To do or not to do? Sorry, but that is not the question here. To keep track of all your individual tasks, you’ll need a to-do list. The consensus is clear: a to-do list is one of the best practices you can adopt to accelerate your productivity.
The best time-saving tip I’ve been given is to make a list every evening of things that need to be done the next day, in order of priority. — Dan, IT Deployment project manager
A colleague once told me that when you need to tackle a big project or problem, just take the first small step. That sort of got me unstuck, since I always had trouble just starting. Then I realized that to get things done, you have to break down the big tasks and only put the smaller chunks on your to-do list. (Then you can check them off!) I also stopped using paper or sticky notes for my to-do list, and now I keep it all in one place. — Charlotte, team manager
The best tip I’ve ever gotten for saving time was to keep a to-do list. I was told to write things down so I don’t forget, put them in order, and take care of them as soon as possible. Also, crossing off a finished task from your to-do list gives you a feeling of micro-accomplishment every time. 💪 I also learned to prioritize, meaning I can identify what has the most value in relation to the effort it takes to complete. — Nick, engineering manager
You can use a notebook or sticky note for your to-do list, but writing everything down on paper has some major drawbacks:
The risk of losing or misplacing it is high.
Updating a paper list can be tiresome.
Digitize Your To-Do List
For these reasons, if you want to save time, you should switch to a software solution for managing your to-do list. The perfect app doesn’t exist yet, but I’ll be sharing several different options so you can familiarize yourself with this time management method.
So, what can we expect from a “task manager” software or app? It should be able to:
quickly list our tasks.
quickly check off completed tasks.
set a deadline for a task.
create tags or categories.
assign colors to each task, so you can identify urgent items quickly, for instance; but also to separate personal items from work items.
identify and assign a task to a colleague or friend.
Now that we have our tools, let’s move on to best practices for creating our to-do lists.
Avoid To-Do List Traps
1. Be Specific
First mistake to avoid when listing your tasks: don’t be too general.
❌ Get groceries
✅ Buy carrots, lemons...
Better yet, if your software can do it, create a project called Groceries and insert each product as a Groceries subtask.
2. Bring Your Actions to Life
Using action verbs is great, but we could go even further by directly stating the objective of our task.
❌ Fix the light
✅ Get the light working again!
It’s much more positive, and that inspires a bit more enthusiasm. If your task manager lets you, this is a good time to add a subtask or checklist under “Get the light working again” to remind you of what you’ll need in order to complete the main task of fixing the light.
✅ Get the light working again:
Wall light
Light bulb
Switch
✅ Get the light working again (deadline: 11:30 a.m. tomorrow):
Glass wall light (see attached photo)
Light bulb (40 W LED daylight)
Switch (reference no. 1224-362).
Before moving on to the next part of this course, take 5-10 minutes with your to-do list and write down everything you have to do. Don’t worry about assigning categories for now. This is what we call a general to-do list, or a catch-all.
Stand up and take a stroll around your immediate surroundings. Look around and write down what you have to do for work, but also tasks like repairing a table leg or drawer, dealing with the mail piling up, watering the plant, polishing furniture, and anything else you see. Enter between 30 and 50 tasks in your task manager.
3. Prioritize Your Tasks
The Eisenhower Matrix will help us prioritize each of our tasks and decide which ones you can delegate.
When placing tasks in the matrix, you should ask yourself two questions and respond as factually as possible:
Is this task urgent? (Can it wait two or three days?)
Yes
No
Is this task important? (Will it be bad if it doesn’t get done?)
Yes
No
Once we’ve asked these two questions for each task, we’ll be able to place the tasks in their corresponding boxes and even delegate some of them.
If You Respond “Yes” to Both Questions
If you respond “yes” to both questions, you should do the task yourself. Avoid delegating important and urgent tasks.
If You Respond “No” to Both Questions
You have three options:
Simply remove the task
Apply the two-minute rule
Leave the task for later, when you have fewer urgent and important tasks to take care of
If Your Task is Urgent but Not Important
If delegating the task is an option, that’s the task you should deal with first. Why? Because it’s a passive task. Brief your team member on the task, then start on your urgent and important tasks. While you’re completing your tasks, your colleague will be working on theirs at the same time.
If you can’t delegate it, do this task immediately after completing the urgent and important ones.
If Your Task is Important but Not Urgent
Reconsider, renegotiate or reschedule the deadline. Create alerts for one week before and two days before the deadline so you have time to put it on your to-do list again. That way, you can be sure you won’t let the task slip between the cracks.
“To save time, I apply the Getting Things Done (GTD) method, I use Kanban for task management, and I always organize my tasks so that I won’t get too overwhelmed. This forces you to think about the long term and not just react to every urgent thing. Then I learned how to prioritize aggressively using the Eisenhower Matrix.” — Lawrence, Training Manager
Here’s a graphic summarizing the Eisenhower Matrix, a very helpful decision-making tool!
Now, it’s critical not to fritter away hours just on making decisions. When you’re just starting out, the answers may not seem obvious, and you might be tempted to respond neither yes nor no, but rest assured that this is a highly effective way of helping you manage your time better.
As Muhammad Ali Jinnah said, “I do not believe in taking the right decision, I take a decision and make it right.”
From now on, it will be easier for you to identify what task or tasks need to be done and how urgent they are.
Once you’re ahead of schedule thanks to these methods, you can decide what to do with all that newfound free time!
4. Keep Your To-Do List Updated
Now that we know how to create and prioritize our task lists, the last thing we want to do is leave our to-do list as-is without updating it.
First of all, attend to the tasks in your to-do list—even minor ones—that must be done in order to complete another task. Just like we did with our sample task from earlier (“The light is working again!”), place those subtasks under a task, or if that’s not possible, schedule them for before the main task.
❌ Version 1: Impossible to do 😢
Print the annual report
Buy paper
Replace ink cartridges
✅ Version 2: Can be done, but still not optimal 🤔
Replace ink cartridges
Buy paper
Print the annual report
✅ Version 3: What you should get in the habit of doing 👏 🥰 🤓
The printer is working again by 5:00 p.m. today
(delegate) Check storage for cartridges
(delegate) Replace ink cartridges
Go to buy paper
Print the annual report at 5:00 p.m.
Keep Your To-Do List Updated Using Your Smartphone
Most of the task management tools have mobile versions, including Asana, Google Tasks and Trello.
Don’t forget to allow notifications for these applications.
Use Voice Dictation and Virtual Assistants
It takes a bit of time to get used to talking to your computer, but voice dictation can be an extremely practical time-saving device when you need to write something like a report summary, message, or article.
With virtual assistants such as Google Home or Siri, you can easily launch an app, respond to a message, start a timer for the Pomodoro technique, add a task to your to-do list, or create a reminder.
Challenge Yourself to Finish Your Tasks in Less Time
You’ll be surprised to see how simply challenging yourself to spend less time on a task than you’ve allotted makes you more creative.
Parkinson’s Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion. In other words, the more time we have to do something, the more we drag our feet doing it.
Let’s Recap!
The Eisenhower Matrix will help you prioritize each of your tasks and decide which ones you can delegate.
Just because a task takes a lot of time doesn’t necessarily mean it’s important.
A to-do list should be updated regularly to remain effective.
Now that you have your to-do list, in the next chapter we’ll look at what happens when a heavy workload increases your stress—and how to manage it.
