“Reduce goals and tasks to the essential.”
If you’re like me, you have a long to-do list, perhaps divided among different contexts. Simplify the list down to the essential and you’ll eliminate the need for complex planning systems.
You never manage to cross everything off because new commitments are added every day. Long to-do lists represent one of the problems with most productivity systems.
The ideal scenario
Let’s imagine the ideal scenario:
- A to-do list that is essentially a list of three essential tasks I want to accomplish during the day (MITs)
- A list with a few small tasks to clear away, all together, usually in about 30 minutes
- The rest of the day completely free so I can dedicate myself to the most important tasks
- The calendar becomes just a way to remember appointments and not a “placeholder”
To get there requires a process of elimination, focusing on what is truly important.
Tricks to simplify
Here are some key steps:
Eliminate, eliminate
Take a few minutes to check your task and project lists and assess how much you can simplify them. Make it a challenge. See if you can cut them in half! If there are 50 activities, reduce them to 25. After a few days try to reduce them further. How to eliminate activities:
- Sometimes a task ages and is no longer necessary. Delete it.
- Sometimes a task can be delegated. Delegate it and delete it from the list.
Identify the essential
Become aware of your main goal and any other goals. Any small task is essential if it’s functional to achieving these goals, while it’s superfluous if it’s not connected to them.
Simplify commitments
How many projects are you involved in? How much extra work do you do? You can’t do everything. You must learn to say no and value your time. And, if you’ve already said yes, you can still say no. Slowly, you can simplify your commitments until you’re involved only in those projects that truly give you joy and enrich you.
Simplify the information flow
Recently I committed to eliminating most of my RSS feeds. Simplify the inputs in your life and you can simplify the outputs.
Weekly review
The lists of activities to accomplish during the week tend to inflate. Take a few minutes each week to eliminate and eliminate again.
Big Rocks
In your weekly review, get an idea of the most important tasks you’d like to complete during the week. Make them the MITs (Most Important Tasks) of each day and do them first.
Greater value
Some activities are truly rewarding in the long term, while others engage you but ultimately prove insignificant. Focus on important activities, those that can make you famous, that will generate long-term income, that will guarantee lasting satisfaction and happiness. These are your Big Rocks. Eliminate the rest.
Three MITs
Here’s your daily planning system: write your three Most Important Tasks on a sheet. That’s it. Cross off those MITs once you’ve completed them. Dedicate your entire day, if you can, to those three tasks, or at least the first half of the day. The three MITs are essentially the Big Rocks of the week and any other MIT necessary for the day.
Batch small tasks
During the day, several other activities will pop up that you really need to take care of if you don’t want problems later. Write them on a different list of small tasks. Set a time (probably about 30 minutes) to dedicate to completing these tasks at a later time of day (perhaps after 4 PM). Try to quickly complete these activities to eliminate them from the list. You might still have something to do at the end of the day. Better to postpone the small tasks until tomorrow, rather than the important activities. Deal with emails in batches.
The power of essentialism
Simplification is not just about doing fewer things, but doing the right things. As Greg McKeown suggests in the book “Essentialism”:
“Essentialism is not about how to get more things done; it’s about how to get the right things done.”
The art of simplification allows you to:
- Focus on what truly matters
- Produce higher quality results
- Reduce stress and overload
- Find more meaning in your work
- Create space for creativity and innovation
