Diane felt overwhelmed every time she looked at her to-do list.
Diane knew that her to-do list was supposed to keep her on track, help her figure out what she wanted to do and keep her from feeling overwhelmed, but this wasn’t happening. Instead, every time she looked at her list she felt more overwhelmed then ever and even more convinced that she’d never get any of it done.
Diane worked really hard all day long. She’d knuckle down and spend her day busy and running from one thing to another. As the day wore on she’d anticipate finally crossing something off her list but, try as she might, she never could.
To figure out what was going on, during one of Diane’s coaching sessions we spent some time digging into the specific things that she had on her list.
Here’s just a sampling of what she listed:
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Final decisions on investments – act!
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Damned police report!
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Get oil changed!
Diane and I addressed each of these items in turn. As we discussed them we learned a lot and figured out why they weren’t getting done. Then based on the lessons we uncovered we formulated three strategies that she’ll be able to apply to all of her tasks. Here is what we found out.
Task 1: Final decision on investments – act!
When I asked Diane what this meant she told me that she wasn’t happy with her current brokerage firm and that she wanted to move her investments to another firm. In order to do that she had to find names and phone numbers of brokers at a few other firms and then talk with them to get a feel for what they offered her. Then, she had to decide who she liked the best. Finally, she had to actually deal with all of the details involved with transferring her funds.
Lesson:
The “task” on her list wasn’t a task at all…it was a project. There was no way Diane could wake up in the morning and handle this. This was a project that needed to be broken up not only in order to expedite it but in order for Diane to keep her sanity.
Task 2: Damned police report!
Diane told me that this task stemmed back to when her identity had been stolen. Even though things had moved forward to some extent and nobody had been bothering her about it she needed to put this event behind her and that meant closing the case. In order to do that she had to gather some documents, that meant she had to find them first, then go into town and file the report.
Lesson:
As with the investment example this task was also a project. She did not specify what really needed to be done, but there was more to this one. Compounding the situation was the way that Diane had phrased the task. It was so negative it would never be the thing that she chose to do on a given day. She’s probably right that taking care of the police report is not going to be fun but had she written “gather documents in order to free myself from the police report” it would certainly be more palatable.
Task 3: Get oil changed!
This task seemed like it should be easy. I asked Diane what was going on. This task had been on her list for over a month and it even had an exclamation mark. She told me that every time she drives by the service station there’s a long line and she just doesn’t have the time for that.
Lesson:
Recognize that it’s going to take longer then you want it to and schedule the time to do it. Plan on it taking 2-hours instead of 10-minutes and bring one or two things with you that you can do while you’re waiting. Alternatively, plan to drop the car off and leave it there…of course that means coordinating with someone else to drive you there and back.
3-Strategies
Diane’s current list was causing her to be overwhelmed and worse, to feel guilty and ineffective because she never crossed anything off. Here are the three strategies we outlined for her so that she could have a list that helped her turn to-do’s into “dones”.
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Use this rule of thumb to make sure you’re only putting tasks on your list: if it’s going to take you more then an hour or two to complete, break it up into component steps. By the way, you can always keep a master project list to help you keep the big picture in mind.
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Take the emotion out of the list. In Diane’s case all of the exclamation marks might as well as been saying “Come on already! What’s taking you so long?” The guilt paired with the negatively charged words were driving her away from the task instead of towards it.
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Take the time to understand how long something is going to take you to do and schedule the time to do it. Unless you make the time to do the task it simply won’t get done.
Diane took advantage of one of her VIP Coaching Sessions with me to help her unlock the mystery of her to-do list. Not only can she be more productive now but she recognizes how much she actually does in a day. Find out more about what a coaching program can do for you.
Great tips. I’m going to share a link for it on my facebook page.
Carrie,
Thanks for the tip. I so know the feeling and now realize that I am actually making lists of projects and not tasks.