By Lynn Elsey | 1 May 2018

Are you ever frustrated when you reach the end of a long day and still have items left on your “to do” list?

Alison Rimm, a management consultant and former senior vice president for strategic planning and information management at Massachusetts General Hospital (US), suggests a simple but somewhat gutsy method of managing out of control “to do” lists.

In a recent article for The Harvard Business Review she outlined her strategy, which involves assessing the day’s tasks and assigning them to one of three lists or diarising them in a calendar, as noted below.

List 1: Important but non time-sensitive tasks.

List 2: Urgent things that need doing today.

List 3: Things that really aren’t worth your time. This is the key list and perhaps the hardest to manage. When you put items on this list, it forces you to accept that there are things you won’t ever finish –  or even start. The idea is to keep you from wasting time worrying about them and refrain from putting them on another list where they will remain undone.

Calendar: Use to block out specific times to act on important timely matters. For example, instead of writing “draft document X” on List 1, diarising a specific time to do it makes it more likely it will get done. As the date for accomplishing the task approaches, its presence serves as a flag to ensure you will have time to address it, and if not, make necessary arrangements. Trying to slot something in a calendar also provides a reality check of how much time you actually have.

After you have made your lists, closely examine the items on Lists 1 and 2. Is there anything that can be delegated or dropped without jeopardising colleagues, clients, service promised or your career? If so, do it, Rimm says.

Your goal is to focus on tasks that will contribute to achieving your goals and creating a structured way of managing responsibility, which helps you focus on what you really want to accomplish.