1>of them. For instance, eight ten to eight thirty, she

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<v Speaker 1>would make her to do timeline. From eight thirty to

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<v Speaker 1>nine fifteen, she'd check email from nine fifteen to eleven o'clock.

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<v Speaker 1>Should review training materials. From eleven to eleven thirty, she'd

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<v Speaker 1>create a training schedule. From eleven thirty to eleven forty five,

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<v Speaker 1>she would send an email about supplies. Eleven forty five

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<v Speaker 1>to twelve thirty. Should work on one of her job

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<v Speaker 1>specific projects thirteen thirty a meeting about a different project

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<v Speaker 1>thirteen thirty to fourteen thirty, she says, on her schedule lunch. Now,

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<v Speaker 1>if you can convert those twenty four hour clock entries

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<v Speaker 1>to conversational time, you'll notice that Gingers to do timeline

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<v Speaker 1>ends at two thirty PM. This does not mean her

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<v Speaker 1>day ends then, however, this is her acknowledging reality. I

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<v Speaker 1>never schedule out the whole day because other things come up,

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<v Speaker 1>she says. Maybe a colleague emails that he forgot to

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<v Speaker 1>tell her about a meeting but they really need her input,

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<v Speaker 1>or a manager needs a quick turnaround on something. If

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<v Speaker 1>Ginger doesn't have the whole day scheduled, she can regroup

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<v Speaker 1>to deal with these things. Once I get to the

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<v Speaker 1>end of my to do timeline, I review what I

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<v Speaker 1>was able to get completed, what still needs to be done,

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<v Speaker 1>and what else popped up, she says, and I create

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<v Speaker 1>another timeline for the rest of the day. The brilliance

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<v Speaker 1>of Ginger's approach is that she recognizes that all tasks

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<v Speaker 1>take time. If you are not willing to assign a

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<v Speaker 1>task a time, that means there's a high chance you

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<v Speaker 1>are not going to do it. I mean, maybe a

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<v Speaker 1>time will magically appear, but probably not so. If you'd

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<v Speaker 1>like to create smarter to do lists, take some time

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<v Speaker 1>the night before or in the morning to think through

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<v Speaker 1>what you'd like to accomplish. Keep the list short right

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<v Speaker 1>out when you will do everything. Don't fill all available

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<v Speaker 1>time in case you're wrong on how long something takes

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<v Speaker 1>or in case things come up. But if you do

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<v Speaker 1>keep doing this, your to do lists are far more

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<v Speaker 1>likely to become lists of accomplishment rather than sources of guilt.

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<v Speaker 1>How do you structure your to do lists? You can

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<v Speaker 1>let me know at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart

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<v Speaker 1>media dot com. And if you have a strategy like

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<v Speaker 1>gingers that makes you more productive and you'd like to

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<v Speaker 1>share it with fellow listeners, please let me know that too.

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<v Speaker 1>In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and

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<v Speaker 1>here's to making the most of our time. Hey, everybody,

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<v Speaker 1>I'd love to hear from you. You can send me

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<v Speaker 1>your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with

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<v Speaker 1>me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod

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<v Speaker 1>that's b E the number four than breakfast p o D.

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<v Speaker 1>You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>podcast at i heeart Media dot com that Before Breakfast

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<v Speaker 1>is old out with all the letters. Thanks so much,

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<v Speaker 1>I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is

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<v Speaker 1>a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from

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