Getting Things Off Your To-Do List

 

So you’ve categorized your to-do list. Avoided things that don’t fit in with your plan for the year. And made sure that everything on the list reflects where you’ve strategically chosen to spend your time. Excellent.

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Then you’ve taken your calendar for the day and made hard choices about what you can fit in your limited time. You’ve decided to do the more challenging things in the morning, when your thinking and patience are at their strongest; and the requests, interruptions, and needs of others can most likely be postponed for later in the day. Perfect.

But that still leaves you with the possibility—or rather probability—of a long list of items that didn’t fit into your calendar for the day. And that list will simply grow longer and more stressful—a continued reminder of what you aren’t accomplishing—day by day. What do you do with those things?

That’s where the three-day rule comes in. This rule ensures that no item on your list ever stays on it, haunting you, for more than three days.

Here’s what I do: After I’ve filled my calendar for the day, I review what’s left on the list. If there are new items I added that day or the previous two days, I leave them on to see if they make it onto my calendar tomorrow.

But for everything else—anything that’s been on my calendar for three days—I do one of four things:

1. Do it immediately. I’m often amazed at how many things have been sitting on my list for days that, when I decide to do them, take a few short minutes. Often it turns out to be a thirty-second voice mail or a simple two-minute email. Those things I do immediately.
2. Schedule it. If I don’t do something immediately, I look for a time to slot it into my calendar. It doesn’t matter to me if it’s six months away. If it’s important enough for me to have on my list, then I need to be able to commit to doing it at a specific time on a specific day. I can always change it when I review my calendar for that day—but if I want it done, it needs to be scheduled.
There are, of course, some things that I’m not willing to schedule at all. Perhaps a meeting with someone that I think would be a good idea but isn’t enough of a priority to schedule. Or something that I schedule and then, each time I get to the scheduled day, I choose to bump off for more-important priorities. If that’s the case, then I face the fact that while I’d like to think that particular item is important, I’m not acting that way. So I let it go.
3. Let it go. That’s a nice way of saying delete the to-do. I simply admit that I will not get done the things I’m not willing to do immediately or schedule for a specific time and day. I face the reality that while I might like them to be priorities, they simply aren’t enough of a priority to do.
Sometimes, though, it’s too hard to delete something. I simply don’t want to admit that I’m not going to do it. Like that meeting. And I don’t want to forget that I think someday, maybe, it would be a good idea. So I put those items in a someday/maybe list.
4. Someday/maybe. This is a list I got from David Allen, who wrote the bestseller Getting Things Done, and it’s where I put things to slowly die. I rarely, if ever, do things on this list. I look at it monthly or so, periodically delete the ones that are no longer relevant, and then put the list away for another month. I probably could delete everything on this list, but I sleep a little better knowing I can put things on it when I’m not courageous or guilt-free enough to delete them right off the bat. And who knows? Perhaps someday, maybe, I’ll do something on that list.

 

There’s one other list I keep: my waiting list. If I’ve sent someone an email, left them a voice mail, or expect to hear back from someone about something, I put that item on my waiting list. This way I don’t lose track of things I expect from others—and I’m able to follow up if I don’t receive them—but I also don’t have to look at those items every day or confuse them with things I have to actually do. This list is on my computer, and I assign a date and reminder to each item. That way I don’t have to think about what I’m waiting for or when I should review the list—I simply wait for the reminder, and if I haven’t received the thing I’m waiting for, I’ll know to follow up or, as I discuss in a future chapter, let go of the expectation of hearing back from the person.

That’s my process. It ensures that nothing stays on my to-do list for more than three days. And once I’ve scheduled everything I plan to do for the day, I use my to-do list only for details related to things on my calendar (who was that person I was going to call and what’s her phone number?) and to add new to-do items that come up throughout the day.

It takes the guilt out of the list.

Never leave things on your to-do list for more than three days. They’ll just get in the way of what you really need to get done.