Managing a High-Demand To-Do List

 

Based on David Allen’s Getting Things Done

When you’re overwhelmed, the best thing you can do for yourself is the last thing you want to take time to do. Spending time on anything other than an item on your to-do list is counterintuitive, and to the overwhelmed, it feels like a waste of precious time. But if you’re serious about getting things done, you’ll invest the few minutes it takes to get organized and get yourself pointing in one, decisive direction.

At Launch, we often work as a virtual marketing team for start-up tech companies who move at the speed of light. Each of us is well-seasoned and works at high-capacity, with our own method of maintaining multiple calendars, deliverables, large projects, and changes. This is an example of one of those methods.

Below, you’ll find my quick and extremely helpful process that can take you from overwhelmed to underwhelmed (you know what I mean) and on top of things. The strategy is largely adapted from productivity consultant David Allen’s book, Getting Things Done.

EMPTY YOUR BRAIN
Getting things out of your brain and onto some kind of canvas—paper, Evernote, whiteboard, etc.—is the first step to getting on top of your over-sized to-do list. For me on any given week, one big deliverable on my list might be implementing a Lead Nurture Program for Client A.

BREAK IT DOWN
Break out the sub-tasks within the large-ticket items. An example of mine is below.

• Lead Nurture Program for Client A
  • Implementation timeline
  • Propose content for approval
  • Code emails/landing page, submit for approval
  • Architect lead flow, set parameters
  • Test
  • Push Live

Still feeling overwhelmed? Break them down a step further, so that your to-do list is broken down into bite-sized, digestible sub-tasks that are clear and straight-forward.

ASSESS THE MESS
Once your to-do list is bite-sized and digestible, a few things will become quickly apparent.

• Some of these things, you can delegate
• Some of these things, you can defer
• Some of these things, you can knock out now

After I do that brief assessment on my big deliverable, this is what I’m left with:

• Nurture Program for Client D
  • Implementation timeline
  • Propose content for approval
  • Code emails/landing page, submit for approval – delegate
  • Architect lead flow, set parameters – defer
  • Test – defer
  • Push Live – defer

In a very short amount of time, my to-do list has simplified from one large, potentially stressful tasks, to 2 sub-tasks that I can take care of in 2 to 3 hours.

BRING ORDER TO CHAOS
In my actual everyday life, and likely in yours, there are 6 to 10 large-ticket items on my plate. After creating and then simplifying a full to-do list, you’ll have several sub-tasks that, while now tangible and less overwhelming, need order.

Questions to ask when prioritizing include:

• Will this take less than 2 minutes? If yes, go ahead and knock these out first. The less cluttered your brain, the better it will work on more complex items.
• Do I need to get this done so that I can delegate something? If yes, get these off your plate (and onto someone else’s) next.
• Everything else falls under these in terms of priority.

 

NEXT STEPS
Go get stuff done!

I hope you find this process as helpful as I do. There is a way to be high-capacity and low stress. That’s largely how Launch has grown over the last 14 years, through our reputation for getting a lot done at a high quality in little time.

Give us a call for a free consultation and let us manage your urgent marketing needs with little stress and a lot of results.