Addicted to Your ToDo List?

I just couldn't get enough of that feeling!  I used to love checking something off of my ToDo List!  It felt so good to get something accomplished, that sometimes I would add something to my list that was almost complete, just so I could experience the pleasure of checking it off.  Ridiculous, I know!  But I was hard core addicted to my lists!  Luckily, I was able to find a better way.

After years of battling this addiction, I discovered that it wasn't actually serving me very well.  In studying high performers, researchers have found that ToDo Lists don't do much to help your productivity.  They discovered that the vast majority of list items normally fall within one of two categories.  Either they are done almost immediately, or they hang out on that list for week after week after week.  This one hit home for me!  While I enjoyed checking off items, there were several tasks that I didn't enjoy as much or I knew would take a bit longer to complete.  So, for every task that I checked off, there were three others that lived on my list forever.  Fortunately, the research also provided a suggestion on how to improve my productivity.

At it's core, there's nothing wrong with your lists.  However, if you really want to up your productivity, taking those items and placing them onto your calendar to be completed at specific times will take you to a whole new level.  Often times, those tasks that you prefer not to do, can be some of the most impactful for your life or business.  Dedicating time each week to complete each of my tasks has helped me to be significantly happier and more productive each week while also reducing my stress load over the length of my list.

So, if the idea of a ToDo List addiction hits home for you.....What should you start doing today to take your productivity to a new level?