As I shared in my last post, The To-Do List Stampede, as of late I've been struggling with my to-do list. Mainly with the fact that I create these amazingly well-planned calendar items - I even plan breaks in between tasks so that I don't burn out - but when the time comes to do the "not so fun" ones my brain magically has something else more fun to do that is also a good idea for my business that I really should do at some point but it isn't listed for doing right now. I won't lie, working under a muse - when you're all kinds of inspired - is magical and so productive, but sometimes you need to just get those forms to your CPA. Why was it so hard to just keep this promise to myself on my calendar and do those dang "not so fun" items? I decided to take it to a personal coaching session with my coach.
In that session I realized that I was thinking these things like "forms for my CPA" were not fun - I was judging them right from the bat - and was thus not getting the results I wanted. So Monday afternoon I shifted my thoughts about my commitments to "I enjoy owning my own business which requires me to sometimes do less exciting tasks for the benefit of the greater good." That gave me a feeling of productivity and made me feel responsible. It also gave me a sense of freedom as a business owner; I freely chose this time on my calendar to do this not-so-fun task and I want to have a flourishing business.
With those thoughts and feelings in mind, I did my best with my to-do list following Monday's stampede and knocked out what I said I would do. I decided at the end of the day that I would implement the To Do List tools my coach suggested the next day.
I mentioned previously that the coach suggested I could schedule some time a couple days a week to work with all those "brand new important great ideas" that seem to throw me off track. She also suggested I could re-watch a webinar shared in the coaching group to get a handle on how mega master coach, Brooke Castillo, handles her to-do list. I'd like to share a run down of those tools here so that you can try them, too, if you need them.
Tool: To-Do List Thought Download
She basically starts with a thought download every Monday morning. Take a sheet of paper (or I opened a Word document) and just start writing everything that you need to get done. Whether it's for your career, your family, your home, personal needs, etc., just write it all down. Writing it down gets it out of your head and on the action sheet. Swirling around your head like a gnat is where it likes to be so that it can surface at inconvenient times (such as when trying to do forms for the CPA) and throw temper tantrums like a toddler because you're not paying attention to it. Don't let it do that. Get it out of your head and onto the download list. This includes the task of "free time." Don't forget to schedule that in as well. Your brain needs rest and the opportunity to wander.
After getting AAALLLLLLL of those pesky thoughts and tasks out of your head, go through each one and write down the obstacles or steps needed to get it done. For example, one of mine that has been lingering is to launch a training program. Well, that's not a snap-your-fingers task. I actually need to create 3.5 more chapters of material, edit the material, create user guides, then create my online marketing campaign to sell it to the masses. So that one task is now seven tasks. It could also become 20 tasks if I need to break each of the seven down further in order to plan better.
The next step is to then prioritize your tasks. Do all the IMPORTANT ones first. Be careful about prioritizing Urgent tasks first. Make sure they are Important AND Urgent if you are going to prioritize them first. This website explains well the concepts of Important, Urgent, Not Important, and Not Urgent. Think of Stephen Covey's book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and the time management quadrant he made so popular (I just realized this morning that the time management matrix was actually an Eisenhower invention and Covey popularized it). Highly effective people spend their time in Quadrant II doing the long-term planning and goal-achieving tasks; the Important and Not Urgent tasks. These are the tasks that take your business or career or life to the next level.
Next, look at the list and decide which ones you don't really have to do or that you can delegate to someone else. Then take them off your list. Why worry over them? Just delete them or send them over to the person who can accomplish them for you. Sometimes delegating requires some task time devoted to finding the person to delegate to. For example, if I need to fix the disposal in my sink but I don't want to take the time to do it, I can schedule 15 minutes to find a local repair company and have them do it for me. But the larger time commitment of cleaning out under the sink, crawling under the sink, finding all my tools, taking out the old disposal, putting in the new one, testing it out....all of that is no longer my concern. It has been delegated off the list in 15 minutes. So Marie Kondo those task items and figure out which ones you want or need to keep, then get rid of the rest.
After all of those pesky task-gnats that you kept are glued down on paper in order of importance, put them on your calendar. Sometimes it's tricky to know how much time a task will take. I remember what one of my supervisors told me in conversation one day many years ago when we were discussing employee productivity and time sheets: "It's funny how a task can take 10 minutes or 7 days depending on how much time you allow to accomplish it." And that is so true. If we allow ourselves 8 hours to fill out a one page form for the CPA, it will take all 8 hours. But if we have 2 hours to complete it and are committed to that time frame because we have other tasks to do in the remaining 6 hours, then by golly, we will work with determination to get that task done in 2 hours. This especially works if you have something fun to do afterward and you can't do it until that task is done. Watch how the lightning speed kicks in! When I was a child I had this pesky tooth that was loose and just wouldn't come free. It was quite literally hanging on by a thread, but it was a very tough and persistent thread...and maybe my fear of the pain of pulling it kept my parents out of my mouth longer than necessary. For some reason I was nervous about pulling that one out but my parents told me that it needed to get pulled or we wouldn't be able to go see Return of the Jedi in the movie theater that day. Okay, a little motivation tactic. Good call Mom and Dad. Needless to say the tooth came out and I got to see those cute little Ewoks I wanted so badly to see at the movies.
When scheduling your tasks, think through the steps and give yourself the amount of time you think it will take. Then work with determination and motivation during that time. Close down the other 500 browser windows you have open so you can only focus on the task of the moment. Put your phone in the other room. Turn off the volume on your computer so the incoming email ding doesn't distract you (literally all of those just happened to me in the last 60 seconds).
Probably the most important step is the final one. Throw that sheet of paper away.
I know, you're freaking out. But you just took everything out of your head and put it on paper, prioritized it and put each item on your calendar. Why do you need that list hanging around? Remember you can schedule in a few hours a week to work on new items that pop up and you can jot down items that come up to be available on the next list. But you've taken all the task-gnats out and scheduled them in for now so why keep the baggage? It's not necessary - everything you are committed to accomplishing in the foreseeable future is now in your calendar.
My Experience With the Thought Download
This does take some time to accomplish but it removes the wondering and guesswork out of the remainder of your days. It is a simple matter of doing a bit of proactive work so that you can be efficient with the rest of your time.
For me yesterday, considering the length of my task list that had been growing over the last several months of unproductive work days, this took me all day minus a lunch break. I believe this was for two reasons: the length of the list was about equal to my height in my platform stiletto heels (about 5'11"), and the fact that my August calendar is already jam-packed with conferences and trips out of town so I didn't have much time remaining to squeeze in the tasks. Scheduling in the Important items was like a big puzzle that took a lot of time to complete. Going forward, I expect this process to take a couple hours as I whittle down that historic list.
Also, my list was so long that I have all of my August completely accounted for. But wait! What if something happens? What if I don't want to do that task on that day? What if a new idea comes in? All of those thoughts have circled my head as well. But I had a list of things that were important for me to get done and I scheduled them in because they were important to me. This took me all the way through the end of August and I know that each of these items is something I want to get done. Whatever else comes up, if it is Urgent and Important will just have to be done in my free time that I've scheduled. If it's not THAT important to override free time, it can wait until September.
Here's a secret I'll share that may bite me in the butt later and if so, I'll share the experience. My prioritized list was about 50 items long. I only got through the first 30 in the month of August. As I'm writing this post, I'm realizing I probably could have broken down some of the tasks a little further to better account for the time needed to get them done. The remaining 20 items I decided to save for September's Thought Download. That is not how I would recommend doing this all the time, but I made an excuse starting out because the length of my list was so long. Also, there are some items on the list that were beginning to be less Important to me as my business has progressed and as I contemplate changes coming in the next few months. Some of the tasks accomplished in August may change those last 20 items making them scratch-offs.
I would also suggest doing these thought downloads weekly instead of monthly. I may still spend an hour at the beginning of each week to make sure things are still good, but I need to commit to getting these most important 30 things completed with the little time I have available in August.
Watching Your Thoughts as you Keep Commitments
Watching our thoughts, I would say, is the biggest challenge to this whole process. Yes, the To Do List Thought Download took me all day but retraining my brain to notice the urges to veer off course, allowing myself to be uncomfortable for a few minutes instead of giving in to the urges, then finally recommitting to do what was planned is the big work.
That's what ALL of this is about.
It doesn't matter what time management tool you use, it's about keeping the commitment to yourself to do what you had planned to do. And let me tell you, little sneaky thoughts will pop in all. the. time.
My next post will go into more detail about those little stinker thoughts that try to get me off track so stay tuned. This is where the real work lies.
As always, if you could use another set of eyes on your thoughts, don't hesitate to sign up for a 30-minute consultation on my Services page. Let's have a phone call and see if coaching is right for you. While you're at it, please take a second to sign up for my newsletter which will be launching this year. In it I will answer coaching questions that have been submitted and highlight blog posts from the page.
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