How to Create and Accomplish a Powerful To-Do List

For many people when they hear the words "to-do lists" they cringe. Look around on the internet and you'll find many people voicing their hatred for to-do lists.

• They say that they are ineffective.
• They say they waste your time.
• They say they are a source of major stress.

But I disagree.

I believe that to-do lists are actually very helpful tools. The only issue is that so many people use it improperly, which honestly is the sole reason why people say they don't work.

Furthermore, there is also the fact that my entire business has been run on to-do lists as well. Through creating an effective method to setting them up, a lot of times I'm able to make huge advancements and feel satisfied about the work I've done.

So here is my method, and the steps that I use to create and accomplish to-do lists properly.

Step 1: Focus on what's necessary.

Like I said above, people think that lists are time wasters as well as ineffective. The whole reason for that is that people get into the notion that they have to write extensive lists.

From reminding yourself to get groceries to picking up your kids from school. People will tack on a variety of things onto the list. The problem with that though is that people are filling up their to-do list with things that aren't at all necessary.

By all means getting food and looking after your kids (if you have any) is important. But you don't need to put that on your list as there are clearly physical cues for that. You can tell you need to get food by opening up your fridge and noticing it's barren. You can remember your kid has band practice on Wednesdays and needs to be picked up.

Those things don't need to be on a list as a reminder. Make a mental note.

Instead, you want to focus solely on what is necessary in your life. If you have a business, or a side-hustle, or you want to go into business, then create tasks focusing on the operation/preparation of that.

And for those who think that's a waste of time, this step combined with the other steps will take you only a few minutes to complete entirely.

This step alone should only take seconds to put together. Put this together early in the morning by asking yourself a few simple questions:

"What is the most pressing thing you have to do today?"

"What sort of progress do you want to make today?"

Build your list around that.

Fail Safe: Don't Panic If You Can't Get It All Done.

I know the idea is to finish everything on your list, but some days that doesn't happen. Your kid or you get sick, you have an unexpected meeting or something comes up out of the blue that demands your attention.

Life happens, and that's alright. Don't blame your list or think it's ineffective because life happens.

Instead don't panic about it. When you have the time to complete something, make adjustments. Focus once more on the most pressing thing. What exactly needs to get done?

All the non-pressing tasks can be moved over to your list for tomorrow or the day after. Again you want to spread it out. Here's why.

Step 2: Limit your tasks to 3-5 daily.

Step one helps in narrowing down the amount of fluff tasks you have on a list. But I know for a lot of people they are constantly working or they have a lot going on.

In that case, you want to focus even more and have only a handful of tasks you really want completed. Again with those questions above you want to spend your time focusing on prioritizing the most important tasks but also the most pressing ones too.

By limiting yourself to doing only three tasks per day you put yourself at less of a risk of being overwhelmed. Not to mention a shorter list allows us to really focus on a select task. We convince ourselves and trick our brains that we don't have a lot of work ahead of us and that makes doing the work and even looking at the list as a means of de-stressing.

Personally I stick with three tasks, but again I know a lot of other people may feel differently. Not to mention some times you may have to move tasks around as well (again due to life getting in the way). So you want to leave yourself room for those particular cases. But I suggest you stick to a solid three for the reasons I mentioned above.

The main point is the more you focus on what is really important, you'll spend your time focusing on that. This is better than using all of your energy on a bunch of small tasks that don't get you anywhere.

Step 3: Reward yourself.

The last step is to put a reward system in place for yourself. I'm not saying to go and buy yourself something every time you complete your tasks. Instead do something small for yourself.

One thing that I've done is I put myself into a state of satisfaction. Firstly, it feels satisfying to work and complete each and every task. But it feels more satisfying to have a complete list and feel accomplished at the end of the day.

Having something like that can help you dramatically. I did this by making a simple statement:

"If you complete your list of tasks, you are one step closer to living the life that you want to lead."

This is huge for me as I do want to lead a life filled with confidence, but also of success. It's why the tasks I give myself are so important to me, but also why the reward at the end is appealing and worth doing the work for.

If I don't complete it because I was distracted (goofing off or being lazy), soon enough I start feeling empty. It means to me that I need to get back to work and keep working until I feel satisfied.

To-Do Lists Are Powerful When Used Correctly.

Seriously to-do lists are very effective tools when used properly. I encourage you all to follow these steps and apply this information in your own life.

To your growth!

Eric S Burdon

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