Planned Science A blog about time management, useful tools and other stuff for academics in science

3 Steps to tick off any task on your todo list

3 min read productivity todo tricks

I’m very good at procrastinating things and I honestly think a lot of people are. I do have a nice task list in Todoist, but there’s certain tasks that keep being moved ahead to tomorrow, and then tomorrow and then next week (because it’s already weekend again). There’s many tasks for which it doesn’t really matter when they get done, it’s more important that they get done (Eisenhower matrix, anyone?). This makes it easy to just keep postponing them. It would be nice however to just cross them off your list and have one thing less to think about. There’s three simple questions that always help me to get these things of my list:

  1. Do I really need to do this task?
  2. What keeps me from doing it?
  3. How can I complete this task?

1. Do I really need to do this task?

The emphasis here is on the I, if it’s a task that doesn’t get you anything, why then even bother? Would it be a shame to just not do it? Or maybe can somebody else do it? If you can work around this task more easily than doing it yourself, then you can save yourself some work

Solution: Tick off the task (and delegate it to someone else)

2. What keeps me from doing it?

If you realised from the previous question that you are really the one for this task, then it’s good to ask yourself why you haven’t done it yet. Do you still need information from someone? Then go send that person a message? Is the task too big to get started on? Just split it up into multiple tasks. Is it not the right moment of the day? Plan it on a moment that you think is most suitable for it.

Solution: Get all the information you need

3. How can I complete this task?

There’s already some tips on this in the previous question, but what always helps me is to just do it at the beginning of the working day. Right before I do anything else. Also called ‘eat that frog’, if you do the thing you most dread, then the rest of the day will be really good in comparison. I have to be really strict on it and have to finish this task first and then I can reward myself with doing some nicer activities. It’s also good to reward yourself afterward, plan something that you like right after so you have a reason to finish it as quickly as possible.

Solution: Don’t be a baby and just do it

Hope this helps you as well, if you have any other tips/tricks, feel free to reach out!