When you’re drowning in to-dos
TL;DR:
Try a task “organizer” like the Eisenhower Matrix or the MoSCoW method.
Focus on just one thing or just three things. Use this to figure out exactly how many tasks you can take on in a day of different levels of intensity.
Focus on the gain - the progress you’ve made - rather than the gap. The gap is the ideal state you set for yourself that may or may not have been attainable given all the circumstances
Gayle and I spent the weekend doing a myriad of projects around our new home - aka The Bestie Bungalow. We got rid of some things that were destined for other homes. We even both made a little money on Facebook Marketplace. Despite how productive we both were this weekend, at the end of the weekend, we both spent more time lamenting all that was left to do rather than celebrating all that we had accomplished.
For me, one of the hardest lessons of adulthood is that my list is never done. I guess in some ways that is a good thing. There are always more projects I want to take on, more people I want to collaborate with, more trips I want to organize, more gatherings I want to bring into reality. These are often the moments in life that make the best memories. But, the downside are the nagging tasks like getting the garage door serviced and registering for the new HOA and… you get the picture.
One of my personal struggles with a huge to do list is what I’ve come to call “list blindness”. When the list gets too big, I just start to ignore it because it overwhelms me. I’m not far from that point now and so I thought I’d share a few of the strategies I use when my task list gets like this.
Just One Thing
When the list gets to be too much, one of my favorite strategies is to choose just one thing. It can be the easiest task or the thing that I’ve been dreading/putting off the longest, or the one I feel is most urgent. What thing you choose doesn’t matter. Just pick one thing and do it. Rinse and repeat.
I particularly like this method because a) it focuses on action which is the best antidote to anxiety AND b) doing just one thing at a time whenever possible helps me figure out exactly how many things I can take on in a day which has led me to realize that I can generally get done 3 things in one day. Anything more than three “big” tasks is just too much to put on my list for a single day.
Reorganize The List
This one has to be used with caution because it can be a form of procrasti-planning which is using planning to procrastinate rather than just doing the work. But when I’m overwhelmed I might put the items that are weighing on me the most heavily into an Eisenhower Matrix or a MoSCoW list. The Eisenhower Matrix is used to separate tasks based on importance and urgency.
I love arranging my task list - or a subset of my list that I’m focusing on at a certain time - into an Eisenhower Matrix. I’ve found it is helpful to also try to think of any task I put into my task list with an Eisenhower “Number”. I assign 1 to the do now (urgent and important), 2 to scheduled (important but not urgent), 3 to delegate or delete (not important but urgent), and 4 to delete tasks (not important and not urgent). You might think that tasks you’re just going to delete shouldn’t go on the list. Sometimes you need to think about a task a little before you decide it really can be deleted so noting it’s a lower urgency/importance can help with that review at a later time.
The second of these tools - the MoSCoW matrix - is specifically designed to be used with a singular project. If you think of a software company that is designing a product and they want to ship updates every two weeks, you can see the value of declaring what must be in that update, what should be in the update (higher priority, but not required), what could be in the update and then those things that are distractions that won’t be in the update. You can do the same thing with your own task list by limiting the time period you’re looking at. I love to use the MoSCoW matrix to look at my weekly subset of tasks I’ve selected.
If often save myself a lot of grief by declaring that I won’t work on X for this week because it just won’t fit with all of my other priorities.
Focus on the Gain
I’m enjoying an audio book - The Gap and The Gain: The High Achievers' Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success - by Dan Sullivan and Dr. Benjamin Hardy. The print/ebook is good, but the audiobook includes some more “casual” interviews between the two authors which takes it to another level. We find ourselves in the gap when we are measuring against an ideal rather than a gain - celebrating each bit of progress we make against our own past performance.
To help with this, some days I like to make a “ta-da” list - a list of all the things I got done that day as a way of reminding myself of all that I accomplished.
How do you deal with the never-ending flow of tasks? Which of these prioritization methods have you tried? How have they worked for you? Just hit reply. I’d love to hear your thoughts on these.
Some Things You Might Find Interesting
What I published: Got some publishing done this week! I’m trying to keep balancing work that pays the bills easily with all the writing I want to do.
The C Word Enters My Life/My Cancer Journey Begins - Medium or Hive or My Website
Gayle and I published several of the posts from our trip in August to Northern Europe and we’ll be continuing to publish those this week. Here is what we’ve published so far:
MealTrain.com: Several folks asked how they could help support Gayle and I as I recover from surgery later in October. I had forgotten just how easy MealTrain.com is to use. If you want to support someone who is in need of some meal support when welcoming new children to the family, recovering from medical procedures, or just going through a challenging time, this is a great tool for keeping everything together.
Watch the Eclipse: There was an “annual” solar eclipse this week. I completely missed it. One of the next big eclipse events is coming up in April and it’s passing right over Indiana. This very cool tool shows you when it will pass over different parts of the planet. I know of some awesome camping spots that are going to come available in quaint little Williamsburg, Indiana. Let me know if you’re interested.
Lessons in Chemistry on Apple+: We began watching Lesson in Chemistry on Apple+ this weekend. I started reading this earlier in the year and wasn’t able to finish it before returning to the library. That said, I loved it and so now I’m excited to watch the show. Here’s the trailer.
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I make a new “to do” list every week. But I also put things I want to do on it,so I’ll enjoy something amid all the mundane “must dos”!!