Time Managment

Week 2
STUDY SKILLS
To-Do Lists
The main secret of getting more done every day To-Do list came up. So during one of my seminars
took me several months of research to discover. I asked how many people had heard of keeping a
When I first started delving into better time use, priority list of things to do. Virtually every one had.
I asked successful people what the secret of their Then I asked how many people conscientiously
success was. I recall an early discussion with a vice- made up a list of things to do every day, arranged
president of Standard Oil Company of California the items in priority order, and crossed off each task
who said, Oh, I just keep a to-do list. I passed as it was completed. I discovered that very few
over that quickly, little suspecting at the time the people keep a list of things to do every day, although
importance of what he said. most people occasionally make a To-Do list when
they are particularly busy, have a lot of things they
I happened to travel the next day to a large city to want to remember to do, or have some particularly
give a time-management seminar. While I was there tight deadline.
I had lunch with a businessman who practically
owned the town. He was chairman of the gas and Only a Daily List Will Do
light company, president of five manufacturing
companies, and had his hand in a dozen other People at the top and people at the bottom both
enterprises. By all standards he was a business know about To-Do lists, but one difference between
success. I asked him the same question of how he them is that the people at the top use a To-Do list
managed to get more done and he said, Oh thats every single day to make better use of their time;
easy- I keep a To-Do List. But this was a list with people at the bottom know about this tool, but dont
a difference. He told me he considered it a game. use it effectively. One of the real secrets of getting
more done is to make a To-Do list every day, keep
The first thing in the morning, he would come in it visible, and use it as a guide to action as you go
and lay out his list of what he wanted to accomplish through the day. Because the To-Do list is such a
that day. In the evening he would check to see fundamental time-planning tool, lets take a closer
how many of the items he had written down in the look at it. The basics of the list itself are simple:
morning still remained undone and then give himself head a piece of paper To-Do, then list those items
a score. His goal was to have a no miss day in on which you want to work; cross off items as they
which every single item was crossed off. are completed and add others as they occur to you;
rewrite the list at the end of the day or when it
He played the To-Do list game as much as you cover becomes hard to read.
the squares on a bingo card, getting items on his
list done during the day as opportunities presented One of the secrets to success is to write all your
themselves-talking to someone on the phone, To-Do items on a master list or lists to be
bringing up points at a meeting, exploring a creative kept together, rather than jotting them down on
project in the evening with his wife. He made sure miscellaneous scraps of paper. You may want
to get started on the top-priority items right away. to keep your list in you appointment book. One
Towards the end of the day he initiated whatever executive keeps a special pad on his desk reserved
calls, actions, or letters were necessary to finish up for his To-Do list.
his bingo card for a perfect score.
Some people try to keep To-Do lists in their heads
Again and again when I talked to successful but in my experience this is rarely as effective. Why
businessmen and government administrators, the clutter your mind with things that can be written
1
down? Its much better to leave your mind free for you have made a list, set priorities based on what
creative purposes. is important to you now. In my opinion, no list is
complete until it shows priorities. Whenever you
What Belongs On the List? make a list, finish the list by setting priorities.

Are you going to write down everything you have to Its as Basic as ABC
do, including routine activities? Are you only going
to write down exceptional events? Are you going Use the ABC Priority system: write a capital letter
to put down everything you might do today or only A to the left of those items on the list that have a
whatever you decided you will do today? There high value; a B for those with medium value; and
are many alternatives, and different people have a C for those with low value. As you do this, you
different solutions. I recommend that you not list know that to some extent youre guessing. Youre
routine items such as attending class, eating lunch, not sure youll be right on the value. But comparing
etc. but do list everything that has high priority the items to one another will help you come up with
today and might not get done without special the ABC priority choices for every entry on the list.
attention.
Items marked A should be those that yield the
Dont forget to put the A-activities for your long- most value. You get the most out of your time by
term goals on your To-Do list. Although it may doing the As first, and saving the Bs and Cs
appear strange to see begin learning French or for later. You can break them down further so that
find new friends in the same list with bring home A-items become A-1, A-2, A-3, A-4,
a quart of milk or buy a birthday card, you want B-1, etc. As you decide how to prioritize the items
to do them in the same day. If you use your To-Do take into account the time of day and the urgency of
list as a guide when deciding what to work on next, the items.
then you need the long-term projects represented
too so you wont forget them at decision time and I cannot emphasize strongly enough: You must
consequently not do them. set priorities. Some people do as many items
as possible on their lists. They get a very high
You might also consider your To-Do list as a study percentage of tasks done, but their effectiveness
checklist of items that you need to study for each is low because the tasks theyve done are mostly
subject. List reading assignments, problems you C-priority. Others like to start at the top of the
need to review, skills to master, or concepts that you list and go right down it, again with little regard
need to seek clarification on. to whats important. The best way is to take your
list and label each item according to ABC priority,
Before you even consider doing anything yourself, delegate as much as you can, and then polish off the
look over the list and see how many tasks you can list accordingly.
delegate. Depending on your responsibilities, you
might, if you try hard enough, get all the items on One person I know color-codes the entries, using
your To-Do list completed by the end of each day. If black for normal entries and red for top-priority
so, by all means try. But probably you can predict in items. For people who have trouble living with
advance that there is no way to do them all. When priorities, I have found that its helpful to use one
there are too many things to do, conscious choices piece of paper for the As and Bs and another
as to what (and what not) to do is better than letting page for the more numerous Cs. The A and B
the decision be determined by chance. paper is kept on top of the C list, and every time
you raise the A and B list to do a C, youre
In all planning, long-range, middle-range, or short- aware that youre not making the best use of your
range you (1) make a list and (2) set priorities. All time.
the items on a list are not of equal value. Once
2
Many office workers, homemakers, and professional
people have come to my seminars because they felt
the need to get organized. Most report a couple
of months later that they feel much more organized
simply because they regularly list and set priorities.
If little things mean a lot, a list of things to do in
priority order means a great deal because it provides
you with the security of knowing that nothing
is missing; an affirmation of all your important
activities; a motivation to cross off items you dont
need to do; and a reservoir from which you can
select activities to be done next.