Most time management programs teach you to write all of your To Do items on your calendar. At first glance this sounds logical, especially when you consider that many of us have been taught to “Never put off until tomorrow... What you can do today!” Benjamin Franklin said this back in the late 1700s. When you stop and think about it, how many things do you think were on Mr. Franklin’s daily To Do list in the 1700s? Fly kite; sign Declaration of Independence… As an inventor, statesman, ambassador and more, Franklin was, of course, a busy man. But remember our 1st Reality Check: Simple problems call for simple solutions. Were things simpler 200 years ago? There were no computers, no telephones, no email, no pagers, no fax machines, no PDAs. Things were simpler just 10 years ago!
Franklin and the other Founding Fathers had the luxury of spending four months doing nothing else but framing the Declaration of Independence. When was the last time you had four months to concentrate on a single project?!
With so much more to do today, the reality is that it’s not always easy to follow Franklin’s advice. That’s why it's important to recognize that most To Do’s do not need to be… done today!
What percentage of the activities on your list do you need to DO ON a specific day and that day only? What percentage of the activities on your list involve things that are DUE BY either by a specific date, a target date – such as the end of the week or month or “whenever.”Let me be clear. If you really have to do something on a specific date, that means it “expires” if you do not do it that day. There is no chance to roll it to the next day. It was that day or no day and you lost your chance!
What types of things have to be done on a specific date? Possibly sending an overnight package that must be there the next day. Picking up a birthday cake. Meeting an end of the day deadline. Running payroll checks. Taking advantage of a 1 day only special.
In contrast, other activities are due by either a specific date, target date or no particular date but we have varying degrees of flexibility as to when we will do them. An example of something on your list is that is due by a specific date would be tax returns or an extension request are DUE BY April 15th. But you can complete them anytime between the first of the year and April 15th. If you have to write an end of the month report, the report is due by the end of the month. But you have discretion as to when you actually write the report. You could write it on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, as long it was done by the last day of the month.
Most people find that only 5-25% of their tasks are DO on a specific day. Instead of writing the other 75%+ on your Calendar, create a separate Next Actions list for all of those activities. Click here to learn more about creating a Next Actions list.
Learn how you can incorporate the Focus Management Process into either the Time/Design Management Planner or into Outlook with our self-paced online training. Click here to learn more.
