Mastering Your Goals & Actions List

(Before you read this week's feature article, if you have not already, I highly recommend you to read last week's one: Turn Your To-Do List into a Positive Business Tool).

I’m sure that you are familiar with the feeling that sometimes, there just aren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish all the things that you want to do. It’s overwhelming, and it’s not pleasant.

There are techniques that you can use when you feel overwhelmed in this way. I’m going to share my strategy, and please feel free to copy it, to model it, and to apply it to your business. It has worked very well for me.

First off, you need to make your "Goals & Actions" list (and, yes, you know why I don't use the TD words). This is great, because it’s like you’re doing a brain dump on paper. It helps to relieve your brain to get all of that out and written down.

The problem, though, is that when you write everything that’s in your head on a piece of paper, it winds up being a very long list. Suddenly your list is five pages long, and that is simply too much.

But here’s the secret. Every Monday, make your list. Take the time to write every single thing that’s in your head on a piece of paper, or do it on your computer. If you like the feeling of striking things out once they’re done, paper is the way to go!

This will become your master list. And you’ll most likely keep adding to it as you think of other things to do. But don’t worry about how big it is, because this is not the list you will be working from.

Next, take a much smaller piece of paper, and at the top, write what week it is, such as “Week of the 5th of July.” Look back at your master list, and choose those things that you will do over the next five days.

Make a plan for the week, not for each individual day. This is a great trick to keep you from feeling overwhelmed and pressured. For example, unless something is on a deadline for Tuesday or Wednesday, don’t try to force yourself to do it on Monday, unless there’s a specific reason to. This way, if you don’t accomplish it on Monday, you won’t feel bad that you didn’t finish everything for that day.

So, unless you have specific deadlines, just do your list on a weekly basis. On Monday morning handpick some of the items from your master list. Once you’ve selected as many as you feel you can accomplish in a week, put your master list aside. Don’t look at it again.

Instead, focus on those handpicked items. You won’t be distracted by the other things on the list, because you’ll be concentrating only on those that you know you can complete in one week.

Once you’ve struck through everything on the list, throw it away. It’s a great feeling to put that list in the recycle bin, because you’re finished with it.

And sometimes, you’ll find that it’s Thursday and you’ve done all of the things on your list. When this happens, celebrate the fact that you’ve been able to over-deliver. Then revisit your master list and pick a few more items that you can strike out by Friday.

When you approach your list in this way, you will be relieved of the pressure. You will no longer feel overwhelmed by the number of tasks that await you, because you’ve found a way to master that tiger and make your list manageable.

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© Copyright Frederique Murphy, 2010