“If you want to reclaim your life, start by reclaiming your time” – Richie Norton

Too busy?

Not enough hours in the day to get everything done?

And to think it’s only February!!!

There are a bunch of different options to improve productivity; work harder, faster, smarter and so on.

A sometimes overlooked approach is to question why you’re doing the work in the first place. Is it absolutely critical to me and my team’s success or am I busy working on tasks that don’t really matter?

To-Do Lists from time to time grow into Wish Lists that waste energy and resources. This is where a Not-To-Do list can help.

What you do is:

Understand what needs to be on your Must-Do list – these are the tasks and activities you need to do accomplish your goals. Write them down and then question their relevance until you have absolute clarity on the most important.

Identify what else is consuming your time – what do you do each day that’s not part of your Must-Do list? How much time is wasted here? Write them down and then question if anything else needs to be added.
Template responses – it’s often easier to say yes than no. Therefore, reduce the energy it takes to say no by writing down a response to why you won’t action each activity on the Not-To-Do list. By writing it down you can either easily copy responses into an email or use them to remind you why the activity isn’t important.
Leverage technology – are there features you’re not using in existing software and hardware that can reduce manual tasks?
Be disciplined – like any plan, it’s the implementation that brings the plan to life. Have the necessary discipline and resolve to follow it.

We work better when we have clarity. The Not-To-Do List is a great tool to help you maintain yours.