5th August 2021

Lists don’t make you boring, they make you efficient

Modern life is chaotic and stressful enough but even more so when you factor in a pandemic that makes even simple tasks involve so much planning. 

This chaos and stress can be reduced by the act of making a list.

A study by Wake Forest University professors Baumeister and Masicampo found that while tasks we haven’t done distract us and cause anxiety , the process of planning to achieve them can help break us free from this feeling of dread.  

The duo discovered in their research that many people underperform on even the simplest of  projects when they are unable to prepare a plan before it, regardless of their expertise or experience. 

What the academics found was fairly common sense but powerful none the less. If you don’t organize your information, it can be scattered everywhere in your mental pin-board and allow distractions to steer you off course. 

Far too many of us that rely on a mental list of activity will fail to complete what we have planned in our head. 

We will either forget something, or  other priorities  will come up that will distract us and change our priorities.

We may perceive these to be of a greater importance than they really are. We do this for a variety of reasons, perhaps we want to be distracted because what we are doing is difficult or boring. Maybe someone has asked us to do it and we are either afraid or unwilling to say no.

Even if our mental lists are adhered to, if we act without a plan, we are liable to repeat old mistakes.

Habits are hard to break, but the easiest way to start is to have a plan of activity that builds on your expertise. This then helps you learn from old mistakes and take on board new ideas and methods of getting things done quickly and efficiently. 

We have all tried to do lists at some stage and many swear by them.  

My list is on my white board in my office where I detail the key activities of the day that are both business and personal.

My goal is to ensure they are all completed that day. Not an easy task, but if I fail, I can at least acknowledge why and decide if they need to be added to the next days work or if they were even important at all.

For me, this list provides three benefits:

1. It dampens anxiety about the chaos of life where I wonder am I achieving anything at all?
2. It gives me  a structure, a plan that I can stick to.
3. They make what I achieve real, as when I cross out each completed task it’s proof, I have achieved something that day, week or month.

Now I know some people are turned off by lists this is because they: 

• get so overwhelmed just by looking at all the things they need to do.
• don’t know how to prioritize the items on list.
• feel that they are continuously adding to their list but not reducing it.
• Feel a sense of confusion seeing home tasks mixed with work tasks.

However, I’d like to share with you some simple steps you can take to make a list plan part of your daily life at both home and work.

Don’t overload your brain

There is a tendency in many of us to write down everything that has to be achieved and have a list that grows and grows. This is no good for anyone let alone you, as your brain will just look at that and subconsciously turn off. If you overwhelm yourself, you will just revert to type and the list will not work. Try and identify what you need to do for the week, then prioritise no more than 3 tasks  that need to be completed each day. This breaks down your plan into manageable chunks and is far more achievable and easier to process. 

Be realistic

The easiest way to stop planning you day is to try to do too much and achieve very little. Your enthusiasm will be dented and a strong tactic to help your life will be abandoned. When you are compiling any list be realistic about what you can and cannot achieve. Use your experience to be honest with yourself and allocate the correct amount of time for each task you want to complete. 

Prioritise

You will find that any list you create will fall into one of four categories 

• Important and urgent
• Not urgent but important
• Not important but urgent
• Not important or urgent

You will want to work on tasks that are urgent and important of course, but also, select some tasks that are important and not urgent. Why? Because these tasks are normally related to long-term goals, and when you only work on tasks that are urgent and important, you’ll feel like your day is spent putting out fires. You’ll end up neglecting other important areas which most often end up having negative consequences.

Review, review and then review

To make any list work effectively for you, it needs to become a habit and a daily tool that you use to manage your time and you review it regularly. 

For example: At the end of every week, review the list and use it to plan the week ahead. Select what you want to work on taking into consideration priority and your available time. You can then schedule these items into your calendar. A small tip remember events will always happen so don’t schedule more than 75% of your time. I hope these ideas help and that your lists can become part of your planning habits. Finally, remember lists don’t make you boring, they make you efficient.

John Joe McGinley Glassagh Consulting July 2021

John Joe McGinley, Glassagh Consulting, Business Development