Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

How to Stop Your To-Do List from Killing Your Business
"To-do" lists. You have them, I have them. Frankly, they're usually ineffective. But how could they be deadly? Here's two ways they are.

The "Out-of-Focus" To-Do List
The way that most of us put together a to-do list almost guarantees that it will be a business killer. What's the traditional way of making a to-list? You write down everything that comes to your mind that "needs to be done." But does everything really need to be done?

Put together a to-do list of everything, and you'll likely do nothing that actually matters.

Put "organize papers on desk" next to "cold call 10 potential customers" and guess which one will likely get done. Right. That desk is going to win awards for how organized it is.

Never put together a to-do list simply by dumping out on paper all the things that are rattling around in your brain. You need a clear focus to what you do, and dumping a lot of unrelated things on a piece of paper is not the way to do that.

Granted, there's a benefit to clearing your head by writing down absolutely every task that's weighing it down. Just don't use it as your to-do list. I call that a brain dump.

It works wonders for clearing my head of dozens of competing activities. But before you start clicking through the tasks on that list, make sure you have a goals list to compare it against.

Your goals list should contain your most important goals, the ones that you're really passionate about. Are you trying to build your business to the point where you can quit your day job and live off your own business income? Then that's the goal that all your tasks need to bring you closer to accomplishing.

Once you're clear on your goals and the steps you need to take you there, the things that best serve those goals will really jump off that brain dump list. If you don't set up your to-do list to serve your goals, it's too easy for you to opt for the easy and familiar over the productive. But filter it by how well it meets your goals, and the obvious choices look a lot different.

What to do with that brain dump list? File it away. Someplace safe. Someplace where you won't feel like you're discarding all of the great ideas that simply aren't the highest priority at the moment. Set them aside knowing that they'll always be available once you've accomplished what's most important to reaching your goals.

And you know what? You'll actually start completing those most important tasks.

The "Control-Sucking" To-Do List
There's a second way, too, in which your to-do list can be a business killer. Most people's to-do lists keep growing and growing as they dabble in one thing and then another, never getting any of them done.

And as it grows, it takes on a life of its own. It becomes a cruel taskmaster demanding ever more of us. And if you're like most people, the more you feel that something else is controlling your life, the more you want to rebel.

So, suddenly, all those tasks—the productive and the trivial—become the enemy, and procrastination sets in. You avoid doing anything on the list as your way of regaining a feeling of control over your life. But by rebelling against "the list" you rob yourself of making any progress toward your goals.

Here again, having your goals clearly defined helps you overcome the business-killing tendencies of a traditional to-do list. When your goals are something that you passionately want and you're doing things that you know will lead you to them, there's no feeling of losing control, no reason to rebell. On the contrary, doing those tasks you're actually taking control of your life and the direction that you're heading.

Know the goals that you passionately want. Let your goals guide you in what you do—and in what you choose not to do. Only with your goals guiding your to-do list will your efforts be productive.
Jeff