This episode: To do list overload, golden tasks, 3 story house mode, idea bin, trim and set creative project priorities and much more - franklinmcmahon.com - The Podcast for the Creative Professional
Media Artist Secrets (iTunes link) is an audio podcast I do that is focused on career building, getting things done and ramping up your empire. This new episode is focused mainly on to-do lists and how quickly they can completely overwhelm us.
The main problem with a task list is every time you add a new task, you take a little priority away from all the others. If you have 3 tasks that are all pretty important and then you add another, and another, soon you have 10 or more tasks that are trying to share the spotlight. 7 tasks that are pulling you away from the 3 major ones.
We’ll call these top 3 tasks “Golden Tasks”. These are the cream of the crop. In any given day, these are the top 3 that are going to give you the most payback, the most traction and the most impact. The key is to trim down your task list to the most important. It’s OK to have ideas and things that pop into your mind, but those should be stored separately. Not jumbled in with your Golden Tasks.
At the end of the day, if you complete the 3 major tasks, you’ll really feel like you have accomplished a lot, as opposed to having a list of 10 or 20, and only working through half. If your list is 12 and you only do 9, you’ll feel like you did not complete it. If your list is 3, and you did those 3 plus had extra time to complete 2 more, you’ll feel tremendously better.
So focus on your Golden Tasks first above all. Let me know how you work your own To-do list.
Is it focused on a small number of goals or is it lengthy with minimal priorities? Do you have any tips or ideas on organizing your own task list?
