How to Tame Your Task List: 13 Tips & Tricks

timemanagementninja.com /2012/10/how-to-tame-your-task-list-13-tips-tricks/
Todays guest post is by Bill Zipp. Bill is a speaker, coach and consultant who helps busy leaders do what matters
most in business and in life. Bill is the author of the popular ebook, The Smart Leaders Guide to Personal
Productivity, available for free to TMN readers.

I once owned a dog that destroyed everything in our house.

It was a cute puppy, but as it grew, it chewed up all our shoes. It dug doz ens of holes in the backyard. It tore open
the living room sofa. And it even shred to pieces a dog training book we had purchased to help with the problem.
Task lists do the same.
As they grow, they assert themselves more and more and ruin the things we care about the most. They must be
tamed!
What follows are 13 tips and tricks Ive learned for doing exactly that.

1. Get everyt hing you need t o do in one place

How many task lists do you have? I know thats a bit of odd question, but its an important one.
When I ask my clients this question, the answer I usually get is one or two. But when I dig deeper, I discover scores
of places tasks are tucked away, out of sight and out of mind. That is, of course, until it has to be done, remembered
at the last- minute and completed in pure panic.
A task list is any place, formal or informal, something you need to do resides.
This includes the task lists you create on your computer, and the pieces of paper strewn across your desk. It
includes the pile of bills in the kitchen drawer and the reams of paper in your briefcase. It includes the files sliding
around in the back seat of your car, the crumpled receipts stuffed in your wallet, and the notes you took at the
marketing meeting last week that you put away (Somewhere, who knows?).
So heres your first task taming trick: get everything you need to do in one place.

Even if it takes a morning (or a whole weekend), youll be amaz ed at the peace of mind youll experience when all
the things you need to do are in one master list, not scattered throughout the cluttered corners of your life.

2. Make every t ask act ionable

The second trick is this: name each task as something specific you do, not a generic idea.
When you put a task in your list, have the mental discipline at that moment to define this task as a specific action to
be taken. Otherwise youll be creating a wish list, not a task list.
For example, if I put in my task list this statement, work on marketing, as important as marketing is to my business,
the statement is not a task because its unspecific.
In other words, the phrase, work on marketing, is not actionable. But if I enter into my master task list, write weekly
blog post, I now have something very specific I can actually do.

3. Make every t ask singular

While youre naming your tasks as something you do, make sure that its one thing and one thing only.
If I put the words, produce podcast, in my task list, I would be violating this rule. To produce a podcast, I need to
write a script, record the audio, edit the audio, optimiz e for keywords, and upload it to my web site. Thats not one
task, its five; and all of those tasks must be written down so they get done without fail.
Again, this takes mental discipline at the moment youre creating the task, but the pay- off is a task list that tells you
exactly what needs to be completed at any given time without guessing.

4. Aut omat e t ask series

A task series is something that requires a sequence of steps to complete.
Many of the things we have to do are not isolated actions, but actions dependent on previously completed activities.
When this is the case, create a task series and save that series for future use, like the podcasting example above.
Most task management software allows for the creation of sequential lists. If youre a paper person, write down your
task series and pull out the list whenever you need it.
The point is this: Once a series of steps have been created, dont think about them again. Just follow the list. Every
time I go on a business trip, all I have to do is pull out my packing list and in 10 minutes Im ready to go. Beats going
on a trip without underwear (which I have done).

5. Assign due dat es t o your t asks

Another mental discipline when creating a new task is to give that task a due date. Even if its a provisional due
date, the assignment increases a tasks probability of getting done. Tasks not assigned a due date get lost in a
generic list that never see the light of day.
If I dont know exactly what day a task needs to be completed, Ill assign it to Monday of the week its due or to the
first Monday of the month its due. In this way Monday acts as a staging area that I review at the beginning of the
week and can move to other days of week.

6. Ut ilize a Someday t ask list

If no due date truly exists for an action you want to complete, but you still want to do this activity, put it in a Someday
list.
Tasks in my Someday list consist of classes I want to take, trips I want to go on, and things I want to buy. Instead of
having them floating around in my head, I capture these things and review them on a weekly basis.
Some of these tasks ultimately get deleted, and others get moved to a specific day and time. But nothing gets
forgotten.

7. Prune your t ask list every week

While youre reviewing your Someday task list each week, review your master task list as well and keep it pruned.
A master task list tends to attracts things to it like flies to manure. Just because youve captured an action item and
placed that item in a list, it does not mean you must take action on it.
All tasks are not created equal. Sift through your master task list every week using this criteria:
A Top Priority, Time Sensitive
B Top Priority, Not Time Sensitive
C Not Top Priority (Time Sensitivity irrelevant)
Do the As and Bs on your list and D, delegate, or E, eliminate, everything else.

8. Track delegat ed t asks

Speaking of delegation, delegated tasks provide an interesting challenge to taming ones task list.
By definition, a delegated task is something someone else needs to do, not you. But as many business leaders
know all too well, delegated is not done. This is especially true if you delegate tasks and never follow- up on them.
So heres your solution. Create a sub- list in your master task list with the heading, Delegated Tasks. In that sub- list
record the things youve given others to do with the name of the person to whom it was delegated and the due date
for completion.
You could even use an alarm to remind you to check in with that person a few days before its deadline, then check
off the task when its completed. This simple follow- up system will ensure that delegated task actually get done and
create a culture of accountability within your sphere of influence.

9. Quickly t urn email int o t asks

Dont let your email inbox become a secondary task list. Thats not what email is for.
If an email has an action associated with it, immediately turn that item into a task using the naming protocols above
and assigning a due date to it, deleting or moving the email from your inbox.
Most task management software allows you to do this quickly and easily with click and drag capabilities (even
saving attachments in the Notes section of the task). Plus, its tremendously liberating to get those commitments out
of your inbox and into a bulletproof system.

10. Limit t he amount of t asks you do in a day

Heres a tip I learned from Alan Weiss that at first I rejected out of hand.
Im part of Alans Million Dollar Consultant community, and hes advised us to never do more than eight things in a
day. I bet youre rejecting this advice right now as well. But before you do, consider this: there are few thought
leaders anywhere who can match Alans extraordinary output of intellectual property.
So heres his explanation. By giving yourself only eight things to do in a day, you force yourself to do only the most
important things and eliminate trivialities.
Not a bad strategy.
Most of us attempt to do way too much in a day and have a hard time focusing on that which matters most. Heres a
simple way to solve that problem. Alan admits he picked the number eight at random, but the days Ive used this
technique have been incredibly productive for me.

11. Turn of f your email, t ext alert s, and st at us updat es

A repeated task that all of us get trapped into doing throughout the day is checking email, texts, and status updates.
Technology has become our master and not our servant in this regard, and its a cruel master. Recent research

indicates that we waste at least a third of our day either being interrupted by digital communication or getting back to
what we were doing after being interrupted by digital communication. No wonder so many business leaders end up
doing much of their work in the evening or on the weekend.
Heres how to tame this task tyrant. Turn it all off and set fixed times in your day where youll answer all inbound
digital communication. I do this at the beginning of the day, mid- morning, and mid- afternoon. Thats it.
When you do this, two things will happen. First, the quality of your communication will actually improve because
youll be giving it your undivided attention. And second, personal productivity will soar because youre not being
interrupted every few minutes with a new email, text, or tweet.
The reaction I get from my clients when I encourage them to do this is rolled eyes and snide smirks. But those who
have persevered in this have discovered without exception a freedom in their days thats nothing short of amaz ing.

12. Keep your mast er t ask list wit h you at all t imes
When everything you need to do is all in one place in your master task list, your mind can rest at ease because it
knows that the commitments youve made will be kept. The more you do this, the more at rest youll be because
youll grow to trust the system completely.
All you have to do now is remember one thing. Thats it, one thing: your master task list.
If youre a paper person, keep it with you wherever you go. If youre a computer person, sync your master list with all
your devices and back it up religiously. When something comes up that you need to do, capture it right then and
there and keep going throughout your day worry- free.

13. Unplug one day a week

Most ancient cultures practice a rhythm of rest once every seven days. Being available 24 hours a day, seven days
a week is a very recent development, and its not a healthy one.
Few would deny that murder, lying, and stealing is wrong, but the same Ten Commandments that prohibit these
things tells us to remember the sabbath day, laying out a weekly rhythm of six days of work and one day of rest.
So my last piece of advice in taming your task lists is this: unplug one day a week.
Pick a 24 hour period of time where you dont look at your things to do list, your smart phone, your laptop, or any
other electronic device. In that 24 hour period of time simply rest, relax with family and friends, and renew your body,
soul, and spirit. Your life will never be the same, and youll return to work energiz ed and refreshed for the week.

Heres t he bot t om line:

Everything you do requires your time, Peter Drucker wrote decades ago in The Effective Executive. Unless you
manage your time, you will not be able to manage anything else. The management of your time, therefore, is the
foundation for your success.
In other words, tame your task list!
Pick one of these tricks to work on each week for the next 13 weeks. Master it and move on to the next one. In just
90 days youll be amaz ed at the dramatic difference it will make in your work and your life.
Quest ion: What is your best t ip f or t aming your t odo list ?