The Power Of The Master List

My brain functions in overdrive mode 99% of the time. It is as if I have a 6th gear just beyond my reach which it auto slips into, without me willing it in that direction. I am highly responsive to stimuli in my environment and I find that most events, people, and discussions spark a myriad of ideas off inside of me. My brain races with these concepts, builds legs onto them and before I know, a fully fleshed out, actionable plan is making itself at home. If this crazy web of ideas is not contained or channeled, my productivity nosedives and I struggle to pull myself back into a place of focus and directed work time. I have learned to develop a system that helps me to not only manage the flow of ideas, but also to stay focused to get the critical work out the door.

The master list is the most important part of the system I have developed:

The master list has come to define my every day working life. It has in fact come to form the very backbone of my week. The master list is the list of all lists, the list that ties all other smaller lists back together. It is the place of consolidation where your brain can dump its over-stimulated, multitasking self and have a cup of tea.

A Master List Needs to Be:

Accessible at all timesWithin easy reachEasy to edit

Think: “What object is always with me?” In most cases, it will be a diary or mobile phone. My preference is a digital list on a mobile as notebooks and diaries often get left behind on desks, in drawers, next to beds and in vehicles. Your mobile tends to be with you for the greater part of every day.

I use my Master List as follows:

I add every possible item in my life that needs doing onto it (yes, it’s a long list).In order to clear my mind, I jot down ‘to-do’ items systematically according to work/business/clients, family, relationship, friendships, home, fitness, admin, hobbies, and travel.Every Sunday evening or Monday morning before I do anything else, I take out my master list and determine which 10 items relating to work and business I am going to focus on for that week.I then create a new ‘to-do’ list specifically for that week and transfer these items onto it.I prioritize these items according to their revenue value, the closer they are to revenue generating, the higher prioritize they are.I then transfer five other admin or personal items from the master list onto my weekly list.Every Friday I review my list to either carry forward or mark complete the items that were done.

I own a business so sales and revenue are very important for me. If you work as a creative director in an advertising agency, other activities such as client briefings, brief write-ups, sourcing of artwork suppliers and team management will be the core functions within your workweek. These core work functions are what should be priorities on your list no matter what your vocation is. To determine what your core work functions are, ask, “What was I employed to do?” and “Why am I here?” Make your core functions the highest priority in your working week. After this, you are able to pad up the week with peripheral ‘to-do’ items that matter but are not critical to your core job.

I choose to transfer 10 items at the start of every week because I have found this to be my optimal productivity space. If I complete two highly critical tasks for the day that lead to revenue and then attend to less urgent matters, I am able to bring in a good revenue stream and still experience a work/life balance. You will need to analyze your own rhythms to see what your optimal space is. This takes time but soon becomes very apparent when you are either completing your to ‘do-list’ by Tuesday or only getting to three items out of the 20 you listed every week.

I have discovered many benefits from using this system. The benefits specifically related to productivity include:

I can empty my mind of everything that is whirring around inside of itI can focus on what really matters on any particular day without stressing that I will forget somethingIt is always with meIt syncs up to all my electronic devices when I update it on one deviceI can easily share it with other people who need to be kept up to date with a particular listI can assign lists to freelancers and employees that I am working withI can create multiple lists in one place without losing any of themI can back my lists upI can share interesting lists with blogs and Twitter people who highlight interesting listsI can use a tool like idonethis.com to see visually over a year how many items on average I cross off every day, which are my most productive days and which are my least productive days.I can view the word clouds in idonethis from my lists to see what activities dominate over others.

I use two tools to manage my Master List:

Wunderlist: This is an iPhone application that allows you to very easily create, share, and manage lists.idonethis: This is an accountability tool that sends you an email at the end of every day, asking you what you did for that day. I decided to use it to keep myself accountable. I look forward to replying to the email with all the items I ticked off of my list for that particular day.

Implementing this system has not come naturally to me but I have increased my productivity (which I track using Rescue Time) by 34 percent to date. That has reflected back onto my revenue that has also increased by approximately 30% since I have deliberately become more sales focused. I find that I have to keep reminding myself to come back to Wunderlist and idonethis. My natural inclination is to revert to sticky notes, scraps of papers and journals that all just amount too many plans and no actions. However, I remind myself that this way, I am happily moving forward ten steps every week.

Tell us about your lists. Do you use them and if so, how do you manage them? (Ed: We’re building Listible to help you create lists)

Featured photo credit:  Young dark woman writing on notepad via Shutterstock

Claire Burge has been described as part chaos, part rocket fuel: she might just surprise you. She owns Get Organised Ireland: a productivity company on a mission to make the world a more productive place, one team at a time. She is on a mission to cut email out of her life and might just convince you to do the same. When not working with companies, she is racing downhill on her mountain bike, taking food pictures or working on her book which will be published early next year. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook.

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