Your Most Important List.

In your task manager, there is one list that you need to look at every day, and that is your today list. Your today list tells you all the tasks you need or have decided to complete that day. No other list is as critical as this list.

Whether you use the Time Sector System or a traditional system, all your time sectors or project folders are just holding pens for tasks that need to be done on a different day. Not today.

Consider this for a moment: how much time are you wasting going through your different folders looking for something to do each day? You’ll be surprised how much. And yet, looking through these holding pens is taking time away from doing what you already know needs to be done today.

If you frequently go through your project folders or time sectors throughout the day, this will be symptomatic of one of two things: either you do not trust your system, or you are not following a weekly plan.

Any number of things can cause a lack of trust in your system. The most common is you are not collecting consistently and relying on your memory to remember things. Or it could be you add random dates to tasks without considering whether the task needs to be done on that day. That leads to overwhelming daily lists and countless tasks you ignore or postpone until another random day (that you will likely not do anyway)

The time to go through these holding pens is during the weekly planning session. This is where you go through your folders, pulling forward tasks for the following week and dating them so they come up on the appropriate day.

I would argue that you should also look at your inbox daily. Your inbox has the potential fire risks caused by urgent tasks that are forgotten. A quick scan, at the very least, of your inbox daily will prevent this from happening. (Clearing your inbox can be done every few days.)

However, the way to use your task list effectively is to be tight about what gets on your daily list. This is the list that will have your attention all day. Make sure tasks that need to be done that day and tasks you would like to do are on it. Do not allow anything else to get on your today list.

Ideally, you will have a cut-off—a total number of tasks you will allow on your today list. Not being strict with this list will inevitably overwhelm you, and ultimately, you will ignore it altogether.

Give yourself a little time to review any dated tasks in your task manager and ask yourself if they truly need to be done next week. If not, remove the date and trust yourself to do a weekly planning session next week. You’ll have a much more productive week if you do.

Carl is one of the world’s leading authorities on time management. Visit his website to learn how he can help you.

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