Is Your To-Do List Too Long? | BNET

Is Your To-Do List Too Long? BNET

And when you aim to do only 3 things, you’re highly likely to get them done — and then move on. That beats shuffling the same 20 things from one day’s list to the next.
Of course, that begs the question: how do you get your to-do list down to 3-5 top priorities? This is not for the faint of heart. But if you’re looking to get a bit fundamentalist about your time management, here are three ideas:
1. Pretend your internet access is down. Reading and answering emails as they come in eats up an incredible amount of time. Indeed, it will expand to fill the available space. So give it less space and miraculously, it will take less time.
2. Write your year-end performance review. Right now. Now look at the accomplishments you plan to list in 2 months to your boss. Is anything on your to-do list contributing to those accomplishments? No? Then maybe you need to re-write the to-do list.
3. Repeat this phrase: “Just because I can do it doesn’t mean I should do it.” Are you micro-managing tasks that your team members can do? Would some task on your to-do list help someone else’s career development? Are you going to a non-essential meeting just for the face time and the pastries? A better idea: schedule one-on-one time with the person you’re trying to see, and get your own snacks.
There you go — you just freed up hours. How do you hack down your to-do list?