With tasks piling up and emails coming in faster than you can respond to them, you might feel like you are starting to be buried. A mountainous and unkempt to-do list breeds discontent and stress. What Can you do about it? Well, you can either get things done or delete things off your list.

Management of Tasks

Multi-Tasking Can Slow You Down

I know the term “multi-tasking” sounds like you are going to get more things done by doing it. In my experience, however,  it just tends to slow me down. Some multi-tasking slows you down more than others, namely the Internet. Dividing your focus will more than likely slow down productivity for each individual task.

Zap All Your Clutter at Once

On your mountainous to-do list there are probably quite a few pebbles making their own little hills. Zap them all at once with short bursts of time dedicated to these quick tasks. Take a half hour or an hour and churn through these little tasks and knock some weight off of your to-do list.

Dedicate Your Time For Longer Tasks

If you can avoid splitting tasks up over a few days or complete a to-do list item in one sitting than you should do so. Better yet, set yourself a span of time specifically in you schedule to work on the one task only. for those tasks that cast the larger shadows on your to-do list, take a block of time to get started and chip away at them over time.

The List Itself

I am a list person in case you can’t tell, but not everyone is. Some people keep everything up in their heads, others block things out in calendars, individual preferences apply.

See What Needs To Be Done

This point is not for all you people who keep everything in your busy little heads. I feel that being able to see everything that you need to do will allow you to more effectively handle them. This is why I list, over the years using many services like backpack, text edit, and my current fixation – the Gmail to-do list function (They are lovely because they are movable, quick, deletable, and editable).

List Responsibly

Sticking with my “mountain” metaphor, the whole of your task mountain probably has it’s various faces and slopes. that is to say there are probably distinct categories of things you need to do. Personal projects, client work, school work, life tasks, all should never be mixed nor allowed to mingle. This may mean making a list for each facet or only including one type of task on your normal list

Absolute Priorities are King

When you are creating more lists for different types of tasks, some types will always be more important than others. Recognizing this is important especially, for instance, if you are attending school and freelancing. School work should be more important because you’re there to learn. It’s kind of important.

ASIDE: A lot of What I’m Describing is a form of “Time Boxing.” Time Boxing is, according to the Litemind Blog, ”simply fixing a time period to work on a task or group of tasks. Instead of working on a task until it’s done, you commit to work on it for a specific amount of time instead. For those new to it, time boxing is simply fixing a time period to work on a task or group of tasks. Instead of working on a task until it’s done, you commit to work on it for a specific amount of time instead.” Time boxing has also been reviewed by Dave Cheong, as well as J.D Meier and Steve Pavlina if you are interested in learning more about it.

I don’t follow this way of thinking as strictly as some, which speaks to the face that you should develop your own system of time management. Find works for you.

Get Rid Of Tasks

Who said you have to do every task on your list? Have fewer things to do by deleting things from your list. Novel idea, I know, but it’s not as crazy as it may sound.

Give Your List Items To Other People

If you are too busy, think about giving or forwarding freelance work to others. It’s a great way to lighten your load and build relationships with like minded people. If you’re too proud, get an assistant or “web-intern” to help you out. Having underlings does sound like a good bit of fun and is excellent for productivity.

Automate Your Digital Life

Many of us freelancers in the computer biz can use this shiny box to our full advantage to get our things done faster. With the advent of actions, hot keys, time saving apps, and features like ’spaces’ the freelancer can create his own work flow and create tools to expedite much of his process. Some of what we do can become tedious and in many cases unnecessary when you can do it once, record it, and repeat the process. Don’t underestimate how much time these minor adjustments might save you.

Delete Future Items From Your ListBryan Connor › Edit Post — WordPress

Getting existential now, I know, but stick with me. It is possible to change the future! All you have to do is make changes and adjustments now that will make things easier for you later on. For instance, create a way, either through teaching or other utilities, to give a client the power to make future adjustments instead of you. Usually if you do something right the first time (not necessarily the quickest route) you’ll save yourself a good deal of time in the not so distant future.

What do you do to stay on top of things?

Do you have other strategies you use to trim the to-do list? Have you used Time Boxing and what do you think of it? Add your habits and tricks that help you prioritize and get things done.

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