093: MacGyver your To-Do Lists!

Life is taxing. The more we do, the more we can easily forget what’s important. When it comes to writing, blogging and work, if you don’t have a solid to-do list you will start failing at everything you do.

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In today’s episode, I want to dive into the much-needed to-do lists that we all hate putting together. But without this one vital piece of our professional life, we’ll never get anything accomplished.

Listen to the Episode:

In Today’s Episode:

Master Lists give you power to have everything in one place.

What is a master list? A master list is simply a document that has everything you want to and have to do. If you’re like me, your list can easily be scattered around. Gather everything together, and put it all down into one master list.

I use Workflowy to do this.

Actively Brain Dump Weekly to your List

The great thing about a master list, you get to keep adding things to it weekly. Take a few minutes each week and brain dump every new idea and to-do’s you need to get done. Don’t hold back, write down everything that comes to mind.

Don’t worry if your list is huge and overwhelming. That’s okay. This is just a list of what you want to accomplish in your business and life.

Continually Delete anything that’s no longer relevant.

Your brain dump is finished. It’s Sunday night and you know Monday’s coming. Take your list and begin writing down everything that’s not time sensitive or relevant.

Not everything has to be done. It’s easy to think that we need to accomplish everything on our list. Truth to tell, there’s a lot of little things that can be clumped together or altogether deleted. Once you’ve determined what isn’t a priority, delete it.

Give Anything to others you don’t need to do.

Go back through your list. Now begin to write down everything that you can give away. Maybe someone on your team is apt in getting this particular item accomplished, great, give it to them.

Delegation is a tough thing to follow through with, but delegate things you don’t need or enjoy doing. Don’t waste your time on what’s not your passion or strength.

You should move Items from your Master List to your daily list

At the end of your day, you’ll find there are plenty of things you can accomplish tomorrow. Take those items and move them to your daily list. It’s important to review your Master List and write down your next day’s top priorities.

My suggestion, write down your top 3 for the next day. Each day is its own adventure, and you more than likely won’t get to all 3, but put them on your list anyway. Any form of progress will help you get that much further down the track.

Give yourself time to tackle the items on your Master List, but don’t succumb to the temptation to try and fit everything into one day.

Vision allows you to clearly see what must get done weekly.

The Bible says, “Without vision, the people perish…” The same is true for us. If we don’t have a clear vision of where we’re headed each week, we’ll find out we’re lost in a strange forest with nowhere to turn.

Make sure you write down your vision for each week. Have a clear outlook on where you want to be in 5-7 days from now. When you look back, what have you accomplished? Vision will help you see clearly what must come next.

Every Week check your Master List and mark off the big dreams you’ve accomplished.

There will be weeks you’ll discover you’ve accomplished a major goal on your Master List. Mark it complete and move on to the next big dream.

One of my major dreams was to move my email list to a better provider. I moved to ConvertKit. It was the right choice. There was a lot of work involved getting everything set up, but the rewards have paid off. Your dreams make up part of who you are, once you’ve reached a part of that dream, mark it complete.

Remember to Schedule your To-Dos at the end of the day.

It’s important to know that your to-do list won’t get accomplished each day. But, make sure you take the time needed each day to accomplish each task. Look at your calendar and begin marking down when you want your major goals accomplished.

Set an appointment with yourself and stick to it. I know it’s tough, and I forget to do this too, but you’ll find accomplishment when you schedule your tasks.

When you take the time to master this MacGyver list, you’ll find it’s not about having a work-life balance, it’s about a work-life integration. The two must meet and must work together. If you try and balance everything, you’ll ultimately fail.

[reminder]How do you prepare your weekly to-do lists? What one thing did you find helpful in today’s episode?[/reminder]

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My goal each week is to bring a message of clarity by giving you the tools you need so you can transform lives and reach the world with the message on your heart.