How To Be More Productive Without a To-Do List

No judgment but when was the last time you crossed everything off your to-do list? Chances are you probably can’t remember. That’s the thing – because there is always something you need to do, that to-do list is never ending! In fact, for some, it may even cause anxiety as they keep on adding to the list without an end in sight. Another problem with a to-do list? There’s no sense of priority so there’s no sure indication of which tasks you need to complete first. If you are a slave to your to-do list, you’re likely to just robot through it all in hope of ticking everything off!

In many ways, a to-do list can cause us to be overly proactive in our thinking whereby we spend more time thinking of what to add to that to-do list instead of the actual doing. And when we are so focused on ticking things off the list, it hinders us from feeling a sense of completion with our day and our work.

What to use if you want to replace the to-do list? Here are three alternatives to help you stay on top of the game.

#1 Try a 1-3-5 list
Yes, yes it’s another list but hear us out first – a 1-3-5 list helps you plan better by letting you focus on the big, medium and small things. What you do is this: First, you write down one big thing you want to complete. Then you add on three medium things you want to do once you’ve completed the one big thing. Finally, complete the list with five small things that you can get done the following day if you run out of time. With this, you can accomplish a series of big, medium and small tasks – and even allocate some slots for add-ons once you’ve done the necessary. With the 1-3-5 list, you are focused on completing the things that are important first before moving on to other less important tasks.

#2 Schedule your tasks
Use your calendar for this option. A major issue with a to-do list is that you can’t visualize how long it will take to complete everything on the list. Say you have 10 things on your to-do list but only two hours to complete them all – it’s not going to happen! But when you schedule your tasks on your calendar, you have an overview of how you are going to spend each day on these tasks – and you actually block those times to complete your tasks. For example, you can set 10am to 11am on Mondays to reply emails. When that’s scheduled in, there’s a higher chance of you following and actually completing it rather than have it somewhere in your to-do list.

Obviously, you won’t be scheduling six important tasks on one single day – you are more likely to plan your tasks throughout the week for better time management. Being able to see the dedicated time for specific tasks will make you more likely to stay focused and finish them off.

#3 The ABCDE list
Introduced by business and self-development author Brian Tracy, the ABCDE list is like a to-do list but much better. There are two steps: First, you create a list of five tasks you’d like to get done today. Then, assign the letters A, B, C, D or E to each of these tasks. These letters indicate the level of priority of each item on your list. Of course, it won’t work if every task on your list is assigned an A so be really strict here on what’s critical and what’s not. Complete your A items and move on to the rest.

Tell us how you’re getting things done without a to-do list @Graduan!

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash.