Transform Your To-Do List

Are you a list maker? I am forever making lists, and I get great satisfaction when I tick something off as done.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes there are so many things on my lists I don’t know where to start. When looking for a solution, I discovered the idea of project lists.

This has changed my productivity ten-fold and I would recommend trying it if you’ve ever felt that overwhelming feeling of having too many plates spinning at once.

In today’s email:

• The Art of Project Lists: How to reduce the overwhelm in your to-do list

• Making it work for you: The steps you can take to make your lists work harder for you

• Purposeful Procrastination: Give yourself permission to procrastinate on the right things

WHAT IS A PROJECT LIST?

Whether its a paper list or an electronic list, the act of writing down all the things you have to do is fantastic for getting some perspective.

I’ve tried many apps and programmes but I always find myself coming back to the simplicity of the notes section in my phone.

Before project lists, I had a one master list and a section within it entitled ‘To be done today’ (AKA urgent). The issue with this was that the rest of the list go so damn long I never felt I was actually achieving anything, and was constantly adding things to it.

Then I came across the idea of breaking the main list into separate projects. Every large job that encompassed lots of tasks was allocated a project, and then within that project I listed EVERY SINGLE task required to fulfil that job.

Projects I currently have on the go at the moment include -

• Training up a new Admin assistant

• Increasing the prices at my studio

• A new Referral programme for my clients

• Moving house

• Creating a Knowledge Centre for my website

• Putting together a Loyalty Scheme at my studio

Previously each one of these would have been a single item on the master list. However as each item had numerous jobs within it to complete the task, the ability to tick it off the list became practically impossible.

With Project Lists these now each have their own individual ‘Project page’ with each little task listed (in chronological order of what needs to be done when).

When I come to my 90-minutes (see last weeks newsletter), I refer to the project list I’m currently working on, and start working my way through the little bite-sized tasks towards getting the big job done.

Its true that the big task still takes a while in some cases to get done, but by taking little steps towards the finish line means every day I tick something off I’m a little bit closer to the big job being completed. Rather than (as before) another day passes when I avoid it altogether because it’s ‘Too Big’.

Purposeful Procrastination

“Procrastination is the thief of time.” - Charles Dickens

If you find yourself procrastinating and just doing all the little jobs that are easy to tick off your list, you know the ones that it doesn’t really matter if they get done or not. Give yourself permission to NOT do them.

Instead focus on the big jobs that will bring you the bigger result.

You’ll often find the little things sort themselves out eventually without you needing to do anything.

Will it work for you?

If you are already a list maker this will definitely step-up your list game. If you’re not, try it out it could be the game-changer you never knew you needed.

Alongside my project lists, I still have my master list, but now I separate it into several ‘working’ lists.

• Master List

• Daily Lists

• Weekly Lists

• This Month

• Next Month

I’ve found using Trello Boards a great way to manage these. You can simply drag and drop an item into the next list when its due and if it doesn’t get done you can drag it along to the next column.

You can also access your Trello account on your phone so you can see what needs to be done or add/remove things when you’re out and about.

To-do-ist is another programme that I’ve used in the past but as with many things I ended up overcomplicating things and spent hours creating tags and deadlines instead of getting the jobs done!

My steps for success

• Write everything you have to do in a master list (and I mean EVERYTHING)

• Workout the ‘Big Jobs’ and create a separate project list for each of these

• List all the steps required to complete the Big Job in the order they need to be done

• Work your way through the project one step at a time

• Practice Purposeful Procrastination

P.S. Whenever you’re ready, there’s three ways I can help:

• Free webinar : The 6 secret steps that every studio owner/fitness professional should know but probably doesn’t

• 8-week course : An intense group training course set to give you BIG results fast.

• Need some guidance? Book a 121 call with me and we’ll see how I can help.