Managing To-Do List Overload

By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer

Does managing your to-do list feel like a stressful juggling act? Like me, I am guessing that your units of work in any given day exceed your units of time available.

Maybe it’s not the length of your list or the size of your workload. Perhaps it’s how you manage it all and the expectations you have.

Modern information-age professionals face ambiguous, dynamic working conditions. Additionally, you are purpose driven, outcomes oriented, and embrace collaboration. 

This means daily to-do lists are in constant flux. Line items appear and disappear with each meeting and conversation you have with a co-worker or supervisor. This can feel awfully chaotic, but it doesn’t mean your day cannot be organized and productive.  

But managing one’s to-do list can be challenging. The secret of success is having a system to help you prioritize what you do to focus on the biggest opportunities and achieve the greatest outcomes. At the end of the day, you may still have items on your to-do list, but you will have tackled the most impactful ones.

Here are three key questions to ask yourself as you tackle your to-do list.

• Is it important to someone who is important to me?
• Is my presence necessary for accomplishment?
• Is it time critical or a one-time event?

Answering these questions will help you prioritize your units of work into a finite amount of time each day.