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Table of Contents Introduction ........................................................................................................... 4 There’s Not One “Right” System ........................................................................... 5 Don’t Put Too Many Things on Your List .............................................................. 7 Prioritize Your Tasks ............................................................................................. 8 Just Follow Your List ........................................................................................... 10 Don’t Become Tied to Your List .......................................................................... 11 Don’t Mistake Projects with Tasks ...................................................................... 13 Be Productive Instead of Effective ...................................................................... 15 Don’t Make Only One To-Do List ........................................................................ 17 Learn from Your List ........................................................................................... 19 Make Your List Beforehand ................................................................................ 21 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 23 About Michael Martel .......................................................................................... 24

Introduction To-do lists are magic. According to experts, the second you write something down, you’re infinitely more likely to actually make it happen than if you rely on your (sometimes faulty) memory. Some of the greatest thinkers – and achievers! – of our time have been inveterate list-makers, including:     

Benjamin Franklin Leonardo Da Vinci Thomas Jefferson Martha Stewart David Letterman

Okay, that last one was a little bit of a joke, but the point is clear: Lists work. Back in my military days, we used to do lists or checklists for all sorts of things – preflight checklists, packing lists, pre-mission lists, etc. Books have been written about the power of lists… but not all lists are created equal! In this report, I’m going to discuss six things you should be doing with your to do lists. You’ll soon be on your way to super-charging your day and getting er done!

There’s Not One “Right” System Every time another productivity book hits the best-seller list, thousands of people jettison their planners, calendars, software programs, and iPad/iPhone apps, thinking that if they just buy the latest and greatest system, they’ll be able to get a handle on their ever-expanding to-do list. The problem with this approach is that while it can be really fun to color-code your tasks, set up e-mail reminders for the next sixteen years, or invest a month’s worth of groceries in a new planner, there’s no guarantee that what works for the author, a blogger, or your best friend is going to work for you. To-do list or task-management systems come in all shapes and sizes. There are electronic versions that are slick enough to send your mom an e-mailed Mother’s Day card for you; there are plain-Jane pen-and-paper lists, and there are all sorts of hybrids in between. You can “Get It Done” with David Allen, let Franklin-Covey plan your life, or try to remember the milk with the Remember the Milk app on your iPhone. In my Special Forces days, some of us used big notebooks that had lists upon lists, while others taped 3x5 cards to their forearms and wrote small lists on them with magic markers. Whatever you use, make you sure you pick a system that’s in line with your personality and your life, if not you’re just setting yourself up for failure. Here are a few things to ask yourself before you invest in a new to-do or task management system: 

How much time do I want to invest setting up the system and maintaining it? Some systems require you to input all your tasks and appointments into a database, while others rely on a five-minute update at the end of each day. Figure out how much time you have available to allocate to this task.

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Am I a digi-type or a paper-type? Even though it may seem like “everybody” is relying on their iPad to track their to-do lists, you’re not like “everybody.” You may find it downright uncomfortable to have everything kept digitally – and that’s okay.

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Do I like to carry things? Strange question, but an important one. If you like to travel light, you may find digi the way to go – or you may want to use a single 3x5 note card to track your list. Alternately, if you carry a backpack, messenger bag or purse, a larger notebook or device won’t be

awkward. 

How complicated am I? Do you want a simple overview of your tasks, or a color-coded, ranked list backed up by project sections in a notebook or computer file? Don’t go for the gold standard when aluminum will do!

The takeaway: Match your system to your preferences and personality. Not everyone needs a computerized system capable of launching the next space shuttle, and not everyone is comfortable with a pen-and-paper format. Find something that works for you and stick with it – even if “everyone else” is moving on to something shiny and new.

Don’t Put Too Many Things on Your List When it comes to lists, you may think that the more, the merrier. Not so! In fact, after about 10 items, your list starts to decrease in productivity. The vast number of to-dos actually discourages you, and you fall into the old, “I’m never going to get it all done, so why bother?” mindset. Then you end up not following your list at all, tackling the small, easy tasks (instead of the important things), or just giving up on it altogether. Instead of cranking away, working towards your goals, instead you’re flying by the seat of your pants and handling whatever catches your attention. Not the way to make progress! The solution: Limit the number of items on your list. Powerhouse productivity experts and get-it-done folks like the late cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash and Leo Babauta (author of popular blog Zen Habits) recommend keeping the number of items on your list to about six. In speeches and her writings, Mary Kay credits much of her success to the “six most important things” list she would create each night before bead. And blogger and author Babauta urges his readers to limit themselves to a half-dozen major to-dos for each day. You may be saying, “How in the heck will I ever cut my list of items to only six? I can fill up three pages with things to do!” The key is to filter it down to the most important items to be accomplished in the next 24 hours. Remember, if you get it all done, you can always add more items! If you’re afraid you’ll forget the other, less important items, create a separate project list that is kept in a different location, in a different notebook or on a computer file, or even on the whiteboard in your office. Here you can “park” all those other ideas, projects, and tasks until it’s time to tackle them. By moving them off your main list, you’ll limit your scope to the critical actions and keep your focus where it matters: On your biggest goals. It can also be useful to create a running list of “Five-Minute Tasks” that you can turn to when you have downtime between the larger items. Need a breather after you finish writing a 10-page report? Pull out your Five-Minute Task list and make a phone call or two, or order your son’s birthday present from Amazon. Then go right back to your big list and start chipping away at your next major goal. Just a week or two of using this method will show you how you actually can accomplish MORE by focusing on LESS. Give it a try; if it doesn’t make you more productive, you can always go back to your catch-all list. I think you’ll find it was worth the experimentation.

Prioritize Your Tasks Even if you successfully get into the habit of limiting yourself to a less than 10 items in your daily to-do list, you’re probably going to run into some obstacles along the way. For one, you may find that the same few tasks seem to get forwarded on from day to day, never quite getting finished. You also might discover that you spend the bulk of your productive time on the easiest tasks on your list, leaving the tougher (and often more important) items for last. Human nature being what it is, it’s common to start with the easy stuff and avoid what we don’t really want to do. I talk about this tendency more in my book Train Your Brain – Achieve the Green Beret Way. This tendency can be especially true if you’re self-employed and setting your own goals and job responsibilities (funny how that works!). The way to combat this bad habit is to prioritize your list. Not all items on your list are going to be created equal, and one critical step to getting the most out of your list is to rank the items you’re aiming to complete. You can rank in a couple of ways: 

Time urgency - external. These are tasks that have to get done NOW because of an external deadline – filing applications for permits, submitting taxes, applying for grants, etc.

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Time urgency – serial. These are things that have to get done before you can do something else. There may not be a firm external deadline, but there’s still time urgency. For instance, you have to make the appointment with your bookkeeper before you can file your taxes; you have to meet with the graphic designer before you can update your website.

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Importance – external. These tasks are ones that someone else has determined is of high priority – your boss, a client, the government, etc. Examples includes filing a call report for a recent prospect, creating a marketing plan for a new client, or filing compliance reports.

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Importance – internal. Some productivity programs call these items “important but not urgent,” but the result is the same; they’re things you want to accomplish because YOU have decided they’re important. They could include writing a press release to promote a new product you’ve released, writing a blog post, or even exercising.

As you might guess, the items with external pressures tend to get completed

sooner than the ones where no one is breathing down your neck, asking when it will be finished. BUT it’s often the internally important items that will have the largest impact on your life, career, and income. Your job is to objectively rank your daily to-dos each morning (or the night before, if you prefer) and then tackle them in order, moving on to the next only when you have hit a wall (waiting for a return phone call, for instance) or when the item is complete. Remember that your goals and ambitions are equally important to those others set for you, and in many cases, even more important to your overall health and wellbeing.

Just Follow Your List Let’s say you’re out walking your dog (no dog? No problem. We’re playing make believe here.). You reach the corner and just as you’re about to cross the street, a car pulls alongside you. The driver leans over and rolls down the window. “Excuse me,” he says. “I’m looking for Joe’s Café.” You just ate at Joe’s that morning, so you are able to give him very detailed, very clear directions – including the recommendation to skip the huevos rancheros – even though Joe’s is a little bit off the beaten path and not that easy to find. You even whip out a scrap of paper and sketch a little map, which you hand over. The driver thanks you, rolls the window back up… and drives off in the opposite direction from the one you indicated. “What is he doing?” You ask yourself. “Here I spent five minutes giving that guy directions, and he didn’t even listen to me! He’s going to get totally lost!” Peeved, you and Rover turn around and head for home, shaking your head over some people’s stupidity. Let’s bring this back to the realm of reality. YOU are the driver looking for Joe’s. YOU are also the one giving directions, by way of a detailed to-do list. And YOU just might also be the one who ignores the directions and goes on your merry way – and maybe even ends up ordering the huevos rancheros. When you spend time putting together a roadmap to where you want to go and then don’t follow it, you are being just like our intrepid driver – ignoring wisdom and advice at your own expense. Somehow, we think we know better than ourselves. We figure the way we ranked the items on our to-do list didn’t really count, or has changed in the 20 minutes since we drew up the plan. We are like fussy little kids, insisting we do things our own way – and then somehow we’re surprised when we don’t get the results we wanted. The solution? It’s easy: FOLLOW THE PLAN. If you take time to consider your long-term goals, draw up a to-do list to help you get there, and rank the actions in order of priority, all that’s left is to execute. The hard part has actually already been finished. You don’t have to think; you just have to move in the direction you’re already pointed. Oh yeah, and avoid the huevos rancheros.

Don’t Become Tied to Your List In the last section, I talked about how important it is to follow your to-do list. After all, it’s a roadmap you’ve created to get you from where you are to where you want to be. But… just like with a regular road map, things can arise along your path that make it necessary to veer off your predicted path. On the road, you might encounter detours, bad weather, car trouble, or scenic bypasses. If you stubbornly stick to your map, you might get yourself in deep trouble or miss some amazing opportunities. During our land navigation exercises, you always had to be prepared to navigate around obstacles. We were always ready to deviate the route if necessary. The same can be true with your daily list. Here’s what might arise and why you should be willing to adjust your plans accordingly: Road blocks. As you work through your daily list, you may come to a roadblock. You may be all set to update your Facebook status, but the site isn’t loading or your internet access is down. Instead of sitting around twiddling your thumbs, take a look at your ongoing project list and pick another high-priority item and get cracking on it. Add the item you had to table to your next day’s list and revisit it then. Detours. More than once I’ve been all set to add a new feature to my blog, implement a new piece of software, or add a new product to my shopping cart, only to discover that before I can do “A,” I have to finish tasks “B,” “C,” and “D.” For example: Before I can run the new report, I have to install the software. Before I can install the software, I have to buy it. Before I can buy it, I have to go to the office supply store, and so on, and so on. In cases like these, there’s no option except to follow where the detour leads me, completing the serial tasks in order until I reach the ultimate to-do item I was trying to complete in the first place! (Side note: Detours are one of the reasons it’s important to limit yourself to no more than 6 items on your list per day. Often unplanned-for delays can throw a monkey wrench into an otherwise smooth process!) Car trouble. Some days, nothing seems to go as planned. The kids get sick, the dog gets sick, YOU get sick. You can’t control these occurrences. All you can do is do your best to move through them quickly and get back on track as soon as possible. One of the slogans of Special Forces is to Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome. It might not look like how you planned something was going to go. It doesn’t have

to. Just have the end in mind. What you initially had in mind for the final destination or solution. Scenic bypasses. Every once in a while, you get an “I just can’t refuse” opportunity. Maybe your buddy calls with box seat tickets to the afternoon game, or your college roommate is in town for one day only. Or it’s so gorgeous outside you just have to turn off the computer and head to the pool with the kids. Life is for living, and one of your goals should be to enjoy the trip, not just the destination. It’s okay to set aside the to-do list for these special occasions – provided they’re just that: Special. If you find yourself foregoing work for a trip to the beach more than once a month, you need to take a look at your motivation. But otherwise, enjoy. You’ll come back to your work the next day with renewed vigor.

Don’t Mistake Projects with Tasks One of the biggest mistakes people make with their to-do list is writing down goals or projects instead of tasks. To-do lists are only useful as a daily guide if they include things you can actually accomplish in a given day. That’s why items like “lose 10 lbs.,” “find new job” and “double income” are not useful – or do-able. They are goals, and while it’s great to have goals and to even make lists of them, they should not appear on your daily to-do list. Instead, your list should consist of tasks – items that you can accomplish TODAY, given today’s time, resources, and skills. Here are a few questions to ask yourself about the items on your to-do list to see if they’re tasks or projects: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Can I do this right now? Can I complete this today? Will I know definitively when I’ve completed this? Do I need to do something else before I can accomplish this? Does someone else need to do something before I can accomplish this?

The answers to questions 1-3 should be “Yes,” and the answers to questions 4 and 5 should be “No.” If your answers don’t line up, don’t write the item on your to-do list. Here’s what to do with those rejected items: You can’t do it right now OR You need to do something else first. Figure out what has to occur before you CAN accomplish the task, and put THOSE items on a list, in order. (Note: Some people find it helpful to create project lists, separate from their daily to-do lists, to keep track of larger tasks and ongoing projects.) You can’t complete it today. If you can’t complete the project because it’s too long-term to accomplish in a single day, break it down into steps, and add the steps to your to-do list, in order. See the note above about creating project lists. You don’t know when the item is “done.” If your list includes entries like “Improve relationship with customers,” or “improve product quality,” spend some time thinking about how you would measure those goals, and then what steps you’d have to take to improve those measurements. Each of those steps could be a project, or, depending on its complexity, an item on your to-do list. Someone else needs to do something else first. If you’re waiting on someone else before you can accomplish your to-do item, think about whether that item should be on your to-do list at all. If it is definitely your task, don’t add it to your

daily list until it’s something you can complete that day. Instead, you might add, “Follow up with J about his progress towards X.” That way you can keep tabs on the overall task while still making your to-do list an active, useful document.

Be Productive Instead of Effective There’s an old adage that says, “A winner is someone who does all the things the losers weren’t willing to do.” And that is apparent nowhere more clearly than on the daily to-do list. It’s easy to work through a list of items on your list, reach the end of the day, and realize that while you got a lot of things DONE, you didn’t do much to push yourself towards your overall goals. Sure, you were BUSY, but you weren’t effective. One of our sayings in Special Forces was that “Results speak for themselves.” Lots of people get caught up in the process and not the results. This tends to happen because by some law of the universe, the things that will take you the farthest are rarely the “fun” things or “easy” things. It’s fun to shop for a new desk chair, reading reviews, looking for the best price, and blowing a whole morning in the process. You might even be able to fool yourself into thinking you’re working (after all, the chair is for your office!). But at the end of the day – or week, or month – whether or not you have a new desk chair has very little bearing on your success. Here are some questions to ask yourself to help determine if the tasks you’re spending time on are busy work or real work: 1. Can someone else take care of this? If someone else could do a decent-enough job on this task, then pass it off. You want to dedicate yourself to the activities that only you can do. 2. What would happen if I didn’t do this? If there are absolutely no repercussions to skipping this task, cross it off your list. 3. How much time do I typically spend doing this? Checking email typically falls into this category. Sure, it’s work-related. Sure, it’s critical (to a point!). But if you’re checking your email five, ten, or more times per day, you may be avoiding your “real” work. 4. Does this make me nervous? The things that move us forward the most are the tasks that take us outside our comfort zone. If something on your list makes you a little anxious, chances are it’s a good activity to tackle.

5. Have I been avoiding doing this? We tend to avoid tasks that make us feel uncomfortable (see #4 above). If something has been continually pushed to the bottom of the list, then it might be the very thing you need to

accomplish, today. There is a place for the “busy” work of work. Sorting paperclips, filing papers, and even shopping for that desk chair can be used as breaks between the larger tasks on your list, or as fill-the-gaps activities when you’re on hold, waiting for a meeting to begin, or winding down from accomplishing a big task. Once you wean yourself off the need to feel “productive” and instead focus on becoming effective, you’ll immediately notice a huge leap forward towards your goals. And then you can order that new desk chair.

Don’t Make Only One To-Do List Do you have more than one pair of shoes? Computer program? Cooking utensil? Of course you do. When it comes to your wardrobe, computer, kitchen, or business, one tool just won’t do. The same goes for your to-do list. Instead of having one super-long, superscattered list, it’s much more powerful to have several lists that you refer to for different reasons. Here’s a list of the types you might find useful: 1. Daily to-do list. This is the worker bee of your lists. It covers the top tasks you aim to complete each day, and is ranked in order of priority. 2. Project lists. If you have ongoing personal or business projects, project lists and timelines are invaluable. You can sketch out the entire project from start to finish and move the next item on the list to your daily list. (Note: Some people prefer mind maps or calendar-type schedules instead of straight lists.) 3. Annual goals list. On an annual basis, take time to review your long-term goals in every area of your life. This will drive your priorities and daily todos. 4. Monthly goals list. Break your annual goals down to monthly goals and keep track of them here. Review on (guess what?) a monthly basis. 5. Personal goals list. While it isn’t necessary, you may want to separate your personal goals (health, relationship, spirituality, etc.) from your business goals and keep track of those objectives on a separate list. 6. “Bucket” list. “Bucket” lists have become all the rage, since the movie by the same name with Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson hit the screens a few years back. Keeping a running list of lifetime goals can be a fun and inspirational way to channel your energy. I am working on mine at this moment and expect to have a bucket list until I finally kick the bucket. The number and kind of lists you keep current is entirely a personal preference. The advantage of having more than one list is that you can quickly get a snapshot of where you are on any given project or area of your life. The downside is, of course, that it takes time to manage and review these various documents. You may discover you like to keep your daily to-do list in a small spiral notebook

you can tuck into your pocket or handbag, while the longer-term lists work best in a dedicated binder or computer file. A little experimentation will help you figure out what types of lists work best for you.

Learn from Your List To-do lists are dynamic documents. Today’s list probably looks very different from one you made a year or even a month ago (if it doesn’t, it’s time to revisit your goals!). By looking back on previous to-do lists, you can learn a lot about yourself, your goals, and your habits – good and bad. I talk about After Action Reviews (AAR) in my book Get Er Done – The Green Guide to Productivity. You should always take a look back on what you’ve done and see how you can learn from it and do better the next time. When you’re finished with a list, don’t toss it. Instead, file it away and when you’ve got a month or two worth of lists stored up, pull them out and play detective. Ask yourself the following questions: What items have changed on my list? Did they go away because you accomplished a big project, or because you gave up? What has stayed the same? Are these repeats still there because they indicate an ongoing habit (exercise, for example) or because you still haven’t finished what you set out to accomplish some time ago? What continually falls to the bottom of your list? Are there items that were carried over from day to day, or even week to week? What were they, and why did you keep procrastinating? Did you finally finish the task, or did it just go away? What patterns do you see? Are there seasonal or other patterns you recognize, such as you always start revving up to capture new business in the fall and work on product creation in the spring? Are these the best times for those tasks? How many items do you typically write down, and how many do you typically accomplish, each day? Use this information as you move forward to make your current lists more effective. How do you feel when you look back over your lists? Are you struck with how much you’ve accomplished, or are you depressed by how much you never did? How can you use those feelings to motivate you now? ‘ In retrospect, were the items you thought were the most important turn out to really be the most important? If you had to do it over, would you place your emphasis, time, and resources elsewhere?

Your past lists are valuable clues as to your working style, preferences, and personality. Just as an archaeologist would review pieces of pottery and ancient artifacts for clues about that ancient civilization, you can review your own clues to make your present-day effectiveness the highest it can be.

Make Your List Beforehand Imagine you’re at the starting line of the Indy 500. You’re about to receive the green light to head off into the most important race of your career. But when the light changes and all the other drivers surge across the starting line, you’re still there, idling in the back of the pack, as you check your gas and oil levels, chat with your pit crew, and figure out a strategy for the race ahead. By the time you’ve got it all planned out, the leaders are already lapping you. If you drive the race of a lifetime, you might be able to catch up. But most likely, you’ve lost the race before you even started. Why? Because you weren’t prepared. Just as you can’t win a race if you don’t know where you’re headed and how you’re going to get there, you can’t get the most from your day if you’re spending the first hour of your morning – often people’s most productive time – just figuring out how to get started. That’s where your to-do list comes in. Making your to-do list the night before is a critical success skill. Sitting down for fifteen minutes to plan out the next day before you turn the page on the calendar increases your effectiveness for several reasons: 1. Your unconscious mind starts working on the things you need to do before you even wake up in the morning. Don’t be surprised if you open your eyes with a great idea, plan, or scheme for accomplishing one of the items on your list. You’ll soon start expecting this to happen! Your brain keeps working even when your eyes are closed. 2. You can hit the ground running, without distractions. If you don’t know where you’re going, it’s really easy to get pulled off track. You putz around, checking email, returning your mother-in-law’s call, and checking the lunch menu in the cafeteria. Before you know it, half the day is gone and you haven’t done anything! 3. It keeps you focused. You won’t get sidetracked by the unimportant that hits your inbox or voicemail because you already know where you’re headed. 4. It provides closure to your day. Carrying your work home with you is not healthy for you or your personal relationships. Writing up your to-do list the night before allows you to segue from business to personal life. It will be easier to stop thinking about work when you know you’ve taken care of all the loose ends and are primed to start the next day.

After you get in the habit of ending your day with making your next day’s to-do list, you’ll soon find the exercise a relaxing and encouraging way to close out the books. If you’ve accomplished great things, you can pat yourself on the back and gear up for more. If today was less than stellar, you can get re-energized for the day to come. In either case, it’ll help you sleep better at night.

Conclusion As you can see, to-do lists are powerful tools when used correctly. While there are no absolute rights or wrongs, there are some proven strategies such as those mentioned here, that will help you tame your to-do list and make it a strong asset in accomplishing your business and personal goals. Any tool, though, is only as effective as the project it’s used upon. That’s why it’s always critical to think beyond your daily list, and evaluate where you want to be in your life. By taking the big picture, your small snapshot on a daily basis will be the exact thing you need to take you one step closer to your dreams.

About Michael Martel Retired Chief Warrant Officer Michael Martel has overcome a lot in his life. Having always struggled with a stutter, his first days in the military his drill sergeants wondered if he would ever amount to anything. Coming from a troubled past, Michael wanted to get as far away from his hometown in Ohio as he could, and the military seemed like the best chance for that. He was right – he was sent to Germany. Determined to succeed, he began to climb the ranks, serving as an infantryman, paratrooper and Special Forces Green Beret. In 2002 he retired as Chief Warrant Officer 3. What is a Green Beret? A Green Beret is a member of the United States Special Forces, a special section of the U.S. Army that focuses on Unconventional Warfare. The Green Berets are usually the first ones sent into an area to gather intelligence, help citizens or organize rescue missions. Michael excelled as a Green Beret because of his ethics, integrity, and his ability to think creatively about situations and because of the value he puts on personal productivity. Since retiring, Michael joined the business world. He’s managed large teams and budgets upwards of $70 million dollars. In that time, he couldn’t help but notice how the lessons from his Special Forces training could be applied to make individuals and business teams even more productive. Michael focuses on helping individuals, entrepreneurs, and small businesses get results and improve productivity. Michael’s books cover many different topics about how-to do things and get amazing results. Most of his books are listed on his Amazon author page. http://amazon.com/author/michaelmartel As a coach, Michael acts as an accountability partner working with you to determine what sort of results you want in your life and then help you keep them in the forefront and work towards them. Visit his website http://www.AchieveTheGreenBeretWay.com to find out how to get started.