(Credit: Zain bin Awais)
Back in December, a friend of mine asked me for some productivity advice. He had been juggling a lot of different tasks and was keeping track of everything on a spreadsheet. I recommended some other apps to try, but he liked his spreadsheet, so we focused on that. When I saw him recently, he told me that one very specific thing I said had stuck in his mind and radically changed his productivity: "Look at your spreadsheet every day."
Since then, he said, he's improved his efficiency and task-management skills and he's plowing through his work. It sounds simple enough, but looking at and using your spreadsheet, to-do list, or task-management app daily is key to being organized and on top of things.
Let me explain in detail why it matters, how it helps, and what else you can do to ensure this simple trick delivers maximum results.
1. Free Up Your Mind for Other Thinking
We write things down so we don't have to remember them, which frees up our minds to take on more difficult types of thinking. We look at what we've written down when we need to use it. Those are the main benefits of creating a to-do list or a spreadsheet of work in the first place. That's not the end of the story, though.
2. Review, Refresh, and Reprioritize
When we review our to-do list and the details of the tasks we need to do daily, we continually make sure that they are prioritized appropriately and correct them if not. You stay on top of everything and quickly catch anything that needs to be reprioritized.
3. Segment Your Time
Another thing that happens when you look at your to-do list every day is you think about how to use your time in three phases by deciding:
- What needs to be done first
- What else needs to be done today
- What can wait or should be done after today
If it's Monday, you don't necessarily need to schedule what you're going to do on Thursday and Friday (though some people do), but you can glance at all your upcoming work and mentally eliminate any tasks you do not have to do today. You're looking at them, thinking about them briefly, and then postponing them until the right time. As a result, you narrow down what you need to focus on today, which makes it easier to manage today's work.
4. Prevent Tasks From Sneaking Up on You
An unintended but beneficial consequence of reviewing your tasks every day and segmenting your time is you're never caught off-guard by a task you forgot about. If you have a big and important task that must be done on Thursday and you literally look at it on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, you can effectively prepare yourself in advance for it. For example, depending on how much effort must go into Thursday's task, you might take it easy on Wednesday or make sure you don't have too much work to do on Friday.
5. Commit to Your System
Looking at your list of tasks every day ensures you keep up the habit of using it. How many times have you been part of a collaborative spreadsheet or to-do list that ends up abandoned after just a few days or weeks? The person who created the list probably didn't open it up and look through it daily. If you don't use the system you create to manage your work, what good is it? The single best way to ensure you commit to it is to look at it every day, multiple times. I recommend doing something so that your first look of the day becomes habitual, so try tacking it onto another morning habit you already have, like drinking coffee or checking your email.
Live Long, Stay Organized, and Prosper
In addition to making sure you look at your to-do list or spreadsheet of work each day, you might also reduce the number of lists or spreadsheets you keep. If you have too many, you won't be able to keep up with them all. Having only a few helps simplify your system, making it easier for you to follow through on using it.
For more advice related to productivity and organization, see my 10 tips for making better to-do lists. And remember: A looked-at list is a well-used list.