Organizing our spaces can be challenging, but organizing our time (so to speak) can be even more of a challenge. Time management is, by definition, more abstract so that even when we do it well, we have none of the concrete outward rewards (like clear spaces) that “stuff management” gives us.
One payoff that stuff management and time management have in common, however, is the sense of relaxation and/or relief we feel when we do it in a way that works for us. Toward that end, I recently added a new tool to the strategies I’m using in my never-ending quest to master the 24 hours I have each day without shortchanging sleep, work, or leisure time.
This week’s top ten.
Yes. Another list. One that works in concert with my existing to-do list and daily priority items to keep me on task and on track.
It seems silly, I know. I mean, who needs another list?
Well, if the past few weeks are any indication, I do.
The top ten list came about by accident. I was feeling overwhelmed and wanted to zoom in on the specifics of what would make me feel accomplished at the end of the week. I picked the number (ten items) somewhat randomly, but also because I figured with seven days in a week, ten things seemed manageable.
The original list had broad categories, with the understanding of “next steps” built in. As I began to use the list regularly, I changed this, adding more detailed about each item. I might still jot down a broad category (e.g. book revisions), but I’d also add a specific action step (e.g. chapter 3) to tackle. That way, the same item was less likely to move from week to week with no indication of progress.
I also set a rule that I could only add items to the list as I checked things off, which meant that the list could only contain ten items (or less) at any one time. I could add a new task to the list only if I checked another one off.
On Fridays, I reset the list, moving incomplete items to the weekend list and adding any weekend priorities. This list was usually shorter than ten items, both to protect leisure time and to acknowledge that while ten things might be a reasonable expectation for seven days, they might be excessive for only two.
I now see that what began as a desperate act to create a semblance of order out of chaos actually makes a lot of sense. I already had a master to-do list which fed my daily priorities. The top ten list forced me to be selective, choosing the things from the master list that mattered to me the most and/or were most time sensitive. This, in turn, helped me focus the next block of time—my week—ensuring that I was putting my focus on the right tasks. From there, I set daily priorities (a limit of 4) based on the week’s goals.
This new approach is hardly ground-breaking; it’s essentially applying long- and short- term goals to list-making. But it helped me accomplish something I needed more than productivity. Setting up my weeks in this way helped me recapture a sense of control over a list that felt overwhelming. I could decide what made the cut for each week and what didn’t and then, I could decide which items best fit the time I had available.
Keeping the list at ten meant focusing on goals instead of simply tasks. As a result, many small or routine items (like making dinner or emptying the dishwasher) might not make the list at all unless their overall category (e.g. getting household tasks under control) was a priority for the week.
When I made my first top ten list, it was a knee-jerk reaction to an unmanageable to-do list. In retrospect, I recognize that it aligns perfectly with the T in STYLE, take small steps. I can look at any list and ask myself, “If I could only do x number of things, what would those things be?” In reality, we all have only 24 hours each day. No amount of wishing or praying is going to allow us to find more time or squeeze more tasks into those finite blocks. My top ten list became a concrete way of acknowledging this, helping me to plan accordingly, and bringing a little bit of concrete action to an abstract concept.
