You probably know the feeling of having some unfinished tasks on your to do list. And even if you have time to do them, you just don’t.
Maybe you don’t feel like it or it makes you anxious (taxes anyone?) or it just feels too difficult. And so you delay but in your mind there’s this backlog of stuff you really need to do.
I know the feeling very well and it’s a constant struggle. It’s much easier to quickly scroll through Instagram or stack the dishwasher or procrastinate in some other way that demands less mental energy. But what bothers me again and again is how much energy I waste thinking about unfinished tasks and where and how to fit them into my schedule.
So I have devised a different to-do list for myself. My approach is to only put things on there, that are important. They may not be urgent, but they’re important to me (and my work).
I categorise these tasks by their estimated completion time:
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5min
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15min
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30min
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60+min
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2 hrs +
This helps me in two ways:
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I see what I need to get done
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I don’t need to think about how long it will take – it’s right there on my whiteboard, all tasks in neat boxes according to ‘time required’
Focusing better
I also found it invaluable to give myself really tight deadlines to ensure I focus on the task at hand and get it done quickly and completely. I learned a lot about this from Tim Ferriss’ book ‘The 4 hour work week’. So now I challenge myself to finish tasks in unreasonably short timeframes and it really helps me cut a lot of procrastination. And I have a bit of extra time to take breaks and switch tasks.