4 steps for building an external hard drive…for your brain
Do you have a system for keeping track of all the things you need to and want to get done? Does this “system” look a little like flying by the seat of your pants throughout your day, then waking up in a cold sweat at 2 AM wondering what you forgot?
It’s no wonder.
We have a constant flood of requests, projects, and aspirations coming at us at any given moment. Emails from clients asking for an update. Slack messages from coworkers looking for the latest budget numbers. Text messages from family and friends hoping to get together for lunch, birthdays, bottomless mimosas (though, this last one might deserve an immediate response). And don’t forget the Notes app on your phone where you jot down all the things you aspire to and want to get done, but secretly know you’ll never make time for.
How can you possibly keep track of what needs to get done and when? Much less decide what you actually WANT your priorities to be.
I’m going to walk you through the method I’ve used to corral all the bits and pieces of what I want to and need to do. A system that has freed my brain space and allowed me to intentionally pick and choose where I spend my time.
A Master To-Do List.
When you are constantly thinking about all the things you need to get done or worrying you’re forgetting something, you don’t have the mental capacity to focus on doing any of them. This can lead to overwhelm, stress, and the overall inability to make progress toward your goals.
The Master To-Do List serves as your single point of reference for everything you need to and want to get done. Big or small. It’s basically like building an external hard drive for your brain. All the data of your to-dos are captured and safely stored away, but ready to access at a moment’s notice!
Read on to learn how you can incorporate this system into your day.
1. Create your Master To-Do List
First, decide where you want to keep your Master To-Do List. Find a location that’s easy to access. Confluence, Google Doc, whiteboard, or a fancy task management app. Tools don’t matter. Use what works for you.
Create this blank canvas, and get ready to fill it up!
2. Identify all your sources
Next, identify all the places your to-dos come from. This could be emails, instant messages, text messages, a notepad on your desk…etc. Anything that is a source for tasks and actions you want to get done. List them out so you know exactly where you plan to capture action items from.
Now we get to work.
3. Capture all your to-dos
Go to each of the sources you identified above and capture everything that is sitting out there, looming over your head. Add them all to your Master To-Do List. All of them.
Note any due dates, if applicable. Group like items together in categories. For instance, group to-dos for a specific client together. Or group the scribbled list of doctor’s appointments you need to schedule into an appointments category. This will make it easier to come back to this list and laser in on exactly what you want to tackle when it’s time.
Now, this may be especially painful the first time around. You may be sitting on a hot mess of thousands of unread emails from 3+ years back and a notebook full of the dreams and aspirations you haven’t made time for. Keep in mind, this is the hardest it will ever be. As this process becomes a part of your routine, it will be a quick 5-minute activity. And, here’s a tip, if you are completely overwhelmed by the vast number of unread emails in your unruly inbox, just go back 1 month. Forget everything else. Archive it. If something is urgent or needs action, someone will follow up. Let it go. Move on. This is the first day of your new and organized life. That old baggage doesn’t matter.
You survived the first overhaul. Now let’s make this a regular thing.
4. Regularly check your sources
Reference back to your original list of to-do sources. Decide when and how often you want to check and capture action items from each source. Hint: the cadence will NOT be anytime they chime at you. That will do nothing but pull your focus to a million different places throughout the day. Instead, choose to check your email at a cadence like three times per day at 9 AM, 12 PM, and 5 PM. Choose to check your IMs every 30–60 minutes from 9 AM to 5 PM. You get the idea.
This will be your ongoing schedule to keep all your to-dos wrangled and organized and safely stored in your Master To-Do list. Or, better yet, give you the ability to complete a task immediately.
When the time comes to check these sources for to-do, these are the simple steps:
If the action will take three minutes or less to complete, do it right then. Get it out of the way.
If it will take longer, then log in to the Master To-Do List to be planned for at a later time.
That’s it! Your external brain hard drive is up and running!
With this cadence in place, you no longer have to waste mental space thinking about any of these items until it’s time to plan and/or work on the specific task. And, my favorite part, you’l successfully be a member of the Inbox Zero Club because you’ll never have unread emails left in your inbox at the end of the day. This alone, let me tell you, can be a giant mental relief to let you focus on actually doing and completing the work.
Good luck, my friends!
Want more information on how to complete all these tasks, banish overwhelm, and intentionally plan for your most productive week? Check out this article on my favorite time management hack: time-blocking.
Are you tired of feeling overwhelmed? Do you feel like there are always important tasks left undone, hanging over your head? It's time to take control of your productivity and prove to yourself you can accomplish anything you put your mind to.
Check out the 7 Days: Consider it Done! guide to transform the way you approach your to-do list.
Say goodbye to procrastination and unfulfilled goals and hello to a sense of control and reignited passion for life. Consider it done!
