There’s a secret to completing your to-do, and it’s prioritization. That might sound obvious, but the real trick is to be as ruthless as you can stand, prioritizing tasks until you have only one thing to focus on right now. Then you can get to work!
Analyze Your Task List
Look for any tasks that can be dumped completely
- Delegation is a perfect way to quickly cut down your task list
- Take all of the tasks that do apply to you and put them where they belong in this priority matrix
- Once you’ve laid out your tasks, aim to get through the urgent and important tasks so you’re not butting up against deadlines
Pick a Single Focus
When you look at your task list or your MITs for today, pick a single thing to focus on
- It could be one big task you really want to get done, or it could be a theme that relates to several of your tasks
- This will remind you to stay on track
Find Your 20% Task
Identify your 20% work by asking yourself: what you would work on if you could only do 3 things today?
- Cut that down to 2, 3, or just one.
- This will help you realize which of the tasks provides the biggest value when it’s finished.
Make a Prioritized Task List for Today
Make a to-do list for today only
- Ignore everything else you could be doing until tomorrow
- Include calendar events on the “Today” list so you can see an overview of your entire day and set expectations accordingly
- Don’t underestimate how much you can get done and overestimate how long each task will take
Use MITs
Most Important Tasks (or MITs)
- A method of prioritizing tasks that has you choose just a few (usually three) tasks to get done per day.
- You only work on bonus tasks if all your MITs are done.
