If you haven’t read how to create an industrial strength todo list, go do that first. This post builds on that one.
Ok, so where were we.
You should have at this point a list of tasks (that’s things that can be done in one go, in less than an hour), grouped in projects (that’s clusters of tasks that produce a well defined outcome, and have a completion state). So what are you going to do with that?
The Today List
Your today list is the sub-view of your project list with all and only the stuff you need to worry about today.
Note that while I call it the “Today List”, it could easily be a “This Week” or “This Morning” list.
How do you make your Today List, you ask?
1. Select
First, go through all the projects, in order, and pick the top tasks from them. You’ll need some high judgement here to decide between how many concurrent projects you’ll work on today, vs. how many tasks of a single project you should do.
Select a sensible number of tasks, so that you’re somewhat confident about finishing most of them.
Write the selected tasks on a new file or a new piece of paper.
If you select a task that takes no more than two minutes, just do it instead of writing it all over, and cross it out (or delete it or however you choose to deal with your completed tasks).
2. Manage delegation
You might have stuff you’re waiting for, or need to tell other people to complete.
- For any task you need to delegate, add a new task on your today list that is “delegate other task to Michelle”.
- For any task that was delegated to someone and had a due date to today, add a new task on your today list that says “check with Anthony about completion of other task”.
3. Clean up
Go through all the projects and their tasks on your project list.
If you see something that seemed a good idea at the time, but clearly doesn’t need doing, delete it.
If you see a task that should belong to a different project, move it.
If you see an entry that is a task and should be a project, fix it.
You get the gist.
That’s it. Time to do some actual work!
Today and Project Lists Mechanics
Congratulations, you now have a focused, refined, mini todo list just for today.
You only have to prioritise it like you would a todo list, and start working through it.
There are some other mechanics you need to know to keep things smooth though.
- Interrupts and escalations. Let’s face it, life is unpredictable. I guarantee that at some point something will come up that will completely disrupt your careful planning. When that happens, you have three options, depending on the urgency of the new, interrupting task:
- If it needs doing right now!, just go do it. You don’t really need to put in on the list: you already know what you’re doing right now.
- If it is a “could you get this to me by EOD” scenario, add it to your today list, near the top.
- If it’s just a new ask, put it in your Project List, either in the appropriate project or as a new project. You can avoid making the needed tasks for now, that’s for tomorrow morning. Don’t do too much about this future thing at the expense of the present.
- Delegation. Delegation is great, and allows you to deliver so much more than you could on your own. However, when you delegate you’re still accountable for the task. So how to track delegation?
- Once you delegated a task, mark it on the Project List with the name of the recipient and the date by when you expect it done. Then mark your task to delegate the item in your Today List as done.
- Once the task has been successfully completed, mark it as completed on the Project List. Obviously, mark the task to check for completion on your Today List as done.
- Close of Play. At the end of the day, go delete all your completed tasks from the Project List, add any new item that popped up and you didn’t actually already put there, reprioritize stuff as needed, and generally just leave it clean for fixing and planning tomorrow morning. I dislike figuring out tasks and projects and work after a whole day of work and prefer doing that in the morning, but you might instead want to do that. Feel free.
Whew. And that’s it! I think I haven’t forgotten anything, but if you have questions, comment below!