Creating a To-Do list could be the worst thing you could ever do when it comes to boosting your productivity.
It all comes down to the piece of paper. Very often if someone starts to write a To-Do list on a 11 by 8.5 inch piece of paper, they’ll fill up the whole page. In fact, that person may even stretch the margins or create columns to increase the writing space.
If you upgraded them to an 11×14″ size, they would likely fill that as well.
The problem is that an expanded or unlimited canvas is not a good tool for making you focus on your goals.
You’ll be too tempted to fill the space with every project you’ve ever started or thought of starting but never finished.
While a certain amount of self examination can be useful, it can give you too (do) much to think about. Then you end up doing nothing because you’re overwhelmed. Later you become frustrated at your lack of progress at trying to do everything at once.
Take the piece of paper and fold it in half. That’s now the length of your list. Even better, can you reduce it to the size of a notecard and then to a post-it note? In this exercise, you’re not allowed to use micro-type.
You should be left with a much shorter and more focused list. These are your action items. Step one is to identify these items. Step two is to act on them.
You’re not allowed to add any items to your list until you’ve completed one of your tasks.
Some may argue that this is too restrictive. Usually the problem is that these people are not doing a good job of identifying their top priorities and are filling their list with easy tasks.
Bottom Line: A To-Do list should be written to be thrown into the recycle bin. It’s not meant to be framed on your wall.
