My Backwards “To Do” List
Many people love and live by their “to do” lists. I happen to be one of them. But the truth of the matter is, that oftentimes I don’t do what’s on my list, I do other things and then add them to my list so that I can cross them off with a mightly stroke of my thick black Sharpie.
This morning I discovered an entry from March 2006 in Andy Wibbels’ blog that talks about the madness of planning and organization. He makes the point that sometimes we spend so much time making plans we fail to take the time to carry out those plans.
I realized that I’m inclined to participate in excessive planning (on paper, on the computer and in my head) and then lack the time, energy and follow through to put those plans in to action.
But taking care of other projects or tasks and adding them to (and checking them off) my “To Do” list allows me to think that I’m accomplishing things. And I am, but probably not the things that I need to be focusing on.
The Pareto Principle suggests that when wisely chosen, 20 percent of my efforts will provide 80 percent of my results. Many days I feel like 80 percent of my efforts are achieving only 20 percent of my results. That’s backwards.
As the saying goes: Work Smarter, Not Harder.
Not sure what I’ll do with this new insight, but I’ll probably come up with a suitable plan to do better. 
How do you manage your task list?
