Do you ever get to the end of the day and wonder where the time has gone?
Do you find yourself staring at a to-do list with tons of unchecked items, only to realize that the biggest, most important tasks always seem to be left unfinished?
One of my clients, a successful web developer, used to work from one master to-do list. Every time he got a new task, he would add it to the list.
And each time he wanted to figure out what to do next, he would look at this list of 20 or 30 items and just pick one.
Easy, right? Well…
Sometimes, the task he picked would indeed be the top priority, but a lot of the time it was just the first task he saw that he felt like doing. At the end of the day, any unfinished tasks would just go on tomorrow’s list.
This often meant that the tasks getting left behind were the largest ones. Those unappealing-but-important tasks and projects were the ones that suffered, because either they never got done, or he had to say up late finishing them, only to wake up exhausted the next day.
The strategy I’m about to reveal is what helped him prioritize his tasks effectively and get more done, every single day, without overcommitting himself or becoming burnt out.
It’s as simple as 1 – 3 – 5.
The strategy? Take a few minutes at the beginning of each day selecting things off your to-do list. Here’s how:
Select one large task (that takes about an hour), three medium tasks (that take 15-20 minutes) and five small tasks (that take less than 5 minutes). Focus on the actions that are aimed at your most important goals. That’s your 1-3-5.
For my client, the 1-3-5 framework enabled him to strategize and think about his tasks in a new way. If he had a half-hour between meetings, or if he discovered he had an extra five minutes to spare, it was easy to see how best to use that time.
By saying goodbye to the large, unwieldy master list, he was able to get more done, make progress on his most important projects, and feel good about the way he was spending his workday.
Try it for yourself!
The next time you find yourself staring down a seemingly endless to-do list, try selecting tasks for today using the 1-3-5 system. You’ll be amazed at the progress you can make simply by reconceptualizing the tasks in front of you.
Once you’ve built this framework into your daily routine, you can get more advanced by adjusting the 1-3-5 ratio to take into account how much discretionary time you have in a particular day. For example, if you are back-to-back in meetings for most of the day, it may not be reasonable to attempt a large task, but maybe you’ll have time for more smaller tasks as you go between meetings.
Imagine how good it will feel to look at your task list at the end of the day and see those most important items checked off. Imagine how much more amazing it will feel to see actual, tangible progress on your most important projects, every single day.
The framework is simple—the possibilities are endless.
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