Creating To-Do Lists Effectively

This small change to my to-do lists has become the biggest productivity hack 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝘅𝘁: Over the last few years, I've tried many ways to organise my work and time. But the only method that has worked is to list the tasks of the day in a physical notebook. Once the tasks are done, strike them off. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: I had, on average, 5–6 tasks on the list. But I could complete only 2–3 each day. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: At the end of the day, I felt as if I'd achieved NOTHING. The feeling was the same unless I completed 100% of the tasks. That feeling frustrated me more than I can put into words. I didn't only LOSE that day. But I'd become so demotivated that I'd keep spiralling downwards for the next few days. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 "𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹" 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: the real problem wasn't the system. The real problem was also not the lack of prioritisation. The real problem was that my prioritisation was not based on motivation or happiness. Let me explain... I reviewed my task list for the last 30 days and started seeing a pattern. There were some tasks which, when incomplete, cause an immense amount of frustration. This frustration overpowered the joy of completing the other tasks on the list. That is when I remembered Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory, which I admire. It says there are two factors that affect employee satisfaction. 1. 𝗛𝘆𝗴𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗲: these are factors that, if absent, cause dissatisfaction. For example, salary, job security, a good environment. But even if they exist, they don't increase satisfaction!     2. 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘀: these are factors that, if present, lead to higher satisfaction and happiness. Examples: rewards, promotions, growth opportunities, etc. My old way of creating lists (left) had a problem. I was not classifying my tasks into hygiene and motivators. The solution: Create the same to-do lists, with 5-6 items. But each item must fit into one of 3 categories: 1. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿:if I don't complete them, I will be sad. 😔 2. 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗼𝗿:if I complete them, I will be happy. 😊 3. 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘁𝗰𝗵:if I complete them, I will be extremely happy😄 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁: With the new list (right), as long as I complete the tasks in bucket #1, I am not sad or frustrated. I feel like I have accomplished everything for the day. (Again, a hard feeling to put into words!) This feeling leads to more productivity, which brings even more happiness. And the cycle continues every day, every week. Such a small change. But such a huge impact. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝘃𝗲𝗮𝘁: I can tackle the same problem via better prioritisation. Instead of having 5, I could have 2-3 tasks on the list. Unfortunately, that doesn't work for me, especially on days when I have more time at hand. And not adding all the tasks makes me feel I'm missing something. So I prefer to dump all my to-dos on the list. If you use to-do lists, let me know in the comments how successful you are. And what are your productivity secrets?

I've set goals and failed to achieve them. I've written down goals and never hit them (here is why). - I didn't integrate my goals into my daily activities. - I didn't make my goals smart ( it was a wish list). If you write goals more like a wish list, here is what happens... - Unimportant tasks will take priority. - You won't have daily actions to move you closer to your goals. - Your action taking will be inconsistent / make it up as you go along. But there is something worse... You'll lose confidence in achieving your goals. It will create doubt. You'll have a sneaking suspicion your goals are impossible. It becomes a vicious circle. You don't take the goals seriously, so you fail to hit them. You doubt the goal is possible, so you don't want to put effort into them. It's vicious circle that confirms you can't achieve your goals. BUT if you do want to hit your goals, you need to make them smart. You need SMART goals - goals that are clear and actionable. SPECIFIC - MEASURABLE - ACTIONABLE - RELEVANT - TIME-BASED Write down your SMART goals. Then diarise the actions you need to take. Example: Specific: Get more leads per week from social media. Measurable: 4 Leads per week. Actionable: Posting 3 times per week, grow my network, offering a lead magnet to new connections. Relevant: More connections will increase my reach, leads will help me win clients. Time-bound: By 7th May 2024, I'll be getting 4 leads per week. SMART goals are the way to achieve things. Set your goals, make them SMART and work on them every day.

Most people are not overwhelmed because they have too much to do; they are overwhelmed because once everything hits a list, it starts to feel equally important. I actually like to-do lists. If something is not written down, it is easy to forget. The problem is that once everything is written down, everything starts to feel mandatory. The list stops being a memory aid and turns into a source of pressure. I see this clearly in my own weeks. I can be busy for days, crossing things off, staying active, keeping things moving, but when I step back and look at my actual goals for the month or the quarter, the thing that truly matters often hasn't moved. The list keeps you busy, but it does not help you choose. When that happens, it usually means the important decision was never made upfront. Instead of deciding what outcome I was optimising for that week, I let the day decide for me. Whatever feels easiest or most immediate gets done, rather than the work that actually moves the needle. What has helped me is planning every week before it starts. Before I write any to-dos, I try to be clear on what outcome would make the week feel successful. Simply put, by Friday, what needs to be true for me to say this week was productive? It is rarely a long list; one or two things at most. Once that outcome is clear, planning becomes simpler. I only write tasks that clearly feed into that goal. Everything else can wait or be pushed to the following week. And each day, I focus on my one to three non-negotiables, the things that must get done that day to support the weekly outcome, and I try to do them first. Urgent things will still come up. Sometimes they genuinely change the shape of the week. When that happens, I deliberately reassess rather than letting the list expand unchecked. When the order is wrong, cognitive load rises, and you end up doing a lot without moving much. When priorities are set early, even a full week feels calmer. You get more done without feeling more overwhelmed.

In my first leadership role, I never left work before 9:00 p.m. I used to carry a list of the things I needed at the drugstore, but never made it because the drugstore closed before I left work. One day, a mentor visited me at the education nonprofit I was running at the time. I showed her the list and joked about never making it to the store. She asked me why I wasn’t leaving work earlier and I said, “Well, there's so much to do, and my staff likes to stay late, so I have to stay late.” She pushed back: “Jen, you have to go home so they can go home.” She was right. I needed to model how we prioritize our time. Her advice to me: make a Mission To-do List. Here’s how it works: 1️⃣ Put your mission across the top of a piece of paper and your to-do list down the side 2️⃣ Go through every item to see how much it actually drives the mission or not 3️⃣ Remove any items that are not critical to achieve your mission (or at least move them to the bottom of the list) The exercise inspired me to slim down both my own to-do this and the list for our team. Suddenly, the t-shirts for our summer field trip didn’t seem so important, especially in comparison to finalizing the Algebra curriculum. We focused on the things that mattered and removed or reprioritized the rest. The mission-based to-do list is a powerful exercise that I’ve used with every team since. At Rising Team, we call it BGF, which stands for “Boat Go Faster.” It's based on a winning British rowing team that asked themselves the same question about every addition to their regimen before the Olympics—”Will it make the boat go faster?” In my experience, focusing our to-do list doesn't diminish our productivity. If we do the more important things first, there's often still time to get to extra pet projects. What a mission-based to-do list does is protect our time and energy for the things that matter most—our mission and our team's well-being. 📃 Tell me: Is there anything you can take off your to-do list today? 👇🏼 #leadership #teamdevelopment #prioritization —- Like this post? Follow me for more insights on leadership, team building, and the future of work. Subscribe to my LinkedIn newsletter Leadership is Everywhere: https://lnkd.in/g_VETsRY

Before the start of each new year my partner Anurag Viswanath 🤖 and I set goals for ourselves across three dimensions - personal, professional and couple goals. 👫 A lot of people do this on their own. Here’s why we share this exercise: 1. Having an accountability partner who's equally invested means regular goal reviews that keep both of you on track. 2. Many personal and professional goals inevitably need your partner's involvement. By defining and prioritizing goals together as a couple, you stack the odds of achievement in your favor. Over the years we’ve experimented with many frameworks for goal setting and here’s what we’ve found to be the most effective. 🎯 Under each theme (personal, professional and couple) it’s super important to start by looking back on the last year and just talking through your highs and lows. It also makes for a really wholesome afternoon to spend together. ✍️ Next, put pen to paper- and we actually prefer doing it analog and then transferring it to a digital format - with sections for: 1. Defining your main goals 2. Breaking them down into smaller, actionable steps 3. Setting deadlines or timeframes (we do this quarterly) 4. Identifying potential obstacles and solutions 5. Tracking progress (monthly) It doesn’t need to be in a fancy spreadsheet or an aesthetic journal. Just make sure each goal is a SMART GOAL ie. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. 💪 Optional: We also set one Misogi for ourselves each year. A Misogi challenge is something so daunting that it hovers between possible and impossible. The idea is to set a goal that has about a 50% chance of success if you do everything right. Most importantly, keep your goals visible. Having them "out there" serves as a constant reminder of the expectations you've set for yourselves. We use Pinterest/ Canva to create vision boards and use them as our phone wallpapers. Happy 2025 planning! Let me know if you try it 📝 #GoalSetting #NewYearGoals #Planning2025

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝗹-𝗦𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽: 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗽: Setting ambitious goals is crucial, but the pitfall comes when these goals aren't fully understood or when they're borrowed from external benchmarks without real personal insight. The biggest hurdle? Not properly planning the time and resources needed to achieve these goals. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲: Time estimation. It's easy to underestimate how much time tasks will really take, especially when your schedule is already packed. Our experience at OwnersUP, working with over 1,000 entrepreneurs, has highlighted time estimation as a critical hurdle in goal realization. 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖-𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗦 𝗠𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆 Transform your goal-setting with our structured 𝗖-𝗕𝗥𝗜𝗖𝗦 approach: • 𝗖larify Your Objective: Ensure your goal resonates with your personal and business vision. • 𝗕reak It Down: Segment your goal into 30-minute actionable tasks. • 𝗥esources Identification: Evaluate necessary resources for each task—time, money, assistance. • 𝗜mplement Daily Commitment: Carve out 1.5 hours every day to focus on these tasks. • 𝗖heck-Ins Regularly: Assess progress and fine-tune your strategy continuously. • 𝗦tay Flexible: Be prepared to pivot based on new insights and challenges. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗔𝗽𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀: 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: It breaks down lofty goals into manageable actions. 𝗘𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝘆: Encourages a realistic assessment of time and effort. 𝗖𝗹𝗮𝗿𝗶𝘁𝘆: Fosters a deeper understanding of the path to your goals. 𝗗𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗗𝗼𝘂𝗯𝘁𝘀: No more wondering why goals aren’t met or making excuses. We're talking clear steps, manageable tasks, and real timelines. It’s the step so many miss, then wonder why success seems just out of reach. Say goodbye to the guesswork and hello to hitting those milestones. 𝗜'𝗺 𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀: Is time estimation your biggest hurdle in achieving your business goals? ----------------------- Hi, I'm Tanya Alvarez. I help B2B service-based entrepreneurs scale profitably and reclaim their time. Need help? Send me a DM.

🏗 How To Tackle Large, Complex Projects. With practical techniques to meet the desired outcome, without being disrupted or derailed along the way ↓ 🤔 99% of large projects don’t finish on budget and on time. 🤔 Projects rarely fail because of poor skills or execution. ✅ They fail because of optimism and insufficient planning. ✅ Also because of poor risk assessment, discovery, politics. 🎯 Best strategy: Think Slow (detailed planning) + Act Fast. ✅ Allocate 20–45% of total project effort for planning. ✅ Riskier and larger projects always require more planning. ✅ Think Right → Left: start from end goal, work backwards. ✅ For each goal, consider immediate previous steps/events. ✅ Set up milestones, prioritize key components for each. ✅ Consider stakeholders, users, risks, constraints, metrics. 🚫 Don’t underestimate unknown domain, blockers, deps. ✅ Compare vs. similar projects (reference class forecasting). ✅ Set up an “execution mode” to defer/minimize disruptions. 🚫 Nothing hurts productivity more than unplanned work. Over the last few years, I've been using the technique called “Event Storming” suggested by Matteo Cavucci to capture user’s experience moments through the lens of business needs. With it, we focus on the desired business outcome, and then use research insights to project events that users will be going through towards that outcome. On that journey, we identify key milestones and break user’s events into 2 main buckets: user’s success moments (which we want to dial up) and user’s pain points or frustrations (which we want to dial down). We then break out into groups of 3–4 people to separately prioritize these events and estimate their impact and effort on Effort vs. Value curves (https://lnkd.in/evrKJUEy). The next step is identifying key stakeholders to engage with, risks to consider (e.g. legacy systems, 3rd-party dependency etc.), resources and tooling. We reserve special timing to identify key blockers and constraints that endanger successful outcome or slow us down. If possible, we also set up UX metrics to track how successful we actually are in improving the current state of UX. When speaking to business, usually I speak about better discovery and scoping as the best way to mitigate risk. We can of course throw ideas into the market and run endless experiments. But not for critical projects that get a lot of visibility — e.g. replacing legacy systems or launching a new product. They require thorough planning to prevent big disasters and urgent rollbacks. If you’d like to learn more, I can only highly recommend "How Big Things Get Done" (https://lnkd.in/erhcBuxE), a wonderful book by Prof. Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner who have conducted a vast amount of research on when big projects fail and succeed. A wonderful book worth reading! Happy planning, everyone! 🎉🥳

🎯 January is goal-setting season. But in reality, most goals don’t fail because people lack motivation; they fail because the goals are too vague, too big, or disconnected from daily action. This is where S.M.A.R.T. goals can make a real difference. S.M.A.R.T. goals, as defined by George T. Doran, are: ✔️ Specific – clearly defined 📊 Measurable – progress can be tracked ⚖️ Achievable – realistic within current constraints 🎯 Relevant – aligned with what matters now ⏰ Time-bound – anchored to a deadline Here are a few common January goals, and how to make them more effective 👇 🚀 “I want to grow in my career.” → By June, I’ll schedule monthly check-ins with my manager to align on expectations and identify one concrete skill to develop each quarter. 🧭 “I want to be a better leader.” → Over the next 90 days, I’ll ask for structured feedback from my team and focus on improving one leadership behavior (such as clearer decision-making or more consistent communication). ⚖️ “I want better work-life balance.” → Starting this month, I’ll block two evenings per week with no meetings or email and reassess after eight weeks. 🎤 “I want to build confidence.” → In Q1, I’ll volunteer to lead at least one presentation or meeting per month to practice executive presence in real settings. What is one goal you have for this year? Let me know in the comments! 👇 Wishing everyone clarity, focus, and momentum as we step into the year ahead! 🌱 #GoalSetting #SMARTGoals #PersonalDevelopment #CareerGrowth #LeadershipSkills #WorkLifeBalance #ConfidenceBuilding #ActionableGoals #NewYearResolutions

Whenever I meet a person/team regularly missing deadlines, I teach them 2 things that eliminate 95% of the problems Let me explain with an example… Let’s say your team has to write a detailed report on a new opportunity. You have 3 months to do this. The usual way people do this: → List down all the tasks they have to do: research, draft, edit → Try & put time to these tasks: Research in 1st month, draft in 2nd month… But this never works. It’s unclear what has to get done (’Research’ can mean different things for different people) & none of these tasks take the amount of time you estimated. To fix this, make 2 changes: 1️⃣ LIST OUTPUTS (instead of listing tasks) → Write down all the outputs you will have to deliver → I define Output as ‘something that someone else can see & react to’ → ‘Research’ is not an output. But ‘A document capturing all our takeaways from our calls & reading’ is an ouput → In our eg, the outputs might be: (a) A document capturing our takeaways from our calls & reading (b) A 1st draft formatting this doc for external consumption (c) A 2nd draft based on leadership team’s feedback (d) Final document after all rounds of feedback (e) A 10 slide ppt summarising the final doc 2️⃣ BREAK DOWN TIME & FIT WORK INTO IT (instead of breaking down work & fitting it into time) → Time is fixed but our work is variable (eg: scope of our ‘research’ can change based on time available but our time is fixed: 3 months) → So its better to break down the fixed thing (time) and fit the variable thing (work) into it → In our eg, we break time available into blocks of say 3 weeks & then fit our outputs in them: —— Block 1 (weeks 1 - 3): Deliver Output (a) —— Block 2 (weeks 4 - 6): Deliver Output (b) & (c) —— Block 3 (weeks 7 - 9): Deliver Output (d) … Now when we start the project, our only focus is Block 1 and we will do everything we can to deliver on it. At the end of the block, we will review remaining outputs & blocks, make changes as needed & then just put our head down & focus on Block 2. This way at any given point in time we are only planning & focussing on 1 block. We have absolute clarity on what success means for this block (Deliver X output and not just do Y actions). There is a regular sense of achievement as we deliver on each block. After each block we re-calibrate based on learning & go on to next block. Every team I teach this to a team (& if they apply it well) they give me the same feedback: ”We have never delivered so much, so well, with so little stress. Thank you!” If you or your team are struggling with planning & meeting deadlines, try this approach. It might just be what you are looking for. #Planning #WorkManagement #Leader #Team —————————— My course 'New Manager Academy' is full of practical frameworks like these on topics of Delivering Results & Leading People. It's been taken by 700+ leaders from 100+ orgs & 7+ countries. Next cohort is starting Mid Aug. Link in comments

As a former journalist, I see deadlines as sacred. You don’t mess with them. Yes, life happens. Sometimes deadlines will be missed. But here’s the key: ▪️ Anticipate early. ▪️ Communicate clearly. ▪️ Don’t wait until 24 hours, or worse, 6 hours, before the deadline to sound the alarm. Deadlines exist for a reason. They keep the workplace ecosystem moving. They allow every team to do their part. Every missed deadline sets off a chain reaction that leaves many teams, especially comms, scrambling on the back foot. 🫠 #comms #communications #PR #workplace #bestpractices