One of the other most distracting things that I see that stops people making progress, that limits productivity and effectiveness for leaders and people in general is the to-do list.
The to-do list, I now call the failure list.
Think about it, if you work with a to-do list, like a list of things that just keeps growing all of the time, how often do you get to the bottom of that list?
It can become a huge source of stress and frustration.
It's like we get to the end of the day, I haven't achieved any of those things on that list and now I feel like a failure, I'm reinforcing the idea that I'm failing all of the time to get to the most important priorities.
It's going to become this source of distraction, frustration, stress, and it just keeps moving to other periods in the future and growing as it does.
The to-do list is a failure list.
Rule number three on my productivity and effectiveness rules, the productivity infrastructure that I'm covering in this post is the top three approach.
Take a top three approach instead of your to-do list.
So the way the top three approach works is at the start of the day, you look at your plan and you look for the top three tasks or projects that you want to move forward in that day.
The three most important things that are priorities to you, that you really want to move forward in that day, that's called the top three approach.
Now, if you're particularly busy, then maybe you pick the top one approach or the top two approach, but you pick one or two or three things in the top three approach rather than having this to do list that is boundless, you have three things and you put them into blocks of time in your plan for that day.
That sounds simple and common sense and it is, but common sense isn't generally common practice now in most people's lives.
So ask yourself, are you using a to do list that is a, basically a constant failure list or are you using a top three approach?
One quick way to get your top three priorities is to take your to-do list and pick the top three things on it, write them on a separate piece of paper that becomes your top three approach.
You now start to move those projects forward and you bound them in time.
A to-do list isn't, is not bound in time. It's just a list of things.
The top three approach is bound in time, in blocks of time, and we measure it and we see if we're moving it forward.
If the top three approach would serve your productivity in your effectiveness, and you want some support in remembering about that and reminding yourself, then get to the website, get yourself a purposeful life planner, which is what I use with all of the 12 rules of productivity I'm going to cover, to keep my productivity and effectiveness at a high level, in the most important projects.
I hope this small video serves you and I'll see you again in the future.
If you’d like to become a more effective and productive leader or team, send me an email lee@highperformancegrowth.com
And, visit my website www.highperformancegrowth.com
