To Do Lists

Workplace Hero

Hello cubicle counters, open space scorekeepers, corner office organizers, home den designers, and coffee shop systematizers. My name is Brock Armstrong, and I am… not the Workplace Hero. There is a good reason that the website for the podcast is workplacehero.me and not .com. I want you to be reminded that this podcast is for and about you, every time you visit. And yeah… the .com domain was already taken.

Before we get started, a little housekeeping. Did you know that there are near verbatim transcripts of all the podcasts over at www.workplacehero.me? It’s true. I know that the majority of you are listening to this podcast while you are on the bus, in your car, at the gym or otherwise not near a pen and paper - so to take the onus off of you having to try to remember the important points, I am making it easy. The only thing you need to remember from this episode is www.workplacehero.me/todo. Slick eh?

Ok, here we go!

Between your job, your exercise program, your friends, your hobbies, and pretty much everything else you want to get done, achieving your goals and nailing your deadlines is often harder than it should be. Heck, for some people just creating an efficient to-do list is a major achievement, and that is where today’s podcast comes in.

According to an article on Forbes.com, one tool many entrepreneurs use to get organized and improve focus is the To Do list. And while it can be a helpful too, they estimate that about 85% of the population is using the To Do list in a completely ineffective manner. They are using their To Do list as a measure for self-worth…and this can be a mistake.

They go one to say that many people incorrectly associate self-worth with checking things off their To Do list. They think: “If I can complete a lot of things in one day, it must mean I’ve done a good job and, therefore, I’m a good enough person. Right?” Well… yeah… we all want validation. Here’s the problem with this – it means that you’re likely going to waste your time on low impact, easy to complete tasks just to feel good about what you’ve accomplished.

How many of you have spent time on something that was easy and quick, but not very strategic? Was this because you were avoiding the harder, more impactful thing? We waste time on menial chores and tasks just to have a sense of accomplishment. Over time, this makes us much less effective at our jobs.

This is the part when I direct you back to the podcast episode I did about “Doing the Hard Stuff First”. Just go to www.workplacehero.com/hardstuff to listen to that episode.

Another mistake that the article on Forbes.com points out is that we have a tendency to create a very long To Do list that we can never complete in a single day. And then we feel bad about never getting to everything on our list. If you do this, you’re setting yourself up to fail. Forbes refers to this as “Using the To Do list as a form of torture.”

So, it is clear that we need to avoid setting our To Do list up as either a way to measure our productivity or a way to beat ourselves up. So, how do we do that?

Before I get into the suggestions of the experts, I am going to tell you my recipe for success.

First thing is that I use the Notes app that comes preinstalled on all Mac computers. The reason I use this is because it is simple, clean and most importantly it syncs across all my devices. Yeah, I am one of those guys who has an iPhone, iPad, iMac and a MacBook Pro. Hey! What can I say? I work in digital media.

The reason syncing across all devices is important is twofold. I find my stress level is much lower if I can add an item to my To Do list at the moment I think of it (even if it is the middle of the night… maybe ever especially if it is the middle of the night) and I also like to be able to knock things off the list as soon as it is complete and then check what is next up. This is all a “peace of mind” thing for me.

Some research suggests writing information by hand helps us remember it better, but if you’re like me and you last picked up a pen in 1995, don’t worry: There are tons of apps and gadgets out there for you to explore.

Next - A key ingredient to my To Do list is that it is always more than one list! By that, I mean that I have a list for today, tomorrow, the next day and so on. It is not just a never ending single list of crap that needs to get done. It is a strategic, day by day, list of what needs to get done, when it needs to get done, on the day that suits it the best. That doesn’t mean that items don’t get moved around but I try to make each day achievable.

Because I work mostly for myself right now, I even take it a step further and have certain days for certain tasks. Mondays mornings is for my coaching business, Tuesday afternoons are for video editing, Wednesdays are coding and writing days, Thursdays are catch-up or catch-all days, Fridays are podcast days. And yes, the weekends do get included on my To Do list but generally they only have items like “Go to the Gym” and “Beer with Ken” or occasionally “Finish the freakin project!” I am not a slave to that outline, but I find it helps to have a general idea of what the priority is for each day.

The next ingredient in my To Do list recipe is that I add pretty much everything I need or want to do on that day. It isn’t just a dreaded list of jobs I need to get done, but it is also a joyful list of fun things I am going to do and tasks I am somewhat ambivalent about.

For example, my To Do list for today: - Respond to email & Social Media - Go the gym 10:00 am - Do homework (I am brushing up on my French) - Download new client video files - Coaching call with Meghan 2:00 pm - Write the outline of “To Do List” episode Workplace Hero - Watch the Habs vs. Canucks game - No food after 7:00 pm

By including things watching a hockey game or reminding myself that I want to do a short fast (by not eating between dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow) I have my tasks, my work, my play and my goals all in one easy to find spot.

I won’t go too deep into this because it deserves it own episode but by including daily goals on my To Do list, I find my ability to achieve them skyrockets. When I see “Go to the gym” or “No food after dinner” every time I look at my To Do list, it simply increases my resolve to make that happen. Just make sure you word it in a positive way. As they say over at reachout.com “It might not seem like much, but self-talk is a really important part of our self-esteem and confidence. By working on getting more positive self-talk, you’re more likely to get things done and feel more in control of stuff that’s going on in your life.”

The next ingredient in this To Do list recipe is to assign an order to the list. Start the list with at least two items that absolutely must get done today, so you don’t end up reorganizing your spice rack instead of finishing a project that is due tomorrow. Even if the rest of the list gets shifted to other days, the do-or-die tasks don’t get missed.

Now many of my tasks are things that I do out of habit at particular times of the day (like answering email with my first cup of coffee - which can lead to some seriously hilarious typos), so those are easy to assign an order to. Other things like meetings or specific gym times get a time of day listed next to them. I have experimented with assigning a time of day to all of the items and that just made me mad. I like the flow of being able to reorder on the fly depending on my mood, how much time I have left in the day or which item I just plain feel like attacking at any given point. You can experiment with this one on your own. A CEO friend of mine has his day broken down into 15 minute chunks with a task assigned to each chunk. To me, that sounds like hell but he says that it keeps him sane. Each to his own, right?

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