Creating ‘To-Do’ Lists
Everyone has a variety of tasks to perform and objectives to achieve. It is necessary to focus on what is important when faced with demands on your time. The following method is recommended to help you prioritise actions and manage your time more efficiently.
The starting point for getting organised is to identify your objectives for the next phase.
Make your to-do list
Start by writing down all matters that you feel need to be done. Then reflect again on the list you have made. Do any on the original list not make significant contribution towards achieving your objectives? If so, remove them.
Sort by status
Sort the list according to status. The ‘Traffic Light’ metaphor is useful but has been adapted to suit the coloured highlighter pens that many individuals use. This allows actions to be labelled with a coloured dot. Individuals who do not use highlighters can simply label each action with its allocated status.
If the action is straightforward and you have all the information that you need to carry it out – allocate GREEN STATUS.
If you are not yet certain how to proceed with an action or need further information – allocate YELLOW STATUS (amber).
Allocate PINK STATUS (red) to those that you know are going to give you a problem.
Prioritising
Use ABC analysis to assign the priority of each action.
A – actions critical to achieving your objectives.
B – actions important to achieving objectives but not yet urgent.
C – remaining actions on the list.
Checking
Test again all C rated actions to make sure they are relevant – if not, remove them.
Think – have I incorrectly awarded priority to actions just because I enjoy them? If so, reassess.
Scheduling
Concentrate on A priority actions first.
Forecast the time necessary for each. Use experience to help you – e.g. if someone has done a similar task before, ask how long it took.
Begin working on those with GREEN STATUS. Next try to progress those with YELLOW STATUS and finally those with PINK STATUS.
Once no further progress can be made with A priority actions on that day, start working on B priority actions. Once again, estimate time required and try to work on GREEN STATUS actions first.
Only work on C priority actions when you can make no further progress with A and B priority actions or when the urgency of a C rated action increases, requiring it to be re-rated.
Updating
Daily examine your to-do list. Extract the subset of actions to complete that day. On at least a weekly basis reassess actions and award status and priority.
Presenting
It is often useful to design a template to help you structure your to-do list.
Remember: Being successful doesn’t make you manage your time well - but managing your time well can make you more successful.
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