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Key points
- With a lot to get done, we can become paralyzed by the planning process.
- Long to-do lists can cause stress and diminish productivity.
- Mindfulness, micro-goals, and other strategies can help.
I'm gearing up for a vacation, and let me tell you, I have so many lists. One for the work I need to finish, one for food and items to pack, and one for the house sitter and animals. Geez Louise.
I have dozens of things planned, plenty of tasks to complete, and only a couple of days before I leave.
And now, the planning cycle is becoming a barrier because I'm spending more time planning what needs to get done, than taking the actions needed to finish them.
Even the best planning system cannot prevent the paralysis and overwhelm that result from over-planning and over-commitment.
When I became trapped by the planning (I love my lists) over the doing, I knew I had to make a change, quicklike.
Here are some things that can help make our planning process more effective and lead toward action.
Planning Priorities
1. Practice Mindfulness. No, I'm not saying you have to sit down in the middle of all this scheduling mess and meditate for half an hour, but it helps to take a short pause, take some deep breaths, and get clear about what needs to happen right now. Mindfulness helps us tune into our physical bodies and environments, easing our stress response so we can think more clearly. With mindfulness, you’ll tend toward responsiveness, which will help you identify your priorities and move you away from reactivity which can keep you stuck in stress.
2. Make a List. When you drop everything that’s in your head onto a page or into an app, you no longer have to “remember to remember it,” which eases stress by allowing us to move on and make progress on our tasks, says Paula Rizzo, author of Listful Living: A List-Making Journey to a Less Stressed You. “A lot of times, we think that we have so much to do and so much in front of us, but when you make the list and see all the pieces, you often realize it's not as daunting as you thought. It's a great way to get a clear perspective of what's actually in front of you."
3. Three Must-Dos. Put three tasks on your to-do list. That’s it. Right now. Everything else gets “parked,” as my coach used to say. Don’t worry, you won’t lose the other ideas. Just put them in a new file, on a new list, somewhere out of sight. This way you don't have to think of them, they won't distract you, but you'll be able to come back to them later. Once you've put your three must-dos down, it's time to take action.
4. Build in Loosey-Goosey Time. Something is bound to come up. A coworker will need something last minute, the cat will throw up, your mom will text, or you might get sucked into social media. Build this into your schedule by leaving some legroom around your must-do items. This kind of space allows for agility without stress.
5. Set Micro-Goals. Today, finishing this article was one of my must-dos. But I didn’t approach it as one big task. Instead, I broke it down into micro-goals: go into the office at 8 a.m., open Psychology Today, pull up the draft on the computer, and check the spelling of “loosey-goosey,” among other things.
Goal setting gives us a target to aim for and by breaking a project down into components, we can experience the rush of progress while moving closer to our larger goal. Micro-goals feel doable, not daunting.
A smart list can also keep you on track like a roadmap, Rizzo says. “The list is almost like having a mantra. Looking at the item that you have to do and saying it over and over again to remind yourself of what you're working on can be helpful."
One small task--like writing a title, feels more doable than writing a book, and yet writing the title moves me beyond planning and into action. Small tasks lead to incremental progress, boosting optimism that we can complete our plans and increasing motivation to get the work done.
6. Avoid Distraction for a Time. When the actual planning is getting in the way of the action, I set a timer and take on one micro-goal for 15 minutes or half hour. Once the timer is set, the phone goes off and I avoid other distractions until it sounds. Using a time using the time structure, like the Pomodoro Method plays to our ability to focus. Give your attention to something for a short time, then take a short break to reboot.
7. Defer, Quit, and Delegate. When I looked at my to-do list of things that “have” to happen before I go on vacation, I realized that it wasn’t accurate. I do not, for example, have to send a thank you note before I leave or cut the watermelon ahead of time. I can do those things from our cabin. I do have to get the story out on deadline and feed the dog. Cutting watermelon, not a must-do. Feeding the dog, yep.
In the writing world, we talk about “killing our darlings.” This means deleting the phrases we love but those that are unnecessary to the larger story. Beautiful, sure, but not essential.
When making your plans and writing your lists, play tough and ask yourself if you need to do it at all. What are the essentials that only you can do?
Can you skip the meeting to discuss next quarter’s strategy? Can you cancel the phone call or take the research item off the list altogether? Cut your commitment.
Defer others. Are there things you can put off til later in the week or month? Move them. Be careful, though. You don’t want to shift everything you didn't get done today to tomorrow creating the same planning problems.
Finally, are there things that you can delegate? My teen daughter can unload the dishwasher. Delegate. My coworker can edit the resume. Delegate. Or, can put off the program description for another week? Defer.
We do not have to do everything. It's a bit arrogant to presume that we are the only ones qualified to do a task and that fallacy only adds to the pressure we experience. Added tasks and pressures lead to mistakes and diminished productivity.
Sure, others may have a different style or approach to a task, but our goal is to get the job done. So, what if the towels are folded differently or the feedback comes by email, instead of an app?
But often we let these logical fallacies rule. When we can challenge our beliefs and biases about what needs to be accomplished, by whom, and when we will become more effective and productive planners without a tome of uncompleted to-do lists.
