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 keep your to do list short.
Speaker 1: Not only does a short to do list increase the
Speaker 1: chances that you make progress toward your goals, you'll feel
Speaker 1: a lot better about them too. It probably won't surprise
Speaker 1: anyone listening to this that I love to make to
Speaker 1: do lists. When I planned my weeks on Friday afternoons,
Speaker 1: I set my major goals for the week professionally and personally.
Speaker 1: Then each evening I make my to do list for
Speaker 1: the next day of what needs to get done by
Speaker 1: the time I go to bed. I write down anything
Speaker 1: time specific that I've committed to, and then also assign
Speaker 1: myself a handful of other tasks informed by my weekly priorities.
Speaker 1: Note that word handful, we are talking three to five things.
Speaker 1: We are not talking twenty things or fifty things, which
Speaker 1: is what I used to do. Here's why I've learned
Speaker 1: to keep the list as short as possible. So I
Speaker 1: pride myself on being a trustworthy person. I imagine you
Speaker 1: do too, and part of being trustworthy is keeping the
Speaker 1: promises we make to ourselves. If I put something on
Speaker 1: my to do list, I am committing to do it.
Speaker 1: I am committing to do it before the day is through.
Speaker 1: But wait, people say, what if things come up? Well,
Speaker 1: guess what. This is not an if. This is an inevitability.
Speaker 1: Because emergencies happen and things go wrong. Things can go
Speaker 1: massively right as well, but sometimes that takes time to Consequently,
Speaker 1: the only way to guarantee that I will keep my
Speaker 1: promise to myself and do the things on my to
Speaker 1: do list is to keep my to do list short.
Speaker 1: This seems straightforward, but I've found over the years that
Speaker 1: a lot of people really resist this idea. They'll say
Speaker 1: things like, Laura, I have so much going on. I
Speaker 1: can't just put three to five things on my to
Speaker 1: do list. I have fifty things to do. But guess what,
Speaker 1: you won't do fifty things tomorrow. You'll do some of
Speaker 1: those things, but were they the things that truly needed
Speaker 1: to get done, or maybe they were just the ones
Speaker 1: you saw first, or that seemed easiest, or that someone
Speaker 1: yelled the loudest about Making a short list forces you
Speaker 1: to prioritize. If the day goes great and you get
Speaker 1: through that list and have extra time. Awesome, go find
Speaker 1: some other stuff. I'm sure you can come up with
Speaker 1: plenty to do. But here's the thing. There is no
Speaker 1: virtue in putting something on a to do list and
Speaker 1: then not doing it. It's just as not done as
Speaker 1: if you never put it on your list at all,
Speaker 1: and in fact it's worse than that. If you put
Speaker 1: it on your to do list and don't do it,
Speaker 1: you feel bad, whereas if you didn't put it on
Speaker 1: your list and you didn't do it. Expectations have met reality,
Speaker 1: and this is really the secret to happiness. Now. Of course,
Speaker 1: we all have more than three to five things that
Speaker 1: were responsible for in the universe, so a lot of
Speaker 1: people find it helpful to keep running lists of other
Speaker 1: things they need to do at some point, but not
Speaker 1: right now. Bullet journal fans might make these lists as collections.
Speaker 1: Getting things done author David Allen's readers use his suggestion
Speaker 1: of a some day maybe list. I make these speculative
Speaker 1: lists from time to time. Two in my planner. These
Speaker 1: are house projects I might want to tackle, things to
Speaker 1: do with my kids, seasonal activities, future podcast ideas, people
Speaker 1: to reach out to, book concepts, whatever. If there's something
Speaker 1: I decided to commit to in the future, I'll put
Speaker 1: it on my calendar for that day, and then it
Speaker 1: will become part of that day's to do list or
Speaker 1: list of time specific commitments. But there's no point thinking
Speaker 1: about it tomorrow and cluttering up my mental landscape for
Speaker 1: tomorrow when I plan to tackle it in two months,
Speaker 1: three to five. Things might not seem like much, but
Speaker 1: I promise it does add up. In one of my books,
Speaker 1: Off the Clock, I tell the story about my friend
Speaker 1: Damon Brown, who spent some time as the primary parent
Speaker 1: for his young son a few years ago. Because he
Speaker 1: was caring for an infant all day, his time was
Speaker 1: obviously limited. However, he also had a few professional opportunities
Speaker 1: he really wanted to tackle during this time, such as
Speaker 1: co founding a company, so he started writing his to
Speaker 1: do list for the day on an index card one
Speaker 1: side of an index card. If it took up more
Speaker 1: than one side of the card. He knew he had
Speaker 1: too much on his plate and it wasn't going to
Speaker 1: happen around his baby responsibilities. Better to push it into
Speaker 1: the future. But after a few months of this, he
Speaker 1: looked at his life and realized he was being shockingly
Speaker 1: productive three to five well chosen activities per day is
Speaker 1: a lot. I mean three per day is fifteen per
Speaker 1: work week. That's seven fifty per year. And if they
Speaker 1: all matter well, you could probably conquer the world. So today,
Speaker 1: look at your to do list with this in mind,
Speaker 1: what do you actually intend to do today and what
Speaker 1: amounts to a less expectation that will just make you
Speaker 1: feel bad. Choose three to five things you will truly
Speaker 1: hold yourself to doing. Assign other things to other times.
Speaker 1: Pretty soon you'll be feeling less busy and getting more done.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
Speaker 1: here's to making the most of our time. M Hey everybody,
Speaker 1: I'd love to hear from you. You can send me
Speaker 1: your tips, your questions, or anything else. Just connect with
Speaker 1: me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at Before Breakfast Pod
Speaker 1: that's b E the number four, then Breakfast p o D.
Speaker 1: You can also shoot me an email at Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: podcast at i heeart media dot com. That Before Breakfast
Speaker 1: is spelled out with all the letters. Thanks so much,
Speaker 1: I look forward to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.