How millionaires and successful people replace to-do lists

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Millionaires, Olympic athletes, successful entrepreneurs - these people don't make to-do lists, they plan tasks. Why you should throw out your to-do list and how best to do it, read below.

Do you really think that Richard Branson and Bill Gates create to-do lists and prioritize them by marking them A1, A2, B1, B2?

The study, which surveyed 200 billionaires, Olympic athletes, successful students, and entrepreneurs, revealed other time management techniques. And none of the respondents mentioned a bulleted to-do list.

Here are three good reasons to ditch your to-do list:

To-do list is not tied to time … If we have a long list of tasks, we often grab onto those that can be done quickly, leaving longer tasks for later. Research by iDoneThis found that 41% of to-do lists remain outstanding.
To-do lists do not differentiate between urgent and important tasks. The same principle applies here. We try to complete urgent tasks first, while ignoring important ones.
To-do lists are stressful. In psychology, this is called the Zeigarnik effect, when an unfinished task makes you constantly return to it in your thoughts. Not surprisingly, after making a big to-do list and doing half of it, God forbid, we feel confused all day, and at night we can not sleep.

Numerous polls and studies have shown that successful and superproductive people do not use to-do lists, they live and work on a calendar.

For example, Shannon Miller, an athlete who won seven Olympic medals, was on the team of gymnasts in the United States from 1992 to 1996, and today is a successful entrepreneur and author of a book. In an interview, she said:

I divided my time between family, household chores, school, training, performances, and other commitments using a specific schedule. I was forced to prioritize. To this day, I use a schedule where everything is scheduled by the minute.

Shannon Miller

Dave Kerpen, co-founder of two successful startups and the New York Times best-selling author. When asked what the secret of his productivity was, he replied:

If something is not on my calendar, it will not be done. But if the matter is on the calendar, it will be done. My schedule is every 15 minutes of every day to hold meetings, announce materials, write or do whatever. And despite the fact that I arrange meetings with everyone who wants it, I reserve only an hour a week for this lesson.

Dave Kerpen

Chris Ducker successfully combines the roles of an entrepreneur, high-selling author and business podcast owner. What did he reveal about his secret to productivity?

I just add everything to my schedule. And that's all. Everything I do during the day has been added to my schedule. A half-hour viewing of social media is on the schedule, a 45-minute email parsing is on the schedule, and classes with a virtual team are on the schedule. If it’s not on schedule, it won’t get done, period.

Chris Ducker

If you've decided to manage your life with a schedule, here are a few key points.

Each event - 15 minutes

Set your calendar to 15 minutes by default for the event. If you are using Google Calendar or Outlook calendar, the event is automatically created for half an hour or an hour, but it is much better to break your day into shorter intervals.

Productive people spend as much time as they need to do it. Yahoo President and CEO Marissa Mayer is known for spending very little time meeting with colleagues - about five minutes.

If you are automatically given 15 minutes to complete each task, you know that you can get more done in a day.

Set the time for the most important things first

Don't allow yourself to mindlessly fill your calendar with whatever tasks arise during the day. First, prioritize and determine the time frame in which you will implement them. This segment should not decrease, and the case should not be canceled in any case, no matter what.

And don't forget to make time for important activities like sports, relationships, and anything else that gives you a fulfilling life.

Plan everything

Instead of checking your email or social media multiple times a day, plan your day and adjust your plan. Instead of putting “Call Sister” on your to-do list, schedule it on your calendar, or better yet, set a time to answer your phone every night.

And remember: what is planned must be done.

Are you using daily plans?