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Benefits to Working from a List

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In my personal experience, there is one thing that makes me more productive, focused, and goal oriented: writing out a list.

This is by no means a new concept, and yet there are still many people who don’t work off a list, and I find that unfortunate. I am ready to concede that it might not be for everyone, but you can hardly know that before you try.

Every morning, I run through the same routine: I go to my desk, grab my favorite mug, brew a cup of coffee, then sit at my desk with a small notepad and begin writing out everything that I need to do that day. Each item has a little square checkbox to the left. Some items get nested under other items (this is especially true of larger projects or projects which contain steps that require contacting other people).

But after a short while and a good amount of coffee, there it is: a whole little list of items. Then, I triage. Every item on the list gets up arrows (to indicate importance or time sensitivity), or down arrows (to indicate the opposite). I have only one rule about assigning my little up and down arrows: no two items on the list can have the same amount of up or down arrows.

The result? I now not only have a list of things to accomplish that day, but I have a pretty good idea of the order in which I should attack them. As each item is completed, I strike it off my list. And if you don’t believe that’s satisfying, then you haven’t tried it. It shows measurable progress towards your daily goals.

I’ve found this little ritual has improved my performance greatly. In addition to making sure the important things get done, over time it helps you develop a really good sense of exactly how much you can accomplish in a day. I know that on a scale of three up arrows to three down arrows, I usually am able to get through all the up arrows, have a 75% chance of getting the middle item (which I personally mark with a null set to indicate no up or down arrows), and an almost 0 chance of getting to anything marked three down arrows.

To contrast with my experience of list-lessness (pun intended), on days where I forget to make a list, or just decide not to, I find that I lose direction much more easily, and that smaller tasks can get forgotten in the churn of the day’s activity. I tend to finish less, and take longer to get anything done.

So, my challenge to you is this: if you haven’t done so already, pen up a list of the things you need to accomplish today. Perform a quick triage, ranking them from most to least important, in whatever notation works best for you, and for the rest of the day, as you go through those items, check them off. See if at the end of the day you accomplished as much as you thought you would (people always tend to think tasks will take less time than they actually do).

And remember: the leftovers from yesterday’s list are a great starting point for today’s.

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time management, efficiency, tips and tricks

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