Conquering Task List Paralysis
Photo by Kymberly Vohsen at stock.xchng.
You’ve probably heard of “analysis paralysis” and its cousin “decision paralysis.” Terms like “waterfall” and “cancelled project” may come to mind. This is where a person or team thinks too long and hard about how to solve a problem that nothing gets done.
However, I’m not here to talk about analysis paralysis (although that would be an interesting topic to blog about). Rather, I am here to talk about “task list paralysis.”
As recently as a year ago, I suffered pretty badly from task list paralysis. I would look at my long list of things to do, get overwhelmed, and check email instead. Well, as you can probably figure out, that doesn’t make much of a dent in the to-do list, nor is it good for the self esteem. The constant struggle with the long list of tasks resulted in frustration and feelings of inadequacy.
Then one day, I decided that I was tired of feeling like I wasn’t accomplishing anything (even though I was). So I designed and implemented a system to fix the problem. It worked. And because I care, I’d like to share it with you:
- Go through your list and eliminate the non-essential. You’ll be surprised how many items on your list really aren’t that important.
- Prioritize the remaining items. Items related to your top goals and projects should be high on the priority list.
- Each day, select three tasks that you absolutely have to get done. Do these first. This is the clincher. Getting those three tasks done early in the morning will make the rest of the day a walk in the park. Consider yourself successful if you get these three tasks done and nothing else. It will make you feel like a task list hero!
That’s it! Pretty easy, huh? I like to get to office around 7:30 AM to get my top three tasks out of the way before everybody else gets to the office. You need to figure out what works for you. Give it a try and let me know about your successes!
Note: Leo over at Zen Habits has a similar concept that he calls MITs (Most Important Tasks). Take a look at his site and his book, “The Power of Less,” for more useful information on this topic.
Awwh! Does that mean that displacement activity doesn’t actually help? Shucks!
Maybe I should put the displacement activity on the list too?
Chris, whatever works for you and provides you with the most amount of time to do the things you enjoy.
I used to try something similar, and didn’t have the ability to stick to it because X-Y-or-Z would strike and knock things off course. Instead, for the last few years, I’ve been using my calendar to block out my day. I assign an hour to a task, no mater how small, and that generally gives enough “space” to allow for interruptions. When I fit in meetings and lunch, that generally leaves me with five hours and/or time for five tasks. The popup reminders help keep me on track.
Chris, thanks for sharing your thoughts on this. Calendar blocking is a great way to get stuff done. I block off every Tuesday and sections of the other days to ensure that I get some of my own work done every day. Also, this ensures meetings don’t take over my life.