Posted by An important tool to use when trying to be more organized and make progress on your goals is to create action items. These action items are your to-do list. They are the tasks, goals, and other items you want to accomplish.
Do you use action items in your life? If so, how long are your to-do lists? Do you get carried away with creating action items, only to suffer from action item overload?
I think it is important to have a to-do list with action items, but I caution you to be careful with how many action items you put on your list. A small to-do list is manageable, but if you get carried way you can end up with a to-do list so large that it overwhelms you and then you may avoid looking at your list because you have overburdened yourself with too many tasks to perform.
I think the best way to avoid action item overload is to actively cross items off your list. This means actually doing the action items you place on your to-do list.
One strategy for making your to-do list manageable is to schedule your action items. Don’t just put an action item on your list. Also set a specific time that you will do the action item, then perform that action item at the scheduled time.
For example, I write blog articles and one of my action items each month is to write my next blog article. If I don’t specify a time to write my article, it may never get done. If instead I schedule a time to do my article, then I am more likely to write the article, especially if I honor that commitment to myself by writing my blog article at the scheduled time.
Here is an example of a to-do list with actions that don’t have a scheduled time:
- Write my next blog article
- Write my next speech
- Practice my next speech
- Go for a walk
To make this to-do list more likely to get done, here it is again after scheduling times to get the action items done:
- Write my next blog article at 7:00 PM on July 8th
- Write my next speech at 8:00 PM on July 10th
- Practice my next speech at 7:00 PM on July 11th
- Go for a walk every day at 8:00 AM
For this updated to-do list, I have scheduled when I will complete each action item on my list. I also made one of the action items a recurring task because it is not a one-time action.
By following this schedule, I will complete my action items and they will get removed from my list. This prevents my to-do list from growing to a point that is unmanageable because I am actively completing the action items that I set for my myself.
As you actively work to complete your action items, you will gain self-confidence because you will be accomplishing what you set out to do. You will also be more productive because you will be planning what you want to accomplish and you will be actively accomplishing what you set out to do.
In conclusion, I encourage you to avoid action item overload by actually doing the tasks that you put on your to-do list. Don’t just place an action item on your list. Instead, put both the action item and the time you will do it on your to-do list, then actually do your action item at the scheduled time. By doing this you will accomplish what you set out to do and you will have a system where your most important goals and tasks get done because you have a to-do list that you actually follow.