How to Improve Productivity by Making Your To-Do list SMART

TL;DR

Make sure the items on your to-do list are specific, measurable, achievable, and relevant, and you specify how much time each task takes. Then, make sure the summation of the time it takes to complete the tasks on your list is not greater than the time you have available. If it isn’t, bump something to the next list. If items keep getting bumped, consider if they are irrelevant and should be removed, or get them done by delegating or outsourcing the task.

Article

Writing to-do lists is a popular way to identify the tasks that must be completed. However, a common issue arises when these lists become long and overwhelming, leading to procrastination instead of productivity. The idea is that people tick off items on their to-do lists throughout the days and weeks, but the reality often falls short. The end goal of completing everything on the list seems to be a distant dream. 

When used effectively, to-do lists can be a powerful tool to increase productivity. They help you keep track of your tasks and provide a sense of achievement when you tick off items. Moreover, they can even help you identify tasks you should delegate or outsource. It all comes down to understanding a to-do list and applying a commonly used framework with a twist.

A to-do list is a collection of goals you want or need to achieve in a given period- usually a day, a block of a few hours, or a week. Creating goals has long been discussed, and many people use the SMART acronym to approach goal setting. Are you trying to remember what SMART stands for? The R is the one that always gets me! Smart goals are:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound

These can all be applied to your to-do lists, with a twist on time-bound. 

Specific

When you write your to-do list, ensure the items are specific. Picking up a list of specific actions is much easier to follow. Rather than putting ‘start report’ on your to-do list, put on the list, ‘flesh out the report sections and use dot points to identify what each section covers’. This way, when you open your to-do list, you know exactly what you need to achieve that day. If you have broken down your larger goal into more minor actions that go on your to-do list for the period you have to finish the report, then you know you are on track to finishing it on time.

Measurable

To feel satisfied when crossing an item off your to-do list, you must know when it is completed. When is it finished if you put ‘gardening' on your to-do list? One could keep gardening for days, but to have it on your to-do list for a day or week, you should set something measurable as the finish line. This could be mowing the lawns, picking up the clippings, or cutting back the pear tree away from the house.

Achievable

Achievable means putting things on the list that you can do within the time you have to do the list. This is similar to goal setting, but rather than setting a realistic timeframe to do the item, you are putting items on the list that you can realistically do. For example, renovating the house is unrealistic for a single day. However, you might put ‘paint the spare bedroom’ on your to-do list. Achievable ties in with time-bound, and we will return to how these two interrelate.

Relevant

Relevant items on your to-do list are important because if they are irrelevant or you do not see their purpose, it is very easy to skip them and not put them off. These items sit on your to-do list for a long time. We will talk more about these later.

Time-Bound

Time-bound goals set a date by which they can be completed. However, we will look at this differently to make to-do lists useful. For this purpose, we will allocate the time that the task will take or the time that will be dedicated to that task on that day. Looking at how much time each task takes is instrumental in knowing whether our to-do list is achievable.

When writing a to-do list, consider how much time you have in hours to complete the list. Then, add up the time each task on the list will take. If the summation of the hours it will take to do each task is more significant than the hours you have available to complete your to-do lists, then something needs to come off the list because it is not achievable, and you are setting yourself up for failure.

If you need to remove items from your to-do list, start by prioritising them. Then, select the items with the highest priorities to go on your list until the time it will take to do all the tasks on the list equals the time you have available to do the list. 

The items you must remove from the list can go on the next to-do list. If the world is going to fall apart because something got bumped off your list, then you need to reprioritise some items or engage some help to get some tasks done.

This way, your to-do list tells you exactly what to do and how long each item should take. You know it is achievable, which can help motivate you to tick the items off and complete the list.

It is a good idea to keep an eye on the items you keep ‘bumping’ from your list. If this is the same item repeatedly, look at it and ask why you keep bumping it. Sometimes, these tasks are irrelevant and do not need to be done. In this case, remove the item from the list and do not put more items into thinking about that item. It might come up later, but it is irrelevant for now. 

If the item needs to be done, but the issue is that you do not know how to do it (this requires being honest with yourself), either learn how to do it or delegate or outsource it. Spending brain space worrying about a task that is beyond your skill or knowledge level and that you cannot learn how to do it on time is a waste of energy. Recognise the limitation, and find someone else to do it. The same applies if you have a task and keep bumping it off the list for time reasons. If someone else can do the task, delegate it or outsource it - but make this decision early. Be sure to find someone early enough to do it, or you might end up pulling an all-nighter to do it yourself.