#prioritizing time

Time. It’s the one commodity that you can never get back. I’ve said it before elsewhere, you can always make more money, you can always get another job or start another business, or get into another career. You can even start new relationships, whatever flavor they may be, whether they are platonic or romantic.

What you can’t do, is get back your time, or get more time. That’s the rub, in a…

Okay so I'll admit it: a) I love to do lists and b) I feel like it never EVER ends. But I'm doing okay as I've come to realise that for the latter, it's actually a good thing, and I've got ways to sanely manage it.

Imagine if you'd actually ticked everything off your list of to-dos and had nothing left. Literally nothing, no ideas, plans - everything you've ever wanted to do has already been done. This would be a pretty unique spot to be in. After all, you should be continuing to explore and live your life to its fullest! Whether that be learning more, travelling more, or just downright challenging yourself more, there's a wide net of possible opportunities to explore... which tends to end up on your to do list due to lack of time at any one given moment. 

On the flip side, having a massive to do list isn't always a blessing. What has often made me feel overwhelmed and stressed in the not so recent past, is when the list gets so incredibly long, that it seems like learning to stop time is the only way to move forward. So if you do know what I'm talking about, don't worry because you're not alone in this!

How have I learned to cope with that massive marathon of a list? To start with: make more lists. Now you probably think I'm insane, but really it's true, I'll explain why below. This together with time-estimating tasks, breaking tasks down to smaller chunks and being very vigilant with prioritising tasks is what will help you start making better progress with your to do list and keep you calm at the same time.

So listen up, follow these 4 rules and you'll be blazing through that list in no time!

1. Make more lists

Having one list is great for simplicity's sake, but when it comes to ticking things off, it can be incredibly overwhelming. To overcome this, I recommend breaking down your big list down to smaller lists by category. It could be a thematic, day-based or project-based category. By breaking it down into smaller, more manageable lists, you also get a sense of what is more and less important, as well as the general themes of your to do lists. Themes are important, as you'll see why very soon.

Making more lists will mean that you'll be less overwhelmed by your mega list. You should be using your day-based list to determine what to do that day or weekend, and your project or thematic-based lists when it's specific to a particular topic that you're working on.

How I work: I have thematic lists for things that are not so time-critical such as films that are on my backlog to watch (like Django Unchained) and eateries I need to go try out (like Gelato Messina - still). I then have lists that are project or topic-based, such as a list of blog posts I want to write for Helarious and ideas for online side projects I want to build. But most important of all, to get things done, I have lists nearly everyday for that day's set of tasks. Lists like these are built and picked from all the other lists. For instance, setting up a blog post, doing a track on Codecademy, general chores and responding to longstanding emails could be an example of things I want to get done on a Sunday.

2. Estimate the time required for each task

How will you know if the tasks on your to do list for Sunday are feasible? I could easily pack it with 10 or so things just because I'm over-ambitious with what I think I could achieve in 8 hours. To prevent this and the feeling that you still don't have enough time, make sure to estimate the amount of time you think each task should reasonably take (overestimating is a good thing here).

Bear in mind also how much total "free time" you have to allocate to your tasks. Comparing total free time with the total time of all your tasks will allow you to assess if you've selected too many or few tasks for the time frame that you have.

Also remember that as you can never control who may surprise you for a visit, or that random something that pops up that you really want to do but didn't plan for (like taking photos of flowers), you should be cautious with how much total free time you think you have. As a rule, I like to deduct a couple of hours from my initial free time estimation to be more realistic.

3. Break down tasks into smaller tasks

When first scribbling down your tasks, it's normal not to think too much about whether something should be broken up into smaller tasks or not. This is why it's always a good idea to review your to dos and have a second chance at thinking about whether they should be broken down further.

By breaking things down into smaller pieces, you not only gain better mental control of how much effort a task requires at hand but also a psychologically better feeling of efficiency. As the tasks are smaller, you'll be ticking things off more frequently! Plus, an added bonus is that you can give time estimates for each sub-task, allowing you to more accurately measure how long the main task should take.

4. Prioritise tasks vigilantly

If I had all the time in the world, my list would probably be at least 5x longer than what it is now. Luckily I don't (I guess?), which means I've had to learn to compromise and prioritise what should and shouldn't go on my list. From my experiences, there are 2 ways to prioritise:

(A) Time-based prioritisation

This is where your time estimations come into play. Say you only have a certain amount of time this weekend, for example 15 free hours in total. What is time critical that you have to get done that weekend? Are there deadlines you need to meet? Is something going to end soon that you depend on?

Have a think about if anything is time critical and if so, prioritise that higher.

(B) Goals-based prioritisation

Now this type of prioritisation is more strategic and longer term. Think about what your high level goals are: is it to be able to run a marathon? Is it to pivot your career into a new field? Is it to be published?

Know what your larger life goals are and think about whether any particular to dos directly help you reach those goals. Remember how I mentioned themed lists being important? You can use theme here to help you decide whether a particular themed list is useful or not. If not, you've already got a list of to dos under that theme that you should know to prioritise lower or completely eliminate!

Lastly, know that it's not easy but often you'll uncover certain tasks on your to do lists that hinder you from reaching your goals or other more important tasks. Sometimes that means forsaking that task completely. At the end of the day, it's up to you and what you deem to be your main priorities. Remember, doing less is sometimes more.

Who else loves to do lists? What kind of trouble do you have with yours?

Do you have any tips in maintaining control over your to do list? Share your learnings and thoughts on prioritising to dos in the comments!