Who To-Do List Epp?

You are probably taking a break from work right now to read this. Maybe you’re in traffic.

Yes, you have a lot on your plate and you’re probably wondering how you’re going to make it through the day.

Burnout is real hence, it is important to review your productivity system from time to time.

What’s working? What’s not?

It is common to find people super busy doing the right things at the wrong time, or doing the wrong things at the right time, or doing what they shouldn’t be doing at all.

When contemplating your level of productivity, it’s easy to get caught up in how much you’re able to do in a given day or week. Quantified productivity is everyone’s go to for assessment.

The problem with using numbers to constantly measure productivity — especially personal productivity — is that they don’t always paint an accurate picture. Sure, they’ll tell you how much of something you’ve finished, but they won’t necessarily tell you whether or not those were the right things to do.

This is where qualitative productivity comes into play.

Qualitative productivity oscillates around the idea that what you’ve been productive with is of a higher quality. Essentially, you might wind up doing far less tasks but the impact they have over the long term is greater than what quantitative productivity can achieve.

The major point is choose quality over quantity, and in doing this, you don’t have to completely eliminate quantitative productivity.

What you need is a healthy balance of quantitative and qualitative productivity.

Let’s review your productivity system.

Do you generally get most important tasks done in time?

Do you finish all your daily tasks?

Do you feel burnout or feel you’re not doing much most of the time?

Alright, here is the hack — Pacing by priority and energy bursts.

Pacing by Priority

In a bid to get so much done in a day, you can lose sight of what the most important tasks are.

That’s when you wind up with a false sense of how productive you were for the day; you did a lot of things but not the most important things.

When you pace your productivity by priority you’ll make progress on what you prioritize. That means you’ll do the most important thing no matter how long it takes — perhaps even breaking it down into smaller tasks that can be done to improve your progress.

The outcome of pacing your productivity is that you may not end up with as many tasks checked off your to-do list, but the most important ones will be checked off. This will give you a fresh perspective on your productivity measurement or assessment.

You can also pace by energy bursts.

Pacing by Energy Bursts

The thing with pacing by priority is that you may not do the most important thing first thing in the morning. Most people wait until their energy is high enough to work on that priority.

When you pace your productivity by energy, you’ll tackle your to-do list based on your body clock.

If you’re an early riser then it’s best you take on your most energy-sensitive tasks early in the day. Then go on to tackle other tasks that don’t need the best of you as the day draws to a close.

If you’re a night owl or a wolf, you’ll work the other way round. So you start your day with lower energy tasks and then hit the high energy tasks starting in the evening.

In essence, consider your body clock when working through your daily tasks in order of priority.

Pace your productivity the way your body clock works. You’ll be able to bring the ideal amount of energy, focus, and effort to your tasks.

Try the above pacing methods this week and see which works for you. Ultimately, you want to know for sure if you’re indeed being productive, not just feel like you’re being productive.

If you found this article helpful, kindly share with someone who might need this.

Enjoy the rest of the week

Looking forward to seeing you at the hub.