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6 Task List Hacks to Get More Done

Dawn Foster — Fri, 20 May 2011 12:05:45 +0000

I’ve been on a productivity kick lately, and have shared my tips for getting more done in less time, finding extra time in your schedule and dealing with information overload. The task list is another area where most of us can improve our productivity: Better task management allows us to get more accomplished, while spending less time managing the process.

Here are a few suggestions to help you focus on completing tasks rather than managing your to-do list:

Pick a tool and methodology. I’m not going to dictate a specific tool, because the tool you use has to fit your needs, work well with the type of job you do and make it easy for you to get things done. The important thing is to pick a tool that works for you. For years, I used the task list in Microsoft Outlook because it was convenient, and when I switched to a Mac, I tried a bunch of different tools before eventually settling on Hiveminder. When I was consulting, I found a task list wasn’t suitable, so I used shorter lists of the next three things I needed to do. Experiment until you find a tool a and methodology that you like, and then stick with it!
Keep it visible. The advantage of having a task list that is integrated with your email, like Gmail Tasks or Outlook’s task list, is that every time you look at your inbox, you have your tasks right where you can see them. With my web-based task list, I keep it open on a tab all the time, and I can quickly glance at what I need to get done. If you use a standalone task manager or a simple text document, you can keep it open on your desktop and easily accessible. By keeping your tasks visible and easy to access, you’re much more likely to see them and complete your tasks.
Create tasks from email. One of my favorite email productivity tips is to get task items out of your email and onto your task list; having an efficient process to create tasks from email content is important. In Hiveminder, I can forward email to a special Hiveminder address with a subject line that includes commands for things like due date and priority, and the email appears as a new task in Hiveminder right away. Other task list software lets you drag and drop email onto your to-do list, or is integrated into email clients. The important thing is to have some kind of process that allows you to quickly create new tasks from email using a method that works for you.
Prioritize. You’ll want to use prioritization to distinguish the tasks that are critically important. I tend to use three categories — high, medium and low — which lets me quickly scan down my list for the highest priority items. While some people argue task priority should be based on the importance of the task alone, with a due date to signify urgency, I take a more pragmatic approach and set priorities based on a combination of importance and urgency.
Due dates. I give every task a due date. Even when I need to arbitrarily pick a date, it helps me make sure I don’t lose track of anything. I sort my task list by date and then priority, so all of my tasks for the day are at the top of my list, in a rough order of importance. This helps me stay focused on what I need to accomplish today, and it helps me get more done. For those tasks that have arbitrary due dates, I can at least look at the task on the day that I’ve marked it as due, then decide whether I should do it right away or look at it again in a few days or a few weeks.
Daily reality check. While you should look over your task list throughout the day, spend a minute or two every day doing a quick “reality check” on the tasks you have scheduled. First thing in the morning or at the end of the day are good times for this. What you want to focus on during the reality check phase is how much time you really have to work on your tasks and which ones are the most important. For any tasks that you know you won’t be able to do, you can bump the due date for that task out into the future or just move it way down the prioritization. Some tasks will have increased or decreased in priority relative to other tasks, so you’ll want to adjust those priorities, too. The important thing is to get rid of the clutter so that you can more easily see which tasks you need to focus on now.

Photo courtesy of Rob and Stephanie Levy

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My Dirty Little Task Management Secret

Dawn Foster — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 17:00:12 +0000

Shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I have a little problem with my task list.

I use Hiveminder for managing my tasks, and am pretty organized when in comes to creating tasks and getting them done. A big part of why I love Hiveminder and prefer it over other task management systems is because I make heavy use of prioritization…if you define “heavy use of prioritization” as someone who marks everything as urgent.

About a week ago, I noticed that my task list had this distribution for prioritization: 95 percent “highest,” 4 percent “high,” 1 percent “normal,” and no tasks at all at the “low” and “lowest” priorities. Is this because I am so important that everything I do is of the utmost importance? I wish that were so, but no. It’s because I’m not being realistic about my prioritization. That’s my dirty little task management secret.

It was when I wished that I had an option for an “ultra-high” priority for a task that I realized I really needed to make some changes in how I prioritize my task list. It’s not that I didn’t have a process for task prioritization; it’s just that my process didn’t work.

Before

Here’s the process that I was using up until today:

“Highest” priority: Anything that clients pay me to do (this should be the first red flag).
“High” priority: Things that are important, but don’t generate direct revenue (blog posts, side projects).
“Normal” priority: Something I would like to get around to eventually.

I also noticed that many of my “highest” priority tasks were getting moved to the following day because I had more of them than any one person could possibly complete in a single day. A side effect of this prioritization is that I never knew what task to tackle next, which is why I needed to start a separate “next three things“ list. (As an aside, I find the “next three things” list to be pretty useful, so I might keep using it even after I get used to my new task prioritization scheme.)

After

My new way of looking at task prioritization is as follows:

“Highest” priority: Anything that absolutely must be completed by the end of the day.
“High” priority: Paid client work or projects where people are counting on me for a deliverable that should be completed today if possible.
“Normal” priority: Paid client work or projects where people are counting on me for a deliverable.
“Low” priority: Non-urgent tasks that don’t generate direct revenue and don’t impact the work of others (personal blog posts, personal side projects)
Lowest: Something I would like to get around to eventually.

I’m already struggling with marking tasks as “low” and “lowest” priority, but I will continue to work on it. The real test will be to see whether I can achieve and then maintain a distribution for task priorities that looks more like a nice, smooth bell curve , instead of a pointy hockey stick.

What tips and tricks do you use to prioritize your tasks?

Photo by Flickr user martinroell used under Creative Commons.

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Stay Focused and Avoid Distractions: The Next 3 Things

Dawn Foster — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 17:00:56 +0000

I sometimes struggle with staying focused on the most important tasks, and this is particularly important during the stressful holiday times. My love of fun side projects is a big part of the problem for me — I always have to be careful not to let those projects take too much time away from the client work that actually pays the bills. I’ve been doing a pretty good job of managing my time and staying focused using some of the techniques that I’ve described in previous posts: working in chunks, scheduling my time and maximizing productivity without burning out. However, I’m always looking for other ways to increase my productivity and manage my time more efficiently.

We are all distracted by different things. Some people who work at home are distracted by household chores, TV, food or other personal distractions. For some reason, the personal chores around the house aren’t really a distraction for me, but I have plenty of distractions of my own. My significant other also freelances and works at home, and he can be a distraction if I forget to shut my office door or decide to work from some other area in the house. I’m also distracted by side projects, Twitter and other tasks that are slightly work related, but non-revenue generating. It’s amazing how much time these social media tools and other websites can consume without realizing it. I’ll occasionally follow a link from Twitter or my RSS reader for what I think will be a quick read, but before I know it I’ve been sucked into reading something interesting and 30 minutes will have passed.

Recently, I realized that I was getting distracted and spending too much time in an unlikely area: my task list. Wait, aren’t task lists a good thing to spend time on? Yes, to a point. However, I realized that I was spending way too much time re-reading my task list to decide which task to tackle next. It isn’t unusual for me to have 10-20 items that I would like to finish, and those items vary in priority and urgency. Every time I completed a task, I had to go back to my task list to pick my next task. I decided that this was an inefficient use of my time to do this after every task. I still work in chunks and schedule my time, but I’m getting more organized about how often I go back to my task list.

The Next 3 Things

I now have a little document that I keep open called “The Next 3 Things.” Starting in the morning, I look at my task list to pick the next three things that I need to work on, and I add them to the document. I don’t go back to my task list until those three things are finished. When I finish a grouping of three things, I go back to my task list to pick the next three things.

I combine it with working in chunks by combining items that span several tasks in my task list into a single item in my “Next 3 Things” list. For example, four individual tasks for the same client will probably be grouped into a single item in my next 3 things list to work in a chunk of time focused on that client. I also cheat sometimes by adding a section at the bottom for tasks that I want to do at a particular time. For example, I might want to write a specific blog post while I eat lunch or go to the bank before it closes to deposit checks.

This is just one technique for prioritizing your work to stay focused on the right tasks while avoiding distractions, but it has been working for me.

What are your tips for staying focused and avoiding distractions?

Photo by Flickr user Martin Kingsley used under Creative Commons.

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