Welcome to Day 2 of the Club 12 Productivity Challenge - a 7-day challenge designed to help you build an air-tight productivity system.
Most of the tasks people keep on their to-do lists are undoable.
In other words, they’re a bunch of vague commitments with no clear vision of what being “done” actually looks like.
That’s a huge problem.
Your brain is naturally designed to help you figure out how to do things, but only if you know what the outcome looks like.
For example, there’s a BIG difference between creating a list of tasks that looks like this…
Groceries
Presentation
Emails
Article
Versus creating a list of tasks that looks like this…
Get groceries @Trader Joe’s this afternoon (see usual grocery list)
Work on leadership presentation @homeoffice from 6pm–7:30pm
Respond to all work emails in Priority inbox before lunch.
Write at least 500 words for new productivity article by noon.
The first list includes a bunch of things, but nothing more. No action-words. No specificity.
Sure, seeing the word “presentation” might trigger your mind to work on that presentation… But for how long? Where? When? And for what?
The second list includes a clear, specific, and actionable set of tasks.
You know exactly WHAT needs to happen.
You know exactly WHEN you’ll be doing it.
And you know exactly what “DONE” looks like.
Everything you’re working on should have a very clear stopping point – a point where you know you’re done.
If you don’t know what that point looks like, you’ll find it very difficult to make any progress on anything at all.
Here’s how to fix that…
When you’re having trouble making progress on your tasks, first clarify what being “done” looks like. The simplest way to do that is to ask yourself this question: “How will I know when I’m DONE?”
The most useful way to get clear about what “done” looks like is to include clear outcomes on your lists:
write 500 words,
study for 90 minutes,
complete 5 slides for the new presentation
Another useful strategy is to incorporate action-words into your lists—creating tasks with strong, clear action words (verbs) minimizes mental friction and tells your brain exactly what needs to get done:
