Problems With Task Management? 7 Tips for Managing your To-Do List

Do you have a never-ending to-do list? If you are one of those people who get overwhelmed with their pile of pending tasks, you will like these 7 tips to reduce your list and improve your task management skills. Keep reading and start being productive:

1. Tidy your space

It won’t take you more than a couple of minutes, but tidying your workspace will help you clear your mind and feel more willing to do your job. Rearrange any objects which stand in the way, put them away in drawers, clear your desk and start working on your first task.

2. Finish what you begin

Why do you leave things half-finished? Finish what you begin; it is a golden rule of productivity. If you don’t, you will waste time later on trying to remember where you left off, and what’s worse; you will have the feeling of doing a task over and over again. Complete your task 100%.

3. Don’t procrastinate

The saying goes: “don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today”. Don’t let your tasks accumulate and apply this rule to your daily task management; you will see your effectiveness multiply, your stress reduce to a minimum and your task management become efficient. This is how to stop procrastinating in 10 practical steps.

4. Delete tasks

If you have doubts about the need of doing a task, the best you can do is to delete it from your list. It is highly likely that the task is not important if you have stopped to think whether it is worth doing. If you prefer, do a parallel list which you check in the near future, but try not to keep it among your priorities.

5. Reduce paperwork

The great enemy of order and efficient task management is still paper. Very often, huge amounts of paperwork accumulate on top of our desks, and they only contribute to distraction and stress. Archive, scan or simply throw away all those papers you have “collected” and which are useless.

6. Restrict Email use

Email is a double-edged sword. Don’t let a very good communication tool stand in the way of your productivity, avoid checking it continuously, and if you do it, make a decision about every email: reply or delete, but don’t let an email take up space in your mind and your task management. In other words, put technology on hold to be more productive.

7. Say “No”

We are often assigned tasks for which we don’t have the time or lack the preparation, or they are simply not a priority for us. Say “No” clearly and unambiguously, instead of using common expressions such as “I’ll try” or “I’ll let you know”. If you know from the very beginning that you are not going to do something, don’t waste your time or, for that matter, other people’s time.

You may be interested: 7 signs that you are stressed out.

And you, what do you do to manage your tasks efficiently?