What's wrong with the list of tasks for the day and what to replace it

Productivity / by admin / December 23, 2019

It does not reflect the actual period of time

According to one experimentPeople Awful at Estimating Time, Only 17% of people correctly assess how much time passed. Most of us are hard to calculate how much time we will go to this or that cause. It affects such successful people like Elon Musk: how many times he had already assigned a release date for the new model, and Tesla did not fit into the timeline. As a child, his brother had tell himThat the school bus will arrive before this time, because he knew that Elon late.

We are too optimistic count the time it takes to perform tasks. After a morning cup of coffee it seems that we all cope with rapidly. But the list is growing, three points are converted to ten, and the problem with which we would like to finish in a few minutes stretched to an hour.

He does not give the feeling that the working day is over

Try to remember the last time you expunged all the items from the list. Usually, it is transferred to the next day, again replenished and so on ad infinitum. Because of this, it seems that the work is never done, and there is nothing you

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not have time.

In addition, it seems that the list of everything you need to make, regardless of the degree of importance and value. As a result, you pay more attention to the tasks that in the long run is not so important.

It allows you to avoid the important things

Here is a typical example of a to-do list. Let's say it was a specialist in sales.

Disassemble mail.
Read messages in Slack.
I agree with Paul tomorrow.
Meet with the marketing team and think about ideas.
Go for groceries.
Make 50 cold calls.
Wash.
Clean the house.

No need to be a guru of productivity in order to understand that the most important thing in this list - 50 cold calls. Although get out and perform other small tasks a pleasure, no matter what, they will not be affected. If you are in sales, you just ring up 50 important potential customers.

Unfortunately, very often we use to-do lists, to avoid what we do not want to do. And these things are usually those that do need.

Replace it with another strategy

Use the idea of entrepreneur Aytekin Tank (Aytekin Tank). is he offers replace lists "Hunter strategy".

In ancient times, people were hunted to survive. If the hunter something catches, his family will be there. - if not, they will have to starve. It's simple. He did not have to check your mail, go to the meeting and even more so to make lists of tasks. He woke up with one goal - to get food on the hunt. That was his main duty for the day. Such an attitude is useful when planning the day.

Do not write a dozen cases. Select one that you have to perform and which is most strongly impact on your work. If you find it difficult to decide, remember the thing that least want to perform.

When he came to work that morning, write on a piece of paper one important goal for the day and stick it in a prominent place. For example, on a computer screen. Noticing that distracted or want to check your mail, stop. Look at the target and the recorded tune in to their "hunting". You will be able to perform minor duties, putting an end to the main business.

Use this method for several weeks, every day, writing on the sheet of the same goal. Then analyze the situation. If you feel more satisfaction from work and notice that your contribution to the common cause has increased, continue to "hunt."