This post is a continuation of my last one, namely, ‘Better ‘TO-DO’ Each Day...Day After Day’

The word ‘Less’ in the title of this post connotes less time and/or less resources.

Let us first assume that you are in Stage 1 of Daily ‘To-Do’ lists, that is, you do not make a to-do list for your daily activities.

The moment you decide to start making a Daily ‘To-Do’ list, you will move to Stage 2.

Irrespective of the stage you are in, you must keep the following in mind while preparing a Daily ‘To-Do’ list: -

·         Include all possible activities including the mundane and routine activities. Since these activities eat into time, you must acknowledge their existence and their impact on time available during the day.

·         Always have a time estimate for each activity recorded against it. For example, you may record 20 minutes against an activity ‘Pay Bills Online’.

·         Your activities must include the daily and weekly chores (weekly as applicable on that day of the week), as well as trivial activities such as collect mail from the mail-box, have morning coffee, take a nap or call my old classmate etc.

To achieve Stage 3 of Daily ‘To-Do’ lists, you must follow a well-known principle or method of time management that will help you prioritize and complete activities by the accorded priority.

Brian Tracy, who is one of my many mentors on time management, calls this method “Eat the Frog and the ABCDE method”. Under this method, you prioritize the activities, and on most occasions, the items of the highest priority are the ones that are most detested or the ones that demand immediate attention. These are the ones that stare in your eyes as big ugly frogs. Brian goes on to say that if at the start of the day, one eats his/her ugliest of frogs, one is assured of an easier day thereafter.

But, to ‘eat the frog’, you need to know what are your frogs of the day. Since the term ‘Frog’ is relative, you will have certain ‘frogs’ on an easy day too.

To discern the frogs from other activities (through prioritization), you may apply the ABCDE method, where you mark the activities by the following criteria: -

‘A’ tasks/activities are those that cannot wait and must be completed on priority. The impact of not completing these tasks/activities is severe. You should complete ‘A’ activities before you attempt others of lower priority. If you have multiple ‘A’ activities, you must force-rank them as A1, A2, A3 etc, with A1 being the most important.

‘B’ tasks/activities are not as critical as ‘A’ tasks/activities. These should be done. However, the result of not doing them is that someone will be inconvenienced, but there may be no serious repercussions if these are not done.

‘C’ tasks/activities are ‘Could Do’ tasks/activities that can always wait until the next day.

‘D’ tasks/activities indicate that these should be ‘Delegated’ to others.

‘E’ tasks/activities are candidates for ‘Elimination’. Often we get into the habit of doing things without any good reason. These tasks/activities could be eliminated after careful examination.

Let us talk about Stage 4 (An Optimal Daily To-Do List). This is achieved with practice and rigor. Essentially, while preparing the Daily ‘To-Do’ list the night before, you must try to identify opportunities of: -

·         Concurrent execution of tasks/activities: One of the examples could be ‘thinking’ while walking the dog! This method helps in combining an important task with a not-so-important task so that both can be performed concurrently.

·         Deriving synergy from combining the activities: One such example could be having a list of groceries handy when going out to run a routine errand. So, one trip in the car fulfills the purpose of transporting you to the place of errand as well as the grocery store. A good time-saver.

A Stage 4 Daily To-Do List accommodates the most number of activities per unit of time and also ensures that the most critical ones get done first. To achieve a Stage 4 Daily To-Do list, you must start with a Stage 3 Daily To-Do List and must incorporate the ‘time and effort saving’ opportunities listed above.

Do’s: Preparing a Daily To-Do List

·         Always make a to-do list for the day the night before.

·         Record the time estimate against all activities/events in the list.

·         List all possible activities in the list, including the routine and mundane ones. Sometimes, routine tasks/activities are the ones with opportunities for amelioration and time-saving.

·         The list must be handy at all times during the day.

·         Always keep some slots for ‘Your Alone Time’ to reflect as well as the ‘Fun Time’ to unwind.

Don’ts: Preparing a Daily To-Do List

·         Do not try to prepare the list in your head. If you cannot read the list, you will likely miss all opportunities of deriving synergy.

·         As far as possible, try to address all activities on the same day. If the interruptions are beyond your control, include those activities with the same degree of priority in the next-day list.

·         Do not hesitate in making changes to the list as the day progresses. When the list meets the reality, some changes are always in order.

Daily To-Do Lists have always made life better, easier and more rewarding for their practitioners. Those who start making Daily To-Do Lists and also start following them, they are instantly rewarded with favorable results from the very first day.

This is what some of them shared with me when they took to using Daily To-Do Lists : -

·         ‘I had time to spare even after completing my tasks in the morning!’

·         ‘I could never imagine that I could accomplish so much in a day!’

·         ‘Although I had a lot to do today but there was no pressure at any time during the day. I knew what to do if time ran out…’

·         ‘Every day I discover new openings to do more, by eliminating inefficiencies from my daily chores.’

·         ‘My very first Daily To-Do List gave me a ‘Wake Up Call’ reminding me of my obligation to my long-term goals…’

I will conclude by repeating what I said in one of my earlier posts on ‘To-Do Lists’,

‘Historically, no human being has been able to devise a more efficient method than following a carefully crafted Daily To-Do list in order to get more done during the day, be it having fun or completing pieces of work.’